To want to keep our cash.

[TarasHarp55]

What's everyone's thoughts on going digital? Yesterday on the bus was for me, a prime example of why we shouldn't. This man got on and presented his debit card to pay his fare. The card declined. The poor man was on his way to work and was saying "I've just got paid this morning, I don't understand". He had no other way of paying. The driver kept telling him to try again, the poor man getting upset. Anyway the outcome was I paid his fare because he didn't want to miss work.

It got me thinking though, is this going to get more and more common. Relying on a computer to give you your money. There's so many other problems when there's no cash too imo. I hate the thought of a cashless society.

I’m sure that that is their motivation. Cough, cough

Each time I asked if I could pay cash my 15 year old groaned and said I was so embarrassing.

I think it's part of the conditioning that has been going on for several decades now, but is being ramped up now more than ever. Once you take it as a given that cash is bad/unnecessary/archaic and that payment cards are the way forward, the blurring between debit and credit cards/payments intensifies and it's one more step to encouraging people not to actively think about whether they are funding things with their own money or using debt to buy them.

Klarna and PayPal credit are part of it too, now - the way you're offered the choice to pay now or borrow and pay later, even on the most frivolous and inexpensive purchases. I'm not saying they're 100% bad things, depending on your circumstances and choices, but banks and other lending institutions know that cards/digital/online payments give them a huge potential advantage to exploit and rinse you in a way that cash simply shuts that door on them from the start.

I oh our cleaner in cash, and the local car boot still takes cash. Also any purchases and sales on Facebook marketplace are in cash. I'm all for keeping cash! Agree with another poster, finding a voucher on your phone can be such a pain. Especially if there's limited signal! Most of my store cards are on phones which are reliant on signal and battery. At least if you have cash it's reliable.

The one issue, I have never found an acceptable (to me) digital solution for is gifting money to loved ones e.g. weddings, Christmas, birthdays. Really interested in how you do this digitally without spoiling the surprise and asking for bank account details?

Paying straight into a bank account to me feels like it devalues the present.

Has anyone actually said that we will definitely be a cashless society though? At the moment there are a few things/places that you can't use cash for. But no cash at all, anywhere-when's that happening?

You should be more worried about carbon credits as that really is a threat.

To add, you cannot replace the genuinely surprised and delighted look on my step-nephews face when he opened the hand made gift card and saw the £50 note I had placed in it. There is no way £50 appearing in his bank account would have had the same reaction.

My card often gets declined even when plenty of money in account. I like to always have a bit of cash on me for this reason. Especially when trying to get transport somewhere!!

I agree cards are great but technology fails and then back ups don't always work

My online shop was due this morning, and my bank card was declined. I have just been paid so have over £1k on there. Tried a credit card that was declined and I got a text for fraud. Also plenty of credit on it! So stressful, as have hungry kids at home and still waiting for a supermarket shop.

I agree with you OP, I think there has to be a choice. Digital gives too much power to the Government and Banking corporations, why do you think they are so keen on it?

I always have more than one card on me, then if one doesn't work you can use the other. I don't like carrying cash.

Having spent most of my life in London, as a precaution I always kept bit of cash, some where other than my purse, in case it was lost or stolen.

When I lived in London, I worked in an area where street robbery was rife. And I had to attend evening meetings and sometimes didn't leave work until gone midnight.

I used to keep an old purse in my bag, with a £5 note, some loose change and a couple of out of date cards in it. It was the purse for handing over in the event of being mugged. The purse I actually used was squirreled away in a zip pocket in the back of my bag.

Loads of people did the same.

Oh and just to add I always make a point of withdrawing from the same machine too

No you couldn’t say that at all because there is no equivalence. It’s actually silly. Car ownership and bank robberies are not a comparison you can make with the number of people getting paid cash in hand.

We're not talking specifically about people being paid cash-in-hand - this thread is about the existence of cash in general.

Also, whilst plenty of people do use being paid cash-in-hand as a way to evade tax, it's a false conclusion to reach that all or most do. Apart from anything, many young/casual workers who are paid CIH are very low-paid and wouldn't need to pay tax anyway.

Also, Amazon doesn't conduct a single transaction in cash, and yet they are quite well-known for their ability to, shall we say, structure their tax affairs in a way that benefits them very greatly, but which many find highly controversial.

I'm glad you were able to help the man.

We were on the bus a while ago and a man with 2 children got on but the driver said he couldn't buy multiple tickets on the same card. Luckily he did have some cash, but ended up paying £10 for 1 adult and 2 children for a one way journey into town. The driver couldn't give change. How can an adult not be able to pay for his children's tickets? 🙄

Some really quite unpleasant and judgemental responses on this thread.

So if you pay for things in cash you must automatically be viewed with suspicion. Be evading tax, doing drugs, generally up to no good.

Yet almost all scams are carried out using digital payment, but hey you don’t use cash so the rest of the world shouldn’t be allowed to either.

There have been several instances recently where whole banking systems have gone down meaning that people can’t make any transactions, direct debits have bounced, late payment notices have been issued, credit ratings are affected.

If you carry cash and you lose it then you’ve lost a few quid. Give your credit card number to the wrong person and you lose your life’s savings.

As for “carry more than one card,” why should I? I have a current account. I have no reason to have any more accounts, and incidentally for every account you create your credit rating temporarily goes down…

I don’t generally carry cash but that’s my choice. Although I’m considering doing so in light of the cost of living, so that I can see exactly what I’m spending and what I have left at a glance without having to log into an app.

But just because I don’t carry cash doesn’t mean that I think nobody else should.

if you don’t want to pay cash then crack on. But don’t be such a bloody snob about other people doing so. It says far more about you than it does about them.

And I bet people will be as offended at being called snobs and judgemental but think it’s perfectly ok to think as cash carriers as being drug dealers and tax evaders.

How ?

I hardly ever carry cash and I'm happy with that but as you point out there are flaws. If you use Apple Pay but you run out of battery; if your card is declined; if you use Oyster or Zip card and it runs out without anywhere to top up (and online there's a half hour delay before it works); if there is an electric outage and machines don't work.
I always tell my daughter to keep a £20 on her in case of emergency.

My DC have always liked a bank transfer for Christmas and birthdays, if they got any cash they would pay it straight into their bank accounts.

Look at what they did in Canada, which we perceive to be a liberal democratic nation, to the truck protestors (no I don’t agree with what they are standing for). Suspension of bank accounts. At least with cash, if they have some or access to some they can still live their lives.

When society goes fully cashless we will be completely at the whim of governments, bans and hackers etc preventing us from making essential purchases at the click of a button. Never mind tech failures and similar uncontrollable situations.

Apart from the tracking thing the other reason I use cash only is to keep an eye on what I spend and companies know this. It's too easy to merrily tap away and suddenly discover you have overspent. With cash I can physically feel my money floating away and can realise "oh shit it's been a week and ive already spent X quid, need to slow down".

My dh prefers to use Google pay or his cards. I always have cash on me. He's been in the position of trying to buy formula when his card wasn't working. It turned out the bank had cancelled it due to fraudulent activity spotted on his account. Thankfully I was waiting for him in the car and had my purse with me. Lots of people who use Google pay and the like don't even look at the amount before tapping their phone.

I've already heard a second hand story about banks querying transactions based not on fraud control, but on the purpose of the transaction. A friend of a friend was apparently called up by HSBC and queried as to why he was buying crypto. Criticisms of crypto mining aside, it is a legal transaction and as such none of the bank's business beyond confirming it was actually him doing so. We've already had banks expressing political views. On this basis, it's not such a jump to having certain transactions made more difficult, if not blocked completely.

I'm a young person, but unlike some young people referred to in this thread, I withdraw cash and pay almost entirely in cash throughout the money (excepting stuff like bills and rent).

And how many times have these actual power cuts happened ?

How often do you have the exact cash or enough.