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.

Cash is still needed I went to Aldi and Poundland yesterday and neither of them could accept card payments has the internet in the area was down.
So many people walked out without their items has they didn't have cash to pay.

I think it's a mistake to rely solely on one form of payment.
I have several credit & debit cards in case one should be declined.
I carry some cash (mainly for my hairdresser).

I never use my 'phone - I've been held up too many times by people having trouble with theirs.

On buses and trains etc you can only use the same card every 3 minutes or so as well so can't use the contactless option in the same way you would normally with cash if you were helping a stranger out

I use cards for practically all my purchases, but I still carry cash for some of my local car parks and emergencies. I am not in favour of a cashless society being forced on people, cash has its place for many and I think there should be a choice.

Is this the case for all buses and trains across the country? I didn't know this (but never tried).

A lot of people on low incomes find cash easier to manage. It means that they can leave enough money in their accounts to cover bills, and don't risk overspending on shopping and having DDs rejected, which incurs charges.

With cash, they draw out how much they can afford to spend each week, and have a very tangible reminder of how much of that they have left.

I prefer card I can’t get upset about cash , in fact having to get cash out for various reasons annoys me as I find it really inconvenient. There are no cash machines near me so I either have to remember to get cash back when I go to the supermarket or cash machine at supermarket and that’s only 1-2 times a week .
finding the correct money for bus fare is annoying and the bus driver rolling his eyes at the £20 note . It’s quicker too if everyone pays by card
cash is absolutely filthy too .
im a bit umm about those that cards decline I’m sure it happens but do people not check how much they have in their account ?
I don’t care about that reason for the government wants to track us I’m really not that intesting.

If cash goes then further down the line expect to be stopped from buying alcohol if you bought over your recommended units that week, no high calorie foods if you're morbidly obese etc. Having someone seeing all of your spending isn't a good idea.

I would rather keep cash, for four main reasons:

1. For people who need to keep private savings, like those saving to escape an abusive relationship
2. For giving money to homeless people
3. To tip in restaurants etc. - I don't trust that staff get card tips
4. In case of cards not working, system failures, and so on

I can't buy crypto with a debit card any more even the established exchanges. Card just gets stopped and passed to fraud department. I have to do bank transfer. Ridiculous

The whataboutery is getting ridiculous now. Yet more false equivalence. If you don’t agree, you don’t agree, why make these irrelevant, odd comparisons.

Absolute nonsense!! Where do you even get this from ?

@blebbleb I'm sure it's the case for all buses and trains in the Midlands. I'm not sure about elsewhere, I thought I'd heard it about London buses but I could be wrong.

smal businesses cheating everyone out of tax.
Small businesses are not the problem, Google seem to manage dodging tax just fine without charging cash-in-hand. Dave the builder doing a cash job on a Saturday is not the problem.

I was in Brussels a few years ago , on my way home from Bruges , and decided to spend the whole day in Brussels before catching the Eurostar in the evening, a mooch round the markets, a nice lunch, a visit to a museum, a wander through a chocolate shop…….. except I only had about three euros in cash on me and every damn cash terminal / shop I went to was not accepting cards from the UK, some issue with a bank server. It was a long day until I could get on the train and pay sterling.

@gettingolderandgrumpier Absolute nonsense!! Where do you even get this from ?

How do you know it's absolute nonsense.

Absolutely agree. It's bullshit. We were away on holiday a couple of weeks ago and there was a machine on the table to order. They were useless. Items on the menu kept disappearing and the waiting staff needed to keep rebooting it. Selections just didn't work. They wouldn't take our card. Was a complete waste of time and besides that I don't want my every penny I spend being tracked by the government.

One is breaking the law, the other is not. In case there is any confusion, Dave is breaking the law. If you don’t care about law breaking, just come out and say it. No need for whataboutery.

I like to manage my money, and find the easiest way is to have one joint account for food shops only .Rest on card, thankfully SB still take cash so take exact amount out and try to tot up as I go round . Thing is we need choices surely .

I have been to so many restaurants and bars where you can use an App to order and I really prefer it. The server doesn't have to keep going back and forth, no going up to queue at the bar, you can leisurely look at the menu, and no waiting for the bill at the end, just get up and leave. Convenient for me, especially when I'm on a tight time schedule.

I really do not care about being tracked by anything.

The law is designed by the friends of the rich. It is not designed to help or care about dave. What these huge corporations do to cheat us out of tax is only legal because they can afford the brown envelopes.
So no I don't care that Daves extra 20 quid is illegal, I care that he's having to risk his freedom to keep his head about water.

It makes sense as a safety measure.

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.

HSBC are really big now on, as they would see it, providing powerful security measures to prevent theft or fraud, but what effectively boils down to being stopped from free use of your own money. Having to call their call centre when you discover they've arbitrarily blocked a payment is like being a kid again and having to ask your mum if you can have some sweeties.

They also have a thing on their app where they ask you what the purpose of a transaction to a new payee is - with a list of options such as 'sending money to family or friends', 'paying a bill', 'buying goods or services' etc. - before they let it go through, then, regardless of what option you choose, a big screen flashes up to say "Warning! This may be a scam". It seems to be designed to make you think that their sophisticated algorithms have identified it as such, based on your answer, but it's basically just a 'no poo, Poirot' thing to protect themselves.

It's interesting, though, to think that the bank is making a value judgment on a legal purchase that somebody wants to make using their own money. I have no personal interest in (or knowledge of) Crypto myself, but I agree that, before too long, we could well see nannying or pure refusal to allow adults to buy perfectly legitimate things that the bank or government frown on.

Imagine if systems developed and joined up to the point where, once it's identified that you buy 15 bottles of wine each week, a message is sent to your GP to inform them that you could be at risk, who may then inform Social Services. Maybe word also gets out to your car insurer and even employer, possibly even put on a police potential anti-social-behaviour watch list. All this because you host dinner parties for 30 friends every Friday night, but apparently can't be trusted to behave like a responsible adult. People will read this and say I'm being ridiculous, but it's all very possible indeed already, should the political will to do it arise.

The whataboutery is getting ridiculous now. Yet more false equivalence. If you don’t agree, you don’t agree, why make these irrelevant, odd comparisons.

It's quite common for people on this forum to discuss and develop their ideas and opinions together....

You were the one who clearly said that cash is bad because it can be abused or used fraudulently in a very small minority of cases. Fair enough if you don't like analogies, but I will just say that, in my personal opinion, it is foolish (and possibly dictatorial) to want to get rid of an inherently useful and efficient thing to millions of people on a regular basis, just because it is also possible to use it in a bad way.

thats the worst defence I’ve ever heard that’s like saying if all I eat is chocolate I’ll turn into chocolate and someone saying that’s rubbish and the defence is how do you know .
ok how do you know it’s true I asked first where did you get this from ?