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.

Interestingly izettle does not accept tips unless you upgrade and pay a lot more as a business.

But my point with tips is many restaurants charge an admin charge on tips to staff, so they get less money. Which is why I always tip in cash.

And are you saying you don't tip in restaurants? I always do

This is very off topic but why do you always tip in restaurants?

To answer your question I only tip if the service is excellent above expectation.
I stopped tipping always when their wages were brought in line with many other professions via the NMW.

It feels wrong to me now to make them much better paid than every other low paid worker where tipping isn't in grained in us.

When I worked full time with children my OH and I got out £100 cash every week and it mostly went on paying the people who worked for us to make our jobs possible.

Now, retired early on an actuarially reduced pension with a made-redundant partner we get out a tenner every few weeks and spend nothing. We walk most places and do all our own jobs and maintenance.

Of course, when we travel into London we get cash out as the capital eats it and when we go down to the seaside we do likewise as the car park machines gobble change.

In fact, we refer to cash as car park tokens now.

Whattodo I live in Belgium, and the shift leader manager at the local Maccy Ds patrols in front of the tills, exhorting you to use the kiosks to order, or taking your order down on a clipboard, and she bloody tuts at you if you are not quick enough. She is not polite, and even some Belgians,raised their eyebrows at her tone last week.

As my local frituur is shut on a Monday and Tuesday, Maccy Ds is the alternative if I have a craving for frites.

Blackteadrinker I took a couple of hundred euros out today, but I am currently in Vienna, and only having cash and trying not to use a card will limit the amount of cake I can consume, and thus save my liver from excess sugar, and limit the amount I can spend on gloves, bags and the lovely very expensive hat I've just seen. Dh won't have heart failure when he pays the credit card bill either!!

Crunchymint Are you a Janner too?

Bigger purchases I would never use cash. I got burnt years ago. Product faulty and the shop was being an arse and one of the things they tried telling me was the discount because of cash.
Had I paid with card I would have had automatic protection.

Plus my card purchases give me cash back which paying cash wouldn’t benefit me.

I haven't carried cash for over a decade. That was when the pizzeria we prefer started to take cards and before then, it had been years since I'd used it anywhere else.

Just out of curiousity, does everyone on here who only pays with their card only ever use contactless? Or do you use chip and pin sometimes too?

I ask because the last time I tried to only use contactless payments the bank blocked my card and now I'm wary of trying it again.

And FWIW I pay for most things with cash

How funny was having a conversation with my ds about how I never have cash he asked if I was the queen I only usually needed cash for car parking but now they have an app to make payment I do that. It's all card payment for me

Just out of curiousity, does everyone on here who only pays with their card only ever use contactless? Or do you use chip and pin sometimes too
I use pin on my phones key pad for payments between £30-£100.

Chip and pin for purchases above £100.

I rarely need it! I take out about £10 a week to cover the odd £1 they need for school, DDs ballet (£2.50 a week) etc. I don’t take money to work - I have no reason to?! I pay for everything on my card and quite often don’t even have that and just use my phone. I get quite irritated when places don’t take card/online payment tbh, it’s 2018 not 1918.

I use a mix of contactless and chip and pin. Depends on the store as some still aren’t set for contactless

Dont genrally have cash, easy to lose, over spend
No cash means i carry no purse. I can walk out of home with my phone and keys, thats it

Crunchymint And are you saying you don't tip in restaurants? I always do
Never tipped in my life actually
Many minimum wage jobs get no tips, why is hospitality the special one who does?

And are you saying you don't tip in restaurants? I always do.

Crunchymint Absolutey. I don’t tip anyone anywhere; I don’t agree with it. It’s not acceptable to cherry pick which NMW jobs get your tips and which don't.

Sure, it’s your money and all that, but if you wouldn’t tip a shop worker, you shouldn’t be tipping restaurant staff. It’s very hypocritical.

scaryteacher Fair enough; I can only tell you how UK McDonalds should operate

Many minimum wage jobs get no tips, why is hospitality the special one who does?

squeekums It’s not even all hospitality, it’s just the “right” kind of hospitality that receives tips. I work in a fast food restaurant and I don’t know anyone who has ever been tipped there.

Nope I won't use chip and pin having got caught out. Used it in my local cafe, was checking my bank account using free WiFi time find 10 payments for said cafe! After speaking to bank found that companies using c&p can hold your transaction for up to 6 months b4 pulling payment! Because I go quite often and there are usually some transactions showing on my statement I hadn't noticed any "missing" so was a shock and meant my shopping day was short lived

I use my card for everything. I rarely carry cash on me. I keep a small purse hidden in the car with change for the tunnel or parking but no more than a fiver....

Rarely carry cash as i find it just disappears into thin air! You can now also buy a bus ticket for my local services on the iPhone app,so that’s even better as it stops me from breaking a tenner for a bus ticket. I only use the bus once or twice a week but it still adds up..1

My parents on the other hand are really mistrustful of paying by card, they pay cash for almost everything and would have about £150 to £200 each in their purse/wallet at all times. I really frustrate them by using my card, they can’t grasp that it saves me money and helps me to track my spending better. They associate using a card with being frivolous which is obviously a generational thing, they are mid seventies.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3186032-AIBU-to-not-tip?watched=1

I started a thread on tipping so we don't derail this thread and I also think it is a good debating issue.

whattodoaboutit very true

*Just out of curiousity, does everyone on here who only pays with their card only ever use contactless? Or do you use chip and pin sometimes too?

I ask because the last time I tried to only use contactless payments the bank blocked my card and now I'm wary of trying it again.*

Any purchases where contactless is available, I'll pay contactless. In places where the card machine doesn't have that capability, and / or for larger transactions over the contactless limit, I'll use chip and pin

Just out of curiousity, does everyone on here who only pays with their card only ever use contactless? Or do you use chip and pin sometimes too

PleaseDontGoadTheToad I use contactless for every purchase allowable (so anything up to £30, which is the majority of my purchases).

Anything more than that I use chip and pin, or if contactless is denied because I’ve used it too often that day I’ll use chip and pin, but I use contactless so much it is a conscious effort to remember my pin

I usually like to have £5-£10 in my pursd incase of emergancy but other than that everything is card....even £1 for milk on the way home from work.

I use contactless normally, unless its over the £30 limit.
I check my online account a few times a week to check nothing looks wrong.

Pp mentioned payments not going through - i reported a transaction as fraud, i had cancelled my card - swapped accounts - and got a letter 3/4 months later saying i had an outstanding payment. When i looked at date im like nope, couldnt have been me as i cancelled card way before.
Turns out it was actually from 6 months prior and for some reason store had never sent transaction through. I was like too late. Card cancelled!