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 think the problem is more to do with transactions on buses. I tried to pay for 5 bus tickets but could only pay for my own. My daughters and friends had to each pay their own . It was a shambles.

What idiot ever dreamed up that idea? Presumably some rich oaf who never has to use public transport themselves. Actually putting in a system to prevent parents paying for their children, couples paying together or whatever.

Probably the same person who designed the taps in public toilet basins that force you to twist your elbow in awkwardly in a vain attempt to wash your hands properly under running water. As opposed to the person who designed the taps that give you 10-15 seconds' water with one press - genius!

I went to buy Euros for my DD, she's grabbing all the hours that she can before her holiday. Because I don't have a in-date passport and don't drive it took me four days to get what she needed. In the post office I had to get the cash out first, to pay in cash. Not all of us have passports, drivers licences etc. I do worry about the homeless etc. As for a bit of tax evasion from window cleaners etc, the tax and rent owed by businesses is on a massive scale, so I don't care about 'the little people' getting away with stuff.
What happens when our government pisses off the people who own the tech? Russians were stranded on holiday with no access to finances, when Russia invaded the Ukraine.

Keep using cash

It's quite sinister to not have a choice

Barry Smith, a Christian preacher in the late 80s talked a lot about how cash will cancel and then your every move can be tracked plus controlling food which is another topic and everything becoming increasingly expensive

Keep the cash!

What If you are in an abusive relationship and trying to squirrel money away to get away and don't want your abuser tracking it.

What if you want to give some pocket money to a child to spend in the shops.

What If you ran out of money on your card from an unsuspected bill and you would have normally had spare cash for emergencies but now you can't do this.

Applying for a mortgage and being scrutinised for every small purchase made, coffee, gifts etc that shouldn't effect you unless really unaffordable.

teaching children to control money. They learn through seeing the money go. Numbers on a screen doesnt teach them this.

These are just the first few things that pop into my head.

Yes, I’m certain this is true. The example I heard was that if you had evidence in your bank account of have taken out a payday loan (when they were a big thing) then you were considered a Bad Risk.

Also look up Biden signing the Digital currency legislation in the US.

Going digital is also a way for the government to see everything we spend our money on. Why would you want to give the state any more involvement in your life than they already have? I purposely won't use any business that doesn't accept cash.

Ooh, I remember Barry Smith. He used to show an advert that he'd found somewhere of a big empty wallet opened out to look like a mouth and with a sinister-looking face, with a slogan saying something like "Welcome to the future".

I recall he cited a quote from Henry Kissinger: “Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.” Barry died 20 years ago, but I wonder what he'd have to say about the state of the world now....?

Yes I think I still have his books

He was very interesting

Tbh his predictions aren't that wrong in some ways

You know like the spying on people in their homes i.e. your mobile phone listening in etc

So are we now going to have to pay £3 on a card machine every time we want to buy The Big Issue from our local seller?

You can probably pay by direct debit and have a subscription...

You misquoted your own reference!

this is what your link says…
In fact, cash only makes drug dealers’ lives harder, not easier – a revelation that is the polar opposite to what some anti-cash lawmakers and politicians are suggesting.

You misquoted your own reference! Did you even read the article or was your statement the opposite of what you meant to write?

this is what your link says…
In fact, cash only makes drug dealers’ lives harder, not easier – a revelation that is the polar opposite to what some anti-cash lawmakers and politicians are suggesting.

You misquoted your own reference! Did you even read the article or was your statement the opposite of what you meant to write?

stopitstopitnow was quoting what a rather 'forthright' PP had presented as fact and then gave the link to an article demonstrating the exact opposite to be the actual case.

Power outages mean that shops etc will close anyway. Your cash is no use if the shop is closed, is it? During storm desmond, our city had no power. Even the railway station closed and trains didn't stop and just carried on through, because there was no lighting, security, customer info screens, etc., so it was deemed at H&S risk to have passengers and staff on the station! Have you tried filling up your car at a petrol station without power - the pumps don't work!

So you don't go to any events or attractions that are advance booking by card only?

Did you buy your last car by cash? Or holiday? Is it fun paying your monthly rent/mortgage by cash?

It's a bit hypocritical to be happy to pay for some things electronically yet force your views on smaller businesses to exercise your "right" to buy a loaf of bread or pint of milk in cash!

It's YOUR choice to have a delivery. You couldn't have paid by cash for your online grocery delivery anyway.

I myself run a small business and i only accept cash!

@GhostFromTheOtherSide

incidentally for every account you create your credit rating temporarily goes down

No it doesn't. I check my credit rating regularly and have multiple accounts with different banks, multiple credit cards, etc. and it's never even blipped when I apply for another account.

Bus has alwasy been problematic. I don't use them regularly anymore, but when I did I remember that bus drivers could reject notes. So you basically had to have more or less exact change or you couldn't get on. I don't see how that is giving more "choice" than a payment card.

I was confused. This threads from Sep 22 and we also have this week’s

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4716704-to-be-sick-of-cashless-society?page=11&reply=122991782

In my bus travelling days the bus company had a phone app which enabled you to buy tickets in advance and activate them as necessary. When you activated a ticket a code came up which you showed the driver. Still cashless I know but at least you already have a ticket when you board the bus.

Yep, same here. DS (20) has absolutely no interest in cash. We gave him a couple of tenners when he started Uni as "emergency money" and he still has them in his phone case, never used!

He has two "card" accounts. One is his main account where his wages and student loans are paid into and then his rent, and other standing orders/direct debits paid out of. He never carries that card with him as it can sometimes have significant amounts of money on it. He has another account with Monzo which is his "spending money" card, with a standing order from his main account which he regards as "his budget" for spending money for grocery shopping, pubs, etc.

Any cash he gets, he gives to us and we do a transfer to his bank account and then try to spend it, which is a pain because we hardly ever need cash, even the window cleaner wants paying by BACS.

On the contrary, a debit card has been very helpful to my 83 year old MIL who suffers from dementia. She was going to the bank every week to withdraw a shed load of cash over the counter and she'd just lose it. Literally a hundred or two per week according to her bank statement. There's no way she actually spent it as she didn't go anywhere or do anything. All she needed cash for was the window cleaner, her paper bill, and the odd pint of milk or loaf of bread at her corner shop (we did her "big" shopping for her as she wasn't capable of even making a shopping list let alone going round a big store trying to find things).

We think she hid it and then lost it, i.e. put it in cereal boxes in the kitchen and then threw out the box when the corn flakes ran out without checking if there was anything in the bottom, or putting notes in clothes pockets to hide it and then washing the clothes so the notes disintegrated. When we've been helping her in the house in the past, we'd often find notes in very strange places, even a wad of them once in the microwave! She'd become paranoid about "people" coming into her house to steal her money! We also think she could have lost money on the street as she'd never put it away properly and would just glibly put it in a pocket where it's easy to fall out.

We got her a debit card, and it took a while, but we got her used to using it, and now we can see what she spends and where, and we were right, she spends hardly anything. We take her to the cash machine to withdraw cash for birthdays and Xmas, but we make her write the card and put the cash in, seal it and then take the cards away for us to distribute, so we stay in control. We also contacted her window cleaner ourselves to ask him to email us his bill and we pay electronically.

She must have lost a small fortune by farting around with cash when she really didn't need to. Now, she can hardly remember using cash at all! So much better for her.

My Mother also had dementia and her debit card became useless to her because she couldn’t remember the PIN (and in fact denied ever having had one). This was before contactless.

I used to be a mortgage adviser (I specialise elsewhere now) and I had a lender decline a mortgage because the FTB living at home with parents was betting very frequently with an online betting agent.

Pay day loans were also a massive thing because it showed that you cannot manage your money effectively, same with constantly being in overdraft.

Re: Cashless society - personally I have no issue with it. I never carry cash anyway, but also I find it easier to budget and keep an eye on what I've spent online.