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.

My mum had a debit card, I found the pin no. in her purse when I was sorting her stuff after she died. If she wanted to buy anything big she would go to the Nationwide and get a cheque to pay for it, she always paid cash for any shopping and paid her phone bill in cash at the newsagent, she was in her 80s. If she wanted to give me money she would get me a cheque from Nationwide. She never used a computer at all in her life, the odd occasion anything had to be done online I did it for her, I am sure there are probably many more like her.

*So? People forget skills that they had. Some people never had them, some people don't trust banks or cards, some people like to use cash. Some people cannot get bank accounts at all.

If you have a cashless society how do homeless people buy so much as a coffee?*

My post was clearly a reply to the PP discussing her FIL. Who she said had never used a card. And has a bank account. Clearly he trusts banks or he wouldn't use one to store his money. You can come up with plenty of reasons why somebody might prefer to use cash if you like but I'm not sure how relevant it is to my response.

The way I and my friends who don't use cash give to homeless people is to go up and speak to them and ask what they want. And then go get it for them. Whether it's a coffee or a meal or a bag of snacks and drinks. On the occasions where someone has said they're not hungry or thirsty but need cash for something specific (such as a hostel bed to recall one example) I go get cash out and hand it over.

Yep re contactless limit. For more expensive transactions they'd still need the pin. But surely it's better to use it less if they can't remember it? If someone spends the majority of their money on smaller amounts then it reduces the number of times they're entering their pin and leaves them not having to cash large amounts of cash around until they're ready to spend it on something specific.

Perhaps currently LightastheBreeze, but that will change. Today's younger and middle aged people have grown up using computers as second nature and the idea of using cheques will be alien, as will choosing to use cash over card. So as years pass by the older generation being or choosing to be digitically disenfranchised will naturally resolve.

I don't carry a purse with me, just a couple of contactless cards in my back pocket.

I do keep some emergency money in various bags/pockets and stashed in my mobile phone case

Just to remind anyone who, like me, has an emergency tenner stashed away - get them out now and make sure they're not the old ones !! (as they stopped being accepted in shops last week - I had to find a bank at lunchtime to be able to contribute to a work collection !)

She never used a computer at all in her life, the odd occasion anything had to be done online I did it for her, I am sure there are probably many more like her.

There are. But next decade there will be fewer, and the decade after that fewer still. This isn't an issue of age, it's an issue of cohort: unless you believe that current fifty year olds will in thirty years time be seized with a sudden urge to write cheques, that is.

There were people who said, in the early 1970s, that old people wouldn't be able to use decimal currency. I wonder how many current 90 year olds (ie, people who were 45 years old when decimalisation happened) are currently puzzling over the concept of a 10 pence piece?

Tap London
Contactless jackets
Mobile payments

The homeless in to technology are seeing donations increase.

When mobiles came out people said the same that the homeless, poor and elderly would suffer. I don't see that, I see that it has conected them to society.

People don't like change and that's fine. Keep using cash. I however don't wish to 99% of the time. It pays me not to.

My mum died last year - she didn't trust internet banking but she had contactless cards, she used online shopping (a lot ) and she was in her 80s. She wasn't unusual amongst her friends - they're all on Facebook and WhatsApp.

I only carry cash accidentally. When does one actually need cash? Everything important can be paid for by card.

She wasn't unusual amongst her friends - they're all on Facebook and WhatsApp

My 80 year old MIL is the same. Wants photos whatsapp'd of her GGD almost daily. She also skypes a lot. Her friend base are quite tech savvy as well.

That's cool LizB62A :)

Although the majority (in fact, barring serious learning difficulties, all) of people who don't/won't/can't use simple technology like cards, contactless and online banking are elderly, these threads always descend into nasty semi subtle ageism with posters insisting 'what about older people!' as if being old makes you incapable or too stupid to engage in these things. Unless you are unable due to a medical reason or are so isolated there's nobody to show you, it's largely a choice.

And a lot of people have had decades to get to grips with computers and cards and have chosen not to.

DH did a lot of small transactions on his card and the fraud team rang up too check them, this was quite recently and he uses his card a lot. The thing with paying 50p here and 90p there I find my statement is about 6 pages long so can't see the important stuff.

Although the majority (in fact, barring serious learning difficulties, all) of people who don't/won't/can't use simple technology like cards, contactless and online banking are elderly

That's simply not true, at all.

When does one actually need cash?

Or, more to the point, when does one need cash to the point that it's more your problem than the problem of the person who doesn't accept it? If I remember, I get cash out in order to buy stuff at the local Farmers' Market a couple of times a month. If for some reason I can't get or don't have cash, then "meh": I'm hardly going to starve for want of heritage carrots, am I? Similarly, the bloke selling coffee out of his rather natty converted van doesn't take cards, but the Nero ten yards from his pitch does, so it's his loss if he can't take my custom: his coffee isn't sufficiently better to make it a problem.

My 89 year old MIL was terrible with new technology before her alzheimers kicked in. She even struggled with a basic mobile phone. She had never used a computer (she thought a mouse was something a cat chased). The only technology she used was the TV, radio and video player. It took her ages to get used to using a DVD player.

With hindsight we think the alzheimers started long before we suspected.

Crunchymint, I think you need to try really hard to teach your FIL to use his own card. Giving out his PIN to others could result in a lot of his money being siphoned off, unless he checks his transactions every day and knows exactly how much is being taken out. Does he do this? Could he check whether his carer is taking out an extra £20 every time the ATM is used?

My mother is a total Luddite and has some sort of phobia about pumping her own petrol, using gadgets, home appliances (she does loads of hand washing despite having a washing machine with different cycles), the thermostat (turns the heat on and off, which costs more money than regulation by thermostat and results in a cold house) and computers, including her phone.

She was at one point going into Dublin every month with cash in her handbag to pay gas and electricity bills. My Dsis insisted she get a card and learn how to use it. Then she signed her up for dd for her bills, and taught her to pump her own petrol, just in time for the station she always went to - the only one for many miles around that still sent someone out to pump petrol - to switch to self serve. Not knowing how to pump petrol herself was actually a hazard for my mother, who was putting herself at the mercy of strangers if she ever ran low and couldn't make it to her local station, and it limited her trips. My mother still hasn't learned to text on her nice phone that Dsis provides for her, or take photos. She prefers to pay €€€ to make international phone calls to me, or have me pay $$$ to call her. Dsis and I figured out that giving her a computer and paying for broadband would result in the loss of everything she owns to some 'Nigerian Prince'.

Letting older people rely on others for very essential tasks that they are probably able to do for themselves is doing them no favours in the long run.

Or, more to the point, when does one need cash to the point that it's more your problem than the problem of the person who doesn't accept it?

Last night I found out the restaurant I was in didn't take cards after I had finished eating!

It's not Alzheimers with my mother - she is the queen of lentil weavery and always has been.

And all of my mother's 6 living siblings, all well into their 70s and up at this point, all brought up ion the same thatched cottage in Ireland, have managed to use smartphones, dishwashers, microwaves, computers, the internet, etc for decades.

That's simply not true, at all.

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But, here's some hot news: almost no-one cares. Sorry.

The volumes of contactless payment are rising exponentially. At the moment, we are at a position where you can operate without cash but (for practical purposes) there is no-one declining transactions when the purchaser offers cash. So if you want to operate in cash, fine, you can. However, if you want to operate without cash, you pretty much can, too.

But attempting to argue that by not carrying cash we are hastening the day when those that want to operate in cash can't is not a winning position. You are not going to convince anyone currently not carrying cash to make a token cash transaction once a day to keep cash alive by invoking increasing desperate "what about the..." edge cases, any more than you will convince people who carry mobile phones to use a callbox once a day to keep them open, or people who use email to buy stamps they don't need.

Unless you are unable due to a medical reason or are so isolated there's nobody to show you, it's largely a choice. is absolutely true, fsvo "largely". Most of the people I meet who refuse to use (fill in your post-1970 payment method here) are perfectly capable of doing so, but think that it makes them interesting/quirky/virtuous to decline. That's their choice, and I can't say I'm terribly bothered if in the future it bites them on the arse. Yes, there are a few edge cases where it isn't a choice, but those problems are not going to cause the rest of society to alter its trajectory: the only route out is going to be making newer payment technologies usable by those small number of excluded groups.

Letting older people rely on others for very essential tasks that they are probably able to do for themselves is doing them no favours in the long run.

This is very true. What may feel like a kindness can in some circumstances be babying and not good for the person in the long run.

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But, here's some hot news: almost no-one cares. Sorry

Well we should. We should care when vulnerable members of society are left behind and cut off.

Last night I found out the restaurant I was in didn't take cards after I had finished eating!

This happened to me the other week. Their card machine was down though, it wasn't a cash only place.

It was their problem not mine, had there been a cash point nearby I'd have gone and got some out though I'd have been annoyed if it was more than a minute's walk given that it's their problem not mine. But there wasn't, so I gave them my number and agreed I'd call later when they had their business account number to hand so I could transfer the amount using my online banking app. If they'd had the account number there and then I'd have done it before leaving.

To be fair I offered to pay and it was their problem that meant I couldn't, using a very normal payment method for this century, so it'd have been odd if they'd had an issue with that.

In a cash only place like you went to (never known anywhere like that) I guarantee what happened to you happens all the time. Nobody expects 'cash only' these days.

When does one actually need cash

According to my app I got £20 cash out in November. it's driving me nuts that I can't remember why.

There's an atm on the corner. My sister had cash. It's not an issue.

But attempting to argue that by not carrying cash we are hastening the day when those that want to operate in cash can't is not a winning position. You are not going to convince anyone currently not carrying cash to make a token cash transaction once a day to keep cash alive by invoking increasing desperate "what about the..." edge cases,

Yep. There is no good reason in my book to hold onto old, less useful, more cumbersome ways of doing things just because that's how things were always done. It's not a charity. An earlier poster (naively I thought) said they were continuing to use cash to 'do their bit' to stop it dying out. I guarantee the vast majority of people who've moved on from cash don't care and are well aware that the fringe cases of people who are choosing to stay cash only will die out in time.