To ask if going cashless is a good thing.

[smittenkittten]

Most people I know don’t want to go cashless, but it seems to be inevitable that we are heading that way. Personally I hate the idea. There’s so many occasions when cash is needed, too many to mention, but it’s the little things mainly. Treating the grandkids, summer fetes, bring and buy sales, car boots......all the things where you usually use cash..
Will it just be digits in a bank account? What if you lose your phone? ...What do people think of it all?

@safariboot

If the computer has to say yes every time you buy something, what happens when the computer says no?

A "cashless society" lays the foundations for a huge amount of control by people who should not be in control. And, of course, for plain old computer fuckups and hacks.

Tyranny is only ever an election away.

This. I spent some time in a one-party state as a kid and believe me, it was an enlightening experience.

I use cash fairly frequently - on our local market, for example, where cashless is always tricky if the connection is poor.

I also think handling actual cash is important for children when it comes to learning about money. Many DC do not cope well with abstraction, so actual coinage is helpful.

I worried that my two may not have handled cash that much as children. But getting a job in retail at 16 sorted out any concerns.

I can remember the last time I couldn't use cash.

Was midway through the pandemic and I needed my medication, but end of the month meant I literally had the £10 note in my purse & nothing else.

Pharmacists had decided to stop cash pymt when covid hit. I couldn't get the medication I needed all because I wasnt due to be paid for 4 more days. I had never come across this before, I purposefully saved myself a £10 note every month for my medication.

Thankfully the manager took pity, he took my tenner and paid for the script on his card.

What upsets me though is this pharmacy is main for a supported housing estate for the elderly. Having used this for many years I have seen them in there, they mostly all use cash. One man has dementia, he cannt figure out card pymt at all. Often doesnt remember to take it with him. He uses a money clip with cash. I feel for him now.

I tend not to use cash much these days, now I'm in a better financial position my card works just fine but we still keep emergency cash in the house out of habit.

All the people saying "I hate cash" - why?

I’ve been a cashless person for years now. I think it’s probably at least 6 years since I stopped carrying cash around as standard. It’s always a total pain in the arse for me if somewhere insists on cash because I rarely have it knocking about. The vast majority of places accept Apple Pay now so I think places that don’t are stuck in the past and likely to lose business.

I’ve never lost a phone in my life, I don’t think it’s an easy thing to lose really 🤷🏻‍♀️.

@DynamoKev

All the people saying "I hate cash" - why?

You need somewhere to put it all, a card is much easier.

Certain disabilities also make using cash very hard, my husband can’t use cash, so he either needs someone to be with him when shopping etc, or he would have to trust the cashier to go through a wallet. Where as a card in a card holder is simple and easy for him to use and doesn’t require the trust of a stranger.

All the people saying "I hate cash" - why?

It’s just a faff to carry a purse around really, I can’t be bothered. I’ve never been into handbags or anything so I just like to take my phone in my pocket and use that to pay for everything. I’ve always hated coins as well, they just seem to get everywhere and annoy me.

You could be mugged for it tomorrow! (Obviously, I hope you won't be...)

I’ve never lost a phone in my life, I don’t think it’s an easy thing to lose really 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Never lost one. Dropped two that could no longer function after. Would have been stuffed if I relied on it for money.

@VeryQuaintIrene

You could be mugged for it tomorrow! (Obviously, I hope you won't be...)

What the phone or the cash?

I CBA fiddling around paying by phone and will use a card most of the time, but still need cash for very small purchases or places that don't take cards.

But I think the most important thing is to have a second available method should you find somewhere that is unexpectedly card or cash only, because both exist or if the system behind your card/phone is down, so you're not stuck.

Every so often a bank or processing facility has an outage and we see the sad faces in the papers of the 'I couldn't buy food/put fuel in my car so couldn't get to work so lost a day's pay' variety. No need at all to end up in that position.

*Certain disabilities also make using cash very hard, my husband can’t use cash, so he either needs someone to be with him when shopping etc, or he would have to trust the cashier to go through a wallet. Where as a card in a card holder is simple and easy for him to use and doesn’t require the trust of a stranger.

There are also disabilities that make using cash much easier - some people can't remember things like pin numbers due to memory issues, for example.

www.forbes.com/sites/simonchandler/2020/07/14/brits-boost-mobile-industry-by-losing-98-million-smartphones-to-date/?sh=26abf0d755c9

Just because you personally haven’t lost a phone......others have. A very common thing to lose according to statistics.

I was at a museum today - booked online although they did accept on the day entry if all slots hadn't been booked. In the afternoon we stopped at the cafe for a coffee. Ordered 2 drinks and a snack - the guy gave them to me and as I got my purse out he mentioned it was cash only as their card machines were down. Could have been awkward as I didnt have enough cash for 2 drinks and a snack and as he had made the coffees he couldnt exactly put them back. Thankfully teen DD had cash and paid. Same story at the gift shop (we werent planning on buying anything but they would definitely have lost sales) and presumably if people wanting to pay to get in, didnt have cash, they would have been turned away.

How about putting cash in people's birthday cards? How about car boot sales for sellers and buyers. How about the slot machines in arcades?
I prefer cash actually.

I am heavily paranoid about having payment things on phone. No idea why😂 I am a techno dinosaur in early 30s😂
I got fee different cards so if one is lost others are ok.

@Antsinyourpanta that's annoying and they certainly should have told you when ordering

@Hemingwaycat

I’ve been a cashless person for years now. I think it’s probably at least 6 years since I stopped carrying cash around as standard. It’s always a total pain in the arse for me if somewhere insists on cash because I rarely have it knocking about. The vast majority of places accept Apple Pay now so I think places that don’t are stuck in the past and likely to lose business.

I’ve never lost a phone in my life, I don’t think it’s an easy thing to lose really 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Well, I know plenty of people who have lost phones. In fact the local town Facebook page often has lost and found phones.

really 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Well, I know plenty of people who have lost phones. In fact the local town Facebook page often has lost and found phones.

Definitely easy to lose. So easy to slip out of pockets., young people especially. It's a lot to lose in such a small item isn't it. Usually the cash card stuck inside and all the info the phone contains.

@BarbaraofSeville

Ha - yes. I meant the phone, which I think would be worse than the cash.

I know several people whose phone has gone down the loo (and there but for the grace of God....)

Even if you're very careful with the location of your phone, it runs out of battery and you have no access to your money. Cash never temporarily stops working. Bank problems or card reader problems do happen, though with lesser regularity than phone battery drop.

I don't so often encounter card-only in the normal scheme of things, because I go regularly to a handful of places and none of them have problems with cash payments. But I did a little tourism recently and was hit by a lot of it. I found the most glaring to be the ferries out to Bute, where your only method of transport (except private boat) is now card only. Say you live there and have an old return ticket to go to the mainland or you're away for more than a month, if you left your card at home or lost it, you can't get home.

I’ve never lost a phone in my life, I don’t think it’s an easy thing to lose really

Mine has fallen out of stupidly a small jeans pocket when I was on the loo. Fortunately I double checked as I left the public loo. Perhaps you're male and have decent pockets.

It strikes me that I can't specifically recall going anywhere that was strictly card only. Airplane ticket selling spots, maybe?

I mostly use cash. I take out X amount each week and budget. Technology can let you down. Cash cannot

@lljkk

It strikes me that I can't specifically recall going anywhere that was strictly card only. Airplane ticket selling spots, maybe?

Two pubs near me are card only.

Lots of places say they are card only, but I don't know what their back up plan is if the system goes down.

Like lots of small bars, takeaways etc, newer ones are often well set up to take cards and probably do a lot of their transactions by card and will have a lot of customers who don't routinely carry cash.

I went to one once and the system had gone down so they could only accept cash. Luckily I had enough on me that time, but many wouldn't. There was a cash machine about a minute's walk away, which some would use, but many would decide not to bother. They probably lost a lot of money that day on food that they are likely to have had to throw away.