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.

Wow I had no idea, that seems crazily out dated.

Currently Ingenico terminals, which are the most common ones, support everything back to GPRS. The newer ones have WiFi, but the older ones make a good old fashioned GPRS modem call straight to the merchant's private number. They're a good solution for a lot of situations: they can operate with essentially any GSM coverage back to 2G.

cuboidal Yes I have got petrol in stations in London that do not accept cash. When talking to them it is to avoid driveaways. Most hotels don't accept cash, although B& Bs do. But these are usually bigger purchases. Cash is used much more to buy a pint of milk, pay for a bus fare, pay for entry to a parent and toddler group, buy a pint. They are the things that won't change.

I also wonder when way less cash is used, if we will get some young people embracing it again. Kind of what has happened with records. I would never have believed that young people would still be buying records and that some older records are now quite valuable and sought after.

Keep asking when you get on @crunchymint they will all be very soon if they aren't already.

It's a staff safety issue so they can be attacked for the cash. All the unions are pushing it.

I used the bus today and they did not have it. Actually just googled and they have had a central government grant to develop and install this, so we will have it.

I am mid 50s, and sometimes just get a bit tired of all the changes and things I have to constantly learn. Not for work, although I do need to there as well, but just for everyday living.

Cash is used much more to buy a pint of milk, pay for a bus fare, pay for entry to a parent and toddler group, buy a pint. They are the things that won't change.

Sorry, but you're wrong. Pay for a bus fare? London's quite a large city, and it has a few buses which are occasionally used by people. They don't take cash, at all, and haven't for some years. Underground trains do, sort of, in that you can buy a ticket for cash from a machine or office, but that's not going to last much longer.

Are you saying that London is so foreign that it won't be emulated?

Buying a pint of milk or of beer is routinely done with cards, and as it's much faster shops are happy to do it (the pub I sometimes visit has lots of people buying drinks with cards).

Parent and toddler group? Yeah. But ten years is a long time, and in ten years everyone there will have been brought up with cashless payment, and things like ping will take over. Saves cashing up.

Yeah true parent and toddler groups will change. Maybe it will be elderly peoples lunch clubs still collecting cash then.

I eat at a lot of vegan cafes who will not take cash. (I work as a dietitian specialising in vegan diets, I'm not vegan)

I am mid 50s

Well, if you want to bet on technological change stopping so that you can just close your eyes and rely on being able to continue to operate easily in 2048, that's your choice.

There has been immense social and technological change in the last 30 years. There will be at least as much in the next 30. You can choose to progressively isolate yourself, it's your choice, but don't delude yourself into thinking that society as a whole will make special exceptions for refuseniks.

My last job I was working with professionals about 5 years older than me and there grasp of technology was woeful. They were fine with word programmes and email, but I was actually much more tech savvy than them - and I am not tech savvy at all. I do wonder if some people realise how little about technology many older people know. And if I am honest, I kind of dread the type of world I think we are moving towards.

blacktea You really surprise me about the vegan cafes. Are they hipster types of places? Where I live the vegan places are full of alternative anarchists who are very against 'the man' knowing stuff about them. Most refuse to have an email address that isn't riseup. And no way would they pay by contactless.
I do know these type of people are a minority in general, but they are a big customer base for vegan places here.

I am mid 50s, and sometimes just get a bit tired of all the changes and things I have to constantly learn

That's the main thing, learning. Once we do, it makes our lives easier but taking that initial step feels like hard work.

I remember when my Mum got her first automatic washer. She kept using the twin tub until she got used it. It's a human trait I think to not relish change.

I do wonder if some people realise how little about technology many older people know.

I know. But the answer is not for older people to stick their fingers in their ears.

CuboidalSlipshoddy while I appreciate that other arts of the UK will emulate London you need to understand that we aren't all there yet.

"Cash is used much more to buy a pint of milk, pay for a bus fare, pay for entry to a parent and toddler group, buy a pint. They are the things that won't change."

These things ^^ still happen where I live. Being rural it tends to be older people and children who use public transport the most, and they are less likely to have contactless forms of payment. We don't have an equivalent to the Oyster card, so children without bank accounts or smartphones will still pay cash on buses for the time being.

You need to understand the whole country is not like London

It doesn't feel like hard work, it is hard work. I suspect I will just spend less and less money as it gets harder and harder.

New notes contain tannin @crunchymint so it made most vegans go cashless. Add in that it is environmentally better and that changed even more.

I work all over the UK and Europe so not just hipster style, even back street North East vegan places.

cuboidal Except the older population are a large market. I actually know a fair number of older people with money they don't spend. If businesses made it easier for older people to spend money, then they could make more money. I think older people are neglected as a market. Not by healthcare and elderly specific markets, but by markets making TVs, music, etc.

Yes I have heard complaints about the new notes. I am not an anarchist type at all but peripherally connected through work, so I hear about their concerns. I hadn't heard them moving to contactless, but I will ask. Some of them though are so paranoid about the state I doubt it. They make their lives seriously hard for themselves as a result. I can imagine the less paranoid ones moving to contactless.
Anyway all the cafes and restaurants in the city close to me take cash, and we have a few restaurants with great food that take cash only.

One cash only place has 5 stars of trip advisor. I guess the food is great so people put up with cash only policy.

If businesses made it easier for older people to spend money, then they could make more money.

I'm the same age as you, and therefore my parents are in their eighties. They and all their friends use modern payment methods. Yes, there are a lot of them. If there are people hoarding money because they are waiting for the return of the cheque guarantee card scheme are not a large market.

Are you seriously saying that (a) there are older people with large amounts of money that they will only spend in cash and (b) they are, in 2018, unable to find places to spend it? What sort of "making it easier" do you want?

You need to understand the whole country is not like London

Given I neither live nor work in London I suspect I am aware of that.

cuboidal I am saying making the technology easier, not talking about cash or cheques. So I have 1 friend who is a tradesperson so only real uses the laptop for limited stuff at work. She bought a smart TV and could not set it up, so had to get help from a friend. She would spend money on technology that improved her life if it was very very simple to set up.

I am going to start a thread about this, but I still play CDs. I do some streaming as well. But actually I want an easy to use system that I can play through multiple speakers in different rooms. I don't know where to start with it.

Technology is largely marketed to the young unless it is specifically to help you with disabilities etc that you develop as you get older. Marketing very very easy to use technology to older people, would make more money.

It may be those involved in technology only know older people very involved in it, I don't know. But I know plenty of people who would buy more, but give up because they don't know what to buy, and they are worried they will not be able to use it. These are people who want technology, but easy to use technology. And that includes instructions in larger print on screens. Kindles are popular with my friends precisely because they are easy to use.

She would spend money on technology that improved her life if it was very very simple to set up.

Developing good, simple setup is expensive, and the products are very niche. Would she pay a premium for the products that had that property? There is a standalone "feed your CDs in, they're automatically scanned, automatically links to streaming service" box that will do everything those seeking "simple" want, simply. But it's also six hundred quid, because that sort of simplicity is far from simple to develop.

www.brennan.co.uk

Usually what people want is simple to set up and cheaper, as though complicated costs money.

I mean simple instructions. Often new technology does not have simple instructions. I have a smart TV and I chose one largely because that particular manufacturer has simple instructions, some don't. And so many use small typeface for instructions as well. These things are not rocket science. They are about good design.

Although I know someone who I think will buy the Brennan 2. It is not about cheaper though. They want the same products, just better instructions.

So I bought a samsung SMART TV. Very very easy to set up. It takes you through the set up and has a helpline. I found it extremely easy. I don't need a specialist TV though. I have bought other technology that I never figured out how to use, so I am much more wary now. My friends SMART TV was difficult to set up.