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.

Not really, since when everyone realises what is happening and rushes to the shops to stock up, they'll probably still be taking cash for a while after card payments have gone down

In Storm Desmond, all the bigger shops just closed and allowed their fresh/frozen/chilled stock to perish. They couldn't open with no power for lighting etc and the staff couldn't take your money because they didn't know the prices (no swipe tills) and couldn't work out the money anyway (no till to calculate change). Quite pathetic really,

The smaller independent shops opened - the owners actually having the gumption to use torches etc for lighting and actually able to look up pricing on paperwork etc (or making educated guesses from memory) and work out adding up the money and working out change in their heads.

Re the above^^, when I worked for a big retailer and they were so rigid about cash handling; nobody but management was allowed to count the tills at the end of the day etc. Totally different to working for a smaller business ime. I can definitely imagine them refusing to open if their systems weren’t running.

OH is the least technophobic person I know. What he doesn't know about computers/mobile phones/other gadgets could be written on a postage stamp - remember those?

Even he recognises that sometimes old technology is better or more reliable. We still have a landline for example. The sound quality is so much better than any mobile, we have no problems with loss of signal, it still works in a power cut and doesn't need recharging (one of our phones is corded), and we can hear the phone from any part of the house. The only person in our house who is welded to her phone is DD, and she doesn't pick up many calls because it is always on silent.

Yeah I work for a big supermarket and when we close it's not because we're too pathetic to be able to do mental maths or break out the torches

It's because A) as a large retailer we are bound by corporate rules regarding opening in emergency situations.
B) we have a far larger store area than most independent stores and so it difficult for us to provide enough lighting for customers to shop and for workers to be able to work safely (including in the warehouse where there is a lot of dangerous machinery)
C) All of our till systems are electronic and if the electrics go out they are unusable so how is the store meant to secure any money? We're not about to have money lying around unsecured and with no paper trail to account for it.
D) again, being a larger store we have far more products than a smaller independent shop is likely to have and we don't keep paper records of prices as literally thousands of items have price changes daily so we can't use those to charge people ... We are also going to have more people working on the checkout so if they all just make up prices then there is no way to ensure the prices are any way accurate and we have no idea of inventory levels as there is no paper trail.
E) lastly, the reason we let things perish in emergency situations is that the stores are insured for any contents destroyed/damaged due to emergency situations like power cuts/floods/bad weather and the store can claim back the money for those items ... but they need to be inventoried and accounted for. So the stores close, leave everything in situ and then when the power returns they can just empty the damages into the waste area knowing that the item numbers in the digital inventory are what has been wasted as nothing has been sold since the systems went offline.

I have just bought a bag full of veg from my local farm shop. It is cash only.

The "shop" is literally a shed on a farm and the only "technology" in the shop is an electric light and a heater

I have just bought a bag full of veg from my local farm shop. It is cash only.

Normally the problem with cash is that you need to bank it. But then, if you're paying staff cash in hand...

The smaller independent shops opened - the owners actually having the gumption to use torches etc for lighting
Those store keepers were bloody lucky nobody fell & hurt themselves due to poor lighting, their public liability would not cover them if it seemed that they had opened in unsuitable or dangerous circumstances.

To expect shops with no electricity to open is simply stupidity

What about those teenage stores with really low lighting. I can't see a thing in hollister.

Hollister is still better than lit by a torch!
Anyone thinking a shop that is part of a large company is going to open during a power cut obviously has no idea of how businesses are run. Stock replenishment is done through the till system, the tills are electric & usually the safe is too. How on Earth would they sell things without using the till? They couldn’t give change, store cash safely or give receipts. Security alarm systems would not work, there would be no light or heating which is not a suitable situation for people to work in

network is Greater Anglia, whoever asked. (carriages) We have the "oldest rolling stock in the country" too, according to a train geek

Thanks, I honestly hadn't realised that some trains were still so far behind. Eye opening. Must be awful for their staff to deal with.

The thing that surprises me on this thread is how much people know about the buses
It was all over twitter when my rural part of Durham went contactless. I also use buses when travelling after getting a train in some parts of the country. Birmingham as an example.

Do you even have a clue? Lancaster, Morecambe, Kendal, Kendal, Carlisle aren't rural
My parents were cut of and lost live stock from their rural farm near Carlisle. They only just got home in January this year.

Or perhaps Londoners think that any town smaller than London is rural
I doubt Londoners all think the same.

I use lots of tech, but only when it really will enhance my life

I can't think of anyone I know who uses technology for no reason. It would be rather pointless to use it if it doesn't benefit you in anyway. As I have said many times, it enhances my life and saves me time.

They couldn't open with no power for lighting etc and the staff couldn't take your money because they didn't know the prices (no swipe tills) and couldn't work out the money anyway (no till to calculate change). Quite pathetic really

I don't think that is very nice to say about the retail employees. They can not trade due to logistical, stock file integrity and safety reasons not due to their lack of basic mathematics skills.

It's a problem when people enforce it on others. Should be free choice to use tech crutches nor compulsion.

Such as?

So much of the narrative on this thread has been: 'well where I live none of these kinds of places accept card payments, you can only use cash to do / buy X, Y or Z, the idea of going cashless is ridiculous and wouldn't be possible at all right now, you need cash to go about your day to day life, we won't be a cashless society for many many years'

And yet there also seems to be a 'we're being forced into a cashless existence that we're not ready for, we're being made to use technology we don't want to use ' narrative going on too.

What tech 'crutches' are you being forced into using against your will?

where everyone seems to be using smaller things and fiddling around on their phone with apps I have gone the other way and use a big iMac for my day to day usage, just as easy to enter a meter reading and I can see everything side by side.

At my previous home, the meters were outside. In my current home they are buried in a dark cupboard. I take my phone with me when I go to read the meters: the app has an integrated feature to flip on the phone torch to make it easier to see the dials, and I can enter the readings there and then, without having to write them down and then submit online at a computer. You can submit them my SMS which would be very straightforward as well. That's easier for me. But not for you - and that's fine!

I think the lack of cash for homeless people might be a good thing for them in the long run, as long as people who might give cash give to charities instead and as long as the charities beef up their outreach.

just as easy to enter a meter reading

What is this "meter reading" business? My smart meters upload the data in real time, I can look it the consumption broken down into 1 hour buckets on either a website or an app and I can see the current (ho ho) consumption of both electricity and gas on the display in the kitchen. I haven't read a meter for a couple of years now.

And yet ironically, the "I only think technology is worth it if I save time or money" brigade get particularly upset around smart meters. Including the ludicrous claim that they are "unhealthy".

@cubdudiolslipshoggy

That was my thoughts

@CuboidalSlipshoddy I'm waiting for universal smart meters to come out, they're not due to come out until the end of the year. First generation ones are tied to an individual supplier and become dumb if you switch.

Love our Hive though!

"network is Greater Anglia, whoever asked. (carriages) We have the "oldest rolling stock in the country" too, according to a train geek"

We have old rolling stock as well. Our trains are Pacer trains which are diesel multiple unit rail buses, and weren't built to last this long. They were intended as a short-term solution to a shortage of rolling stock, with a lifespan of no more than 20 years, but are now over 30 years old. Hopefully they will be replaced in the next couple of years, but I'm not holding my breath.

First generation ones are tied to an individual supplier and become dumb if you switch.

I know. Why do I care? I didn't pay for them. If I changed supplier I would want a smart meter as a pre-requisite, and if it were something different, they'd fit it.

It seems a bit odd to not having something on the grounds that, although it works and doesn't cost anything, under a relatively rare (at most once every few years) set of circumstances you'd have to have a different working and free solution. I'm slightly less likely to change supplier because there doesn't currently seem to be a way of porting data, but that sort of gentle lock-in is why companies provide stuff for free.

Hive, great. Lightwave, too. Tying it all into Apple Home is a job for another spare weekend.

@CuboidalSlipshoddy because our previous home was rented and we didn't have any choice in what the LL did with the meter, and in our current property where we can get one installed, it seamed silly to get one installed now rather than wait a few months and get a second gen

I'm not a technophobe, I'd love to have one. If you're a renter you don't necessarily have control over the meters. Now that we do, of course we will get one. But if I'm going to get one installed I'd rather wait a couple of months to get a new one than get one now and it be out of date almost immediately

YANBU..i cant understand it. I can confidently say that if i go check my wallet now, i will bet there is at least £80 in it plus some Euros.

And yet i know someone who, every time he needs some money, has to stop off at an ATM for 10 or 20 quid ! Bizarre

Younger people are sleepwalking into a cashless society which i think is very dangerous.

Thatcher started it when she withdrew the right for people to be paid in cash. I dont recall a vote on the matter.

I literally never carry cash on me. I just don't see why you need it in this day and age- for a while I only ever used it if I was on a night out (not that those are very often these days) and now I don't even do that as all the bars I go to you can pay by card. Cash gives me the horrors. What if I want to buy something that's £5.52 and I only have £5.50? No way. With my card I don't have to have the exact amount, my purse isn't stuffed out with coppers (the horror) and also cash is literally filthy and covered in germs. Having said that, it's a bit weird of the people in your post as I don't see why you wouldn't pay for train tickets etc with a card? Even the exercise/baby sensory cards I do all take card payments. Why would I ever need cash?

"I just don't see why you need it in this day and age"

If you actually read this thread you will see that there are still some places and situations that still require cash.

As for being worries about money being covered in germs, get a grip. There are germs everywhere.

If we go completely cashless how will cocaine addicts get their fix?

And yet i know someone who, every time he needs some money, has to stop off at an ATM for 10 or 20 quid ! Bizarre

Every time he needs money, or every time he needs cash?

I need to use money every day. I rarely need to use physical cash.

It's bizarre if your friend uses cash a lot and is therefore going to the ATM all the time to get out a couple of banknotes.

It's not bizarre if he rarely uses cash, and therefore only takes cash out at an ATM every so often. In that scenario it makes sense to only get as much cash out as he's likely to need, if he routinely uses card for all his payments

If U almost never carry cash.. then where do you store cash when you do suddenly have some? Crammed in a pocket? Wedged in your phone case? Do you carry an empty coin purse around most the time just in case of (accidental contamination) sudden cash put in your possession?

I don’t have a purse or bag, so gets put in my pocket with the card and mobile on the rare occasions I get cash.