To wonder why so many people don't carry any cash on them?

[InHibernationTilISummer]

Excluding people who are skint and the Queen, obviously.

I've had so many examples of this in the last few weeks:

• Colleague who came into the work in the bad weather. Lots of delays and problems on the bus route they normally get so wanted to get the train instead but had no money for a ticket because they had come in with their season bus pass and lunch and hadn't expected to be spending any money.
• Friend turning up for exercise class but hasn't realised that the price has gone up 50p since she last came - and she only brought the exact money she thought she would need.
• Another friend dropping older child off at sport class finds that there's a fair going on at the sports centre with stalls and activities that her younger child (who was with her) would have enjoyed. Complains that she wishes she had known about it in advance as she would have taken some money out with her.

Is this becoming more common or is it just the people I know? If you aren't skint but don't routinely carry money on you, why is that?

I've been in situations where I haven't expected to be spending any (or much) money and some problem has occurred or plans have changed for some reason (e.g. having to accompany someone to A & E or the last bus not turning up) and I would have been really stuck if I hadn't taken some spare 'emergency' cash.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I say.

We’d still be stuck in the Dark Ages if everyone had that attitude.

Maybe some of the smartphone app-ey cards can do the same thing, but I'd have to put in the time and effort to get that set up. Cash does that inherently. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I say.

Great - it ain't broke for you, so no need to use any of these services

But the thread is asking those of us who don't routinely use cash why we don't carry cash. We derive lots of benefits from using cards that we can't get with cash.

I personally found it easy to spend 5 mins to open my Monzo account, with no further setup needed. Others don't want to do this, so don't need to do it

Different strokes for different folks

I always have money on me. I live in a small village and there's an £8 minimum spend to use a card in the local shop and no cash point so I make a point of having cash. Cabs don't take cards here either. Neither do toddler groups and I go to a few of them a week too. I've found that my friends who never carry cashalways end up owing me money!

PTAs not set up to deal with card payments

Ours is as of last September. It makes sense too, if parents only have £10 on them they’ll only spend that. If there’s are a card machine it’s highly likely they’ll spend more, especially with no minimum transaction.

I'm with crunchymint, cash helps me budget.

I found the opposite - ok having cash means once it's gone it's gone and working with what you have but that only works if you know your spending habits and you don't have any problems.

When I was on a budget i was trying to figure out where my money was going so that I could work out how/where to cut back. If i paid cash I would know that by Wednesday I'd spent £35 of my £50 weekly budget but I couldn't account for every penny of it. By using my card I could calculate, down to the penny, exactly what I had spent and where. Knowing that of the £35 I'd spent £13.24 in Starbucks and £14.83 at the lunch kiosk at work and the rest on other transactions I could see that I was wasting a lot of money on coffee and lunches and if I prepared ahead I could save £30 a week just by taking a thermos and packed lunch.

You'd have to have a hell of a goldfish brain to forget going to Starbucks and the work lunch kiosk several times in a week .

You don't need to see stuff like that on your bank statement to realise that it's expensive if you do it more than every so often.

Barbara I was clearly just using those values as an example but even so £2 a day for coffee doesn't sound like much (and an easily forgotten expense at the end of a long day) but when you see it is costing £10 a week, alongside the £5 a week you're spending on the bar of chocolate/snack to go with it and it's easier to see it itemized on a bank statement to show where you're wasting money and how frequently.

Especially when you add in the £1 for a bottle of coke when the train is late, the 50p for a newspaper, £2.50 for a coffee on the way to work, £2 plastic tat magazine/toy DD asked for when we were out shopping etc. It easily and quickly adds up and I prefer to have it all itemized on one statement so I can go through it and see exactly what I spent, where I spent it and how often I'm wasting money on unnecessary purchases.

I’ve had my card cloned three times from three different local machines. So I avoid cash machines. Although to be honest I prefer card or phone payments because I can look at my statement and think ok last week I ended up spending £25 in costa trips I didn’t need to spend that I must plan better next week. So it actually makes me better with money to know exactly where it’s going. If I had cash on me all the little things add up and I wouldn’t always remember where.

I regularly go to places that only take cash - not Apple pay or cards or anything. One is an incredibly popular cafe, so it doesn't seem to put people off!

I've done 2 collections at work recently - cash only there, too.

I don't carry loads of cash but I like to have some. I manage my budget by not spending more than I've decided to, so whether I have cash or not makes no difference.

I know what I spend my cash on. Surprised that anyone who needs to budget doesn't know what they have spent money on.

I've done 2 collections at work recently - cash only there, too.

My office specifically doesn't do cash collections - for any collection the organiser will set up a leetchi.com pot so everyone can easily donate whatever amount they wish online, and it's easy to cash all in one go, meaning it's much easier for the organiser (as well as the givers)

Works really well as people can donate when convenient to them, and especially for a company with offices in multiple locations

My wallet doesn't gave a single penny in it. There's very rarely cash on me. If I need cash eg for a class I take out the money I need. If I have spare cash it gets frittered and there's rarely a need for it. Even a big issue guy is taking cards now!

OK not saying I’m always good at this, but try and keep an emergency £10-20 tucked away, but only use card, then just use it if absolutely have to. Funny how often that happens though

It's difficult to maintain the right amount of cash at any time, unless you have easy access to atm and use cash often to get a nice amount of change as many cardless places are usually low on change and can't accept notes.

I'm finding that getting cash is an issue - there's nowhere within walking distance of me that does it free, I drive to work and would have to pay to park to stop on the way to get cash. I used to get it at the supermarket, but now we mainly shop online. I'm making special trips now to get cash for dinner money etc, but there's very little I need it for except classes or if I go to a market.

I checked my account this morning after reading this thread yesterday.

The last cash I got out was £20 in November.

I have never found anywhere where paying with cash is an issue.

In fact I have got discounts in independent places when paying with cash for a larger purchase.

And a very common tip to reduce spending is to use cash and not cards. Research shows that people tend to spend more using cards than if they use cash.

Basically people don't stop using a method of payment that works for them unless what replaces it is easier and better

I find cashless easier and better for me.

Card use benefits big business. I care about small independent shops and low paid staff in restaurants and cafes. Use cash please

Most small busnesses use izettle, they only pay 1.75% not a set fee.

Do you also tip the supermarket check out staff and cleaners you see? They will be on NLW too and they don't get tips.

I get benefits for using cashless so I will continue to rarely use cash. I am yet to have any one refuse payment via an electronic means.

I use monzo too, makes it so much easier for me to budget and see where I can cut back, what I’ve spent on what day etc

I have never found anywhere where paying with cash is an issue.

No one is suggesting that paying with cash is a widespread issue

The thread is about why people choose NOT to carry cash

You're happy to use cash - great. I'm a little bemused as to why you seem to be defending your preference or promoting its use on a thread of people who are quite happy with operating cashless whenever possible.

That said, in my experience there are certain individual situations where paying with cash would be a challenge. For example the food market stalls near my office who only take card. Or paying for online services which require a card. Or sponsoring someone who is collecting funds via Justgiving. Or chipping in for an office collection which uses an online collection pot as at my work.

These are situations in my life. They aren't in yours. I'm happy not to use cash. You're not. Win win.

1.75% still eats into profits though.
And are you saying you don't tip in restaurants? I always do.

You can tip using cards in lots.