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.

Can anyone tell me if contactless Android pay can be used for transactions over £30?

"Android Pay allows you to make payments up to £100 as well, but anything above the £30 limit will require you to enter your pattern, PIN or fingerprint."

www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/everything-you-need-to-know-about-android-pay-in-the-uk-1321615

The Apple stuff is unlimited, but because it's one hardware platform the vendors can be a lot more confident in the authentication.

you just need someone's mobile number to send them money.

What if you don't have a mobile... or don't have a mobile linked to a bank account... or have a mobile that utterly refuses to install any more apps... or don't have a smart phone at all...

(I know. I'm a dinosaur)

Yes I hate getting vouchers or store credit!! What a total utter hassle.

What if you don't have a mobile... or don't have a mobile linked to a bank account... or have a mobile that utterly refuses to install any more apps... or don't have a smart phone at all...

You don't need a smartphone. You just need online banking of some kind and to register your mobile with your account if you want to use it

If you don't have a mobile phone then it's unlikely to work for you then isn't it?!
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PAYM makes it possible to make an electronic bank transfer without knowing someone's sort code and account number. Which many people find very very convenient

If that's not for you then you don't need to use it. It's an option, not a requirement!

yeah.. it does seem like all sorts of companies want me to give them my mobile number. Every sodding time I login to some sites they are nagging me about it. I dread ever having to file self-assessment again (not sure which mobile number that got tied to... the absolutely demanded I have one to do any online SA).

I just changed my smartphone mobile number. So glad I didn't have to notify a million companies about it. I texted DC & DH & that's enough notifying for me.

I actually got a smartphone for myself just in order to use banking and payment apps that are available where I am (US) plus other handy features. I use Venmo a lot with my family members. Venmo is apparently so popular that it is becoming a verb, like google.

I have DS set up PAYM but iirc when I set it up he also had to register with his bank, you cant just randomly send money to a mobile number they have to be registered, well DS had to, maybe its different now, this was a couple of years ago. So once its set up its easy and useful for family and friends, but for the random person you may have to pay money to probably easier to do a bank transfer

I'm beginning to think I live on a different planet - I'm in my 30s and work in London but have never used contactless or paid by phone as I've never needed to?
Collections at work are done with an envelope circulated - you put in the amount of cash you can afford and tick your name off on a list. Toddler groups are all put £2 in an ice cream tub at the door when you sign in. In both cases there is no opportunity to pay any other way.
Shopping I mostly pay for with cash (we have milk and supermarket deliveries which are both my card is on their system already). We don't often eat out but when we do we pay cash. I pay tradesmen by cash or cheque depending on the amount.
I do have a mobile banking app but really only use it to check we've been paid and that the nursery fees have gone out (direct debit) each month. I find my system so much easier - I don't have to be constantly checking my phone/bank account balances and just get cash out weekly when I walk past a cash machine.

We live on the same planet RidingMyBike. Everyone I know uses cash and contactless. Where I live it would be risky to solely rely on contactless.

Although I always pay for shopping and meals out by card (not contactless because it is usually over £30).

Why do you pay for a meal out with cash RidingMyBike? Is that somehow easier for you? Surely you don't know how much it'll be exactly until you've finished?

When we eat out which isn't very often we generally know about how much it will be within £10 or so, I would not go out expecting to pay £30 and get a bill for £100. Many people use cash as it then limits how much you can spend.
If we went cashless in the UK it would be detrimental to older folk and poorer folk generally, who maybe only have a debit card for one of the simple bank accounts, no access to credit cards and can't afford or don't want a Smartphone, so not very inclusive. I think cashless and chequeless is a long way off and quite right too

You don't need the exact money, you just take enough and a bit spare.

We aren't talking about people who can't afford to keep an extra 20 or 30 pounds cash in their purse.

If we went cashless in the UK it would be detrimental to older folk

By the time we’ve gone cashless, say twenty or thirty years time for example, everyone has grown up with and/or been around technology for long enough to see it’s not going anywhere and that society is heading in that direction.

So on the off chance there were still some luddites about, they would have plenty of warning.

I do withdraw cash now and again but mostly I have very little on me.
I finally embraced contactless payments last year and since then there are very few scenarios where actual cash is needed. Round here all the council car parks take RingGo so don't need cash for them either (admittedly it does cost an extra 20p)

I will probably be one of the luddites left who is left fumbling with her phone peering through her glasses to do the PAYM I feel I am getting like that now.

Well yeah, I do feel that for anyone competant, there’s no reason to not be at least semi-up-to-date with technology.

By gaining knowledge of how technology works, you don’t lose knowing how to pay cash etc. You can only benefit, particularly when it’s pretty clear society is going in the direction that not keeping up just isn’t feasible.

I find my system so much easier

Because you are used to it.

Technology makes my life much simpler.

If you live in London and don't use cards how do you get on a bus? The Waitrose is even cashless now in West London. As are many cafes that I have been to.

round here all the council car parks take RingGo so don't need cash for them either (admittedly it does cost an extra 20p)

Our city has just changed to mobile only payments and they charge an extra 25 p 'convenience fee', which I think is a fucking disgrace given that they don't have to go round taking all the money out of the machines, don't lose the money that gets robbed out of them or have to repair them afterwards. And all those 25ps add up to a lot extra if you use the car park regularly.

Given that neither my mobile or the hire car I was in was registered on their system, I decided to not bother paying at all as the free period would have started by the time I had registered my car, phone and entire life history with them and while I was happy to pay 50 p for the parking, illogically, I wasn;'t happy that they wanted 50% extra for the 'convenience' of them not accepting the 50 pence coin I had to pay for parking (it was 20 minutes before the start of the free evening period).

I think I don't see the need to pay on mobiles and cards for small amounts mainly stems from decades of having to carry cash to pay for parking or pay for low value transactions or use small shops, markets, public transport, most independent traders and a lot of other places because you had to and they wouldn't take cards at all or not for under £5/10. It's only the last 2/3 years? where it has become acceptable to pay a quid or two on a card, or that you could use it at all at a street market, or anywhere else 'out in the field'.

Cash still seems more convenient than having to register your mobile here, there and everywhere or for certain transactions, such as work collections, some events and group meals out. If people go to a group meal in a restaurant and they pay by cash, you can easily see what money has been put in, but if people are paying by card, one after the other, I can see that either the last person finds that the amount left is tiny if they are tempted to pinch the tip (this is a common complaint) or else several people have 'forgotten' to pay for their share of the bread, olives, water etc ordered 'for the table' and the remaining bill is loads short and they either have to stump up or try and get the money back from everyone else, who have already paid up in their minds, and have often left the restaurant.

I just don't. Don't generally need it. Most places you can pay by card / apple or android pay or whatever.

It would mean making the effort of going to a cash machine (3 of which have disappeared from our small town because the banks shut) and I just can't be arsed.

Generally only have cash when I have sold something on fb/gumtree or whatever!

If people go to a group meal in a restaurant and they pay by cash, you can easily see what money has been put in, but if people are paying by card, one after the other, I can see that either the last person finds that the amount left is tiny if they are tempted to pinch the tip (this is a common complaint) or else several people have 'forgotten' to pay for their share of the bread, olives, water etc ordered 'for the table' and the remaining bill is loads short and they either have to stump up or try and get the money back from everyone else, who have already paid up in their minds, and have often left the restaurant.

Jeez, I don’t think I’d go for a meal with these delights! Do a lot of people really do this? I’d have thought it was only the minority of cheeky fuckers.

Ugh bold fail!

@barabaraofseville

By the time you got around the table you don't always remember who put what cash in. I have an electronic list in front of me showing who paid what.

I tend to dine with people who wouldn't do what you just described. Paying by cash does not improve recollection skills of what they just ate.

Of course a piano teacher is a business if you are paying them to teach you to play the piano

No. I pay a teenager to babysit my kids, they aren't a business either.

Any piano teacher I have ever known makes a living from it.

Good for you. You're aware you don't know all the piano teachers in the world though?

Well, if I go out for a meal I know we generally spend around £35 plus tip so between us we usually have £50 on us so it is simple. DH is the same - cash for everything and he only got a smartphone when I was pregnant in case I needed to get hold of him urgently.

I don't like the idea of institutions being able to track and analyse my spending on everything so I'd rather keep with cash except for very large amounts (Nursery fees and weekly supermarket shop etc).