To be sick of cashless society

[Ihatepcos]

I prefer to use cash, I always have.

I find budgeting and spending so much easier. If I am tapping away on my card I think nothing of constant £3 £6 etc being spent on things I probably wouldn't buy if I was spending cash.

More and more places simply don't take cash and it's driving me mad.

The last time I can remember actually needing cash was well before covid on a bus that didn't accept card, which has since changed. There also used to be a shop by me that didn't accept cards under 5 pounds but again that has changed. So no I honestly can't remember ever using cash to pay for anything in at least the last 3 years.

Even for work collections etc. we do PayPal now.

I’m not against anyone doing anything. Nothing I say on here will stop that. 🤷‍♀️I just like not using cash-as do others on this thread.
I have not commented about ‘vulnerable’ people. 🤔
I said I don’t think a cashless society will happen any time soon anyway.

On a more mundane more, how do people feel about your savings going down via negative interest rates when the government decides you need to spend more to prop up the economy (say, after another financial crash caused by financiers, like in 2008)?

Why should savers be penalised for saving their own money?

What about the vulnerable people being trafficked, prostituted, or used for county lines, all facilitated by cash? Don't you care about THOSE vulnerable people?

Yes of course I do, being someone who has been prostituted in my past I think I would know a bit about it.

There are already many laws making these crimes illegal. Also, they are already traceable by phones, cctv, and by the trails made when renting properties for these purposes, and by the flights taken.

Cash helped me escape my abuser who forced me into prostitution.

There are not (currently) laws to protect the right to access to cash for all the other vulnerable groups I mentioned. Nor for those who just want to preserve their right to privacy.

It perturbs me that so many seem opposed to choice, even if they themselves don't use cash.

But what does legal tender mean ?

Me too, but only regarding a particular bus company. They accept cash but one of their drivers do mot want it. I only take this very sporadically so it makes zero sense for me to have a card or app for it. They do not have these saves like things where you can put yoyr cash without giving it to the driver. It drives me crazy.

Naughty step for you @AppleIsMyName 😮

I take cash in my business but no one ever wants to give me cash! I’ve also boycotted a few of the massive chains that have stopped accepting cash.

There are already laws against domestic violence and abuse. Cash helps criminals get around laws. So please don't accuse people of not caring about the vulnerable if they aren't attached to cash. It's a childish, reductive, and silly argument.

Literally nobody has said they're opposed to choice.

I'm sorry for what you went through and glad you escaped!

What about giving money to homeless people? I like to keep some cash on me for that or for charity donation boxes etc. I prefer to do that than have direct debits as I can decide when/if/how much to give depending on my finances at the time.

I'm very sorry you went through that.

You raise a pertinent point - how would trapped people gather the means to escape if they do not have access to electronic money? It's far easier to prevent someone from setting up a private, personal bank account, than hiding cash.

And I agree, cash is not responsible for human trafficking.

The drug dealers also have card machines these days and that funnels into crypto.....

As for tax evasion I find some people get quite upset about people like tradespeople who'll come out to give the verdict on a water leak for £20 beer money.... if it's all electronic they just won't be bothered to respond to a Facebook shout out and instead you'll have to ring head office and arrange a call out on Monday....

The benefits of local economies are massively underestimated and I'm more concerned about those at the top not paying their fair share.

A truly cashless society is actually scary when you break it down.

We were in Singapore 33 years ago and they were talking about a worldwide cashless society then. They anticipated it would be in place by 2000. Seems we had a little longer to get used to the idea.

How is that not a personal insult or attack? Do you usually have difficulty understanding when you're insulting someone, or are you just being disingenuous?

That's also my point. We've had bank cards for 40 years! We've had computers for 40 years and mobile phones for 20 years, smart phones for the last decade. Internet for 20 years and pretty common for the last 10. Telephone banking for 25 years. Telephone ordering from Argos for 25 years (plus keypad ordering in store for 20 years).

It's not "suddenly" happened overnight. Most people have had ample opportunity to get to grips with keyboards and automation over the past couple of decades. Even today's 90 year olds were only 50 in the 80s when debit/credit cards started to become commonplace and only in their 60s when telephone banking started! All these people who can't "deal with" keyboards, phones, apps, etc - what rock have you been living under? (Genuinely disabled people excepted!).

What gets me is people like a client of mine in her 50s who made a right big deal when HMRC imposed online filing of VAT returns and having to pay VAT by BACS or direct debit, saying how unfair it was, "what about the old", etc., and claiming she couldn't use a computer or smart phone. (Remember she's only in her 50s so would have been surrounded by "tech" for the last 20-30 years!). I almost started to feel sorry for her! Then, randomly looking on local Facebook groups, there she was, very active all over local Facebook groups, selfies galore, etc. Rather than bending over backwards to accommodate her, I just basically gave her an ultimatum of either do it or be fined by HMRC and gave her the same instruction sheet that I made for other clients - funnily enough, she did it!

Likewise with people who, say order at the counter at McDonalds or Morrisons cafe when there are now touch screens where you can order and pay.

The direction of travel has been obvious for the past 20 years. There's no going back. The sooner people "get with" it, and the younger they are when they do, the better/easier it will be for them, and they reduce the risk of being left behind.

I only use cash day to day and to date only 1 place - a restaurant at the Lowry in Salford - had refused it after I have explained I have no other means of payment. The restaurant had to wait until I called and paid with a card over the phone the next day and I won't go back. For a wide range of social, political and moral reasons it is wrong to get rid of cash and I won't stand by and let it happen. My diligent daily purchases have reversed 3 local shops policies in the last 2 years.

I would be upset to see cash go for a number of reasons. Partly because I'm sick to death of everything being virtual these days. Partly because I think it's selfish to deny that option to those people in society who rely on cash and would find things like payment apps etc confusing and stressful or who don't have internet banking or even an email address like my Nan (she doesn't have internet in her house, no router, nothing). And it would affect the small things which would be sad - girl guides going door to door to sell poppies for remembrance Sunday with a collection pot, people putting a £2 coin in a child's birthday card, the tooth fairy will have to do a bank transfer and where's the magic in that??? Piggy banks will become redundant, there will be nothing to put in them. It just seems really short sighted and selfish to force this on people. But what's new.

@PuggyMum

As for tax evasion I find some people get quite upset about people like tradespeople who'll come out to give the verdict on a water leak for £20 beer money

I don't really think people are too bothered with small/occasional amounts like that, like they aren't bothered about waitresses and hairdressers not declaring their tips. It's not as if the plumber is checking several water leaks for £20 every day, is it?

The REAL problem is shops/takeaways taking multiple small cash sales (amounting to several hundred per day) and not putting them through the books to evade VAT, income tax etc., and probably evade employment tax and facilitate benefit fraud by paying that cash to their staff "under the table".

Or the likes of builders, scaffolders, roofers, car body repair shops, etc., who take a few thousand pounds in cash on a single job to evade VAT and other taxes.

There's plenty of "big" evasion going on, that we really need to tackle/address that first before worrying about the small/casual/occasional stuff.

Totally agree,
When people were getting into debt the first advice always used to be to take out a certain amount in cash per week and that is it. Way easier to manage if you are on a very tight budget.

@Magicpaintbrush

or who don't have internet banking or even an email address like my Nan (she doesn't have internet in her house, no router, nothing).

Well she will have that in 2025 because the landline phone system is being shut down and internet based phones will be the only option for people wanting a phone line, or they'd need to use a mobile phone.

Some people just don't like change or progress, do they?

It's hardly something we can stop.

And as mentioned, the move away from cash will cut out a significant amount of financial crime such as tax evasion, which is effectively theft. So I'm all for it.

@Badbadbunny There is lots of tax evasion anyway. The government keep cutting the staff who look at this. They don't care.
The tax office used to scrutinise inheritances but again cut staff so it no longer happens.

All of this. Also cash is absolutely filthy. All those unwashed hand it passes through. After we had cashed up at our local shop our hands would be black. Revolting

Isn't one of the reasons businesses are choosing not to accept cash is that there are fewer banks in which to deposit it.

Certainly around me some businesses would have to travel more than twenty and in some cases thirty miles to find a bank.