Page 12 | To be sick of cashless society

Ihatepcos · 2023-01-10T09:31:43+00:00

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.

NowDoYouBelieveMe · 10/01/2023 12:03

unclebuck · 10/01/2023 11:59

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.

Good for you. I'm glad someone has that determination! I often pay in cash and try to in principle, because if we don't use it we lose it, but convenience sometimes takes over.

Badbadbunny · 10/01/2023 12:03

BradfordGirl · 10/01/2023 12:00

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.

The modern way is to have a separate cash/spending debit card which you "charge up" each week by standing order from your main account, so you can control your spending easily on the same principle as cash, i.e. "when it's gone it's gone". Monzo is good for this but most banks will provide a free simple "basic" account with a debit card supported by an app.

iwanttobelikegracekelly · 10/01/2023 12:03

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!

Don't call my lived experience views childish and silly. How patronising.
I have said that cash helped me escape that situation. Without it I could not have escaped.

If you support a cashless society, and do not support legislating to protect access to and spending cash, then you are opposed to choice.

MaryMcCarthy · 10/01/2023 12:03

BradfordGirl · 10/01/2023 12:02

@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.

There is lots of tax evasion anyway, so we shouldn't take any effort to reduce it?

That's your argument?

AngelinaFibres · 10/01/2023 12:04

BradfordGirl · 10/01/2023 12:00

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.

Monzo cards do exactly the same thing. Absolutely brilliant.

NotAnotherBathBomb · 10/01/2023 12:04

What about people who can't have one because of illegal activity

NotAnotherBathBomb · 10/01/2023 12:05

Oblahdeeoblahdoe · 10/01/2023 11:15

I don't mind either but I was surprised to see a 'discount for cash' at a Korean restaurant in central Birmingham. I didn't know that was a thing.

Interesting! This was a thing in Toronto when I visited last year but didn't realise it was also done here

GettingStuffed · 10/01/2023 12:06

If you don't use cash what do you do when the payment system goes down, a semi regular thing in Tesco?

BradfordGirl · 10/01/2023 12:06

Badbadbunny · 10/01/2023 11:54

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.

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Facebook is way easier to use than internet banking.
She would not have had tech for 30 years. 30 years ago I was still writing letters on paper and giving them to a secretary to type up.

MilkyYay · 10/01/2023 12:07

I love it. A business/tradesperson that won't accept card payments or bank transfers is likely to lose my business. I have to drive to get to a cash machine and don't have time.

NowDoYouBelieveMe · 10/01/2023 12:07

iwanttobelikegracekelly · 10/01/2023 12:03

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!

Don't call my lived experience views childish and silly. How patronising.
I have said that cash helped me escape that situation. Without it I could not have escaped.

If you support a cashless society, and do not support legislating to protect access to and spending cash, then you are opposed to choice.

Ignore posters who counter a perfectly reasonable argument with "that's childish".

They've just not thought about it enough to properly counter it, ime. It's a very basic form of defensiveness.

You raise really good points.

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 10/01/2023 12:07

Yes, we are sleepwalking into a society where all we do can be monitored and controlled, where fees and subscriptions can be added at a whim, basically giving all and sundry a passport to our life savings. Not good.

BradfordGirl · 10/01/2023 12:07

And 40 years ago we still had computers you used by putting a tape in a tape recorder. The vast majority of people had never used a computer.

bobbytorq · 10/01/2023 12:07

senua · 10/01/2023 11:42

I'm another one who never uses cash - I pay with my Apple Watch for everything.
And you got that watch for free, did you? Your 'convenience' is costing you a lot of money and making somebody else very rich.

I use my apple watch too and I didn't buy it with that in mind. I do so many things with my watch that make life easier that it was definitely worth the expense. Payments are just one of them.

NashvilleQueen · 10/01/2023 12:08

Cash is incredibly inefficient. It requires you to plan ahead and then make sure you've got enough for what you need. It's a pain for many businesses and an enhanced security risk. Using a card makes it easier for consumers to return items and can offer protection in certain transactions. Cards work internationally in a way that makes travel much easier. Cash often unhygienic and makes organised crime easier to facilitate.

Use cash if you want but don't dismiss progress. On every possible measure cards probably make more sense.

BoadiceaOverall · 10/01/2023 12:08

I'm curious - literally the only places I've ever seen cash not accepted at all are the card-only queues at supermarkets or festival bars. Mind you, I don't shop in person very much these days, so perhaps I am behind the times. Do some shops just flat out not accept cash now, then?

closingloop · 10/01/2023 12:09

Sparklingbrook · 10/01/2023 11:07

THINK, people, THINK.

You seem cross and a bit patronising. I have had a think and I don't need any cash. I also don't want to handle filtyhy cash if I don't have to and there's fucking gloves at the petrol pump.

Ok, so you really REALLY can't think of a reason why cashless is bad?

I have a £20 note. I give it to you in payment, you pay for something else with it. Maybe it could change hands a 600 times in a couple of years. Then it comes back to me. It's worth £20.

Or, and this is where people do need to think,

I pay you £20 by card. Bank charges for each transaction are are 2% and the original £20 decreases slightly each time it 'changes hands' 600 times in a couple of years. Then it comes back to me.

All that's left is a penny, the rest is taken by the bank charges.

Beees · 10/01/2023 12:09

GettingStuffed · 10/01/2023 12:06

If you don't use cash what do you do when the payment system goes down, a semi regular thing in Tesco?

Is it really that common? I've never been in a situation where the payment system goes down but if it did I would either wait a while to see if it worked again or go home and do my showing another day. Frustrating yes but not enough to make me carry lots of cash just on the off chance it happened.

iwanttobelikegracekelly · 10/01/2023 12:10

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 agree, and good on you for doing this. Hopefully more people will do the same. I pay in cash for all physical transactions and I have never had cash refused once. I do live in a disadvantaged area though. I think it boggles the brains of some people to grasp the reality that there are many, many people in the UK who cannot afford smartphones, electric to have them charge all the time, and data packages.

bobbytorq · 10/01/2023 12:10

MilkyYay · 10/01/2023 12:07

I love it. A business/tradesperson that won't accept card payments or bank transfers is likely to lose my business. I have to drive to get to a cash machine and don't have time.

Agree. I haven't got time to manage cash either.

BradfordGirl · 10/01/2023 12:11

Carers are not allowed to use cards. They have to use cash if going to the shops or paying for prescriptions. Lack of cash causes real issues.

Sparklingbrook · 10/01/2023 12:11

BoadiceaOverall · 10/01/2023 12:08

I'm curious - literally the only places I've ever seen cash not accepted at all are the card-only queues at supermarkets or festival bars. Mind you, I don't shop in person very much these days, so perhaps I am behind the times. Do some shops just flat out not accept cash now, then?

A lot of sports stadiums are cash only. It’s stated everywhere-on the website, on the ticket. I thin k that’s sensible. When you have masses of people all wanting a drink in a short time it really speeds things up.

NowDoYouBelieveMe · 10/01/2023 12:11

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 10/01/2023 12:07

Yes, we are sleepwalking into a society where all we do can be monitored and controlled, where fees and subscriptions can be added at a whim, basically giving all and sundry a passport to our life savings. Not good.

In all honesty, I agree.

I'm quite surprised that so many posters support a policy that would allow banks and governments to take away their savings whenever the financial system requires it. Perhaps the pro-cashless posters don't have any or ever expect to, but I doubt that on here.

Sparklingbrook · 10/01/2023 12:11

A lot of sports stadiums are cash only. It’s stated everywhere-on the website, on the ticket. I thin k that’s sensible. When you have masses of people all wanting a drink in a short time it really speeds things up.

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Meant card only-no cash.

BradfordGirl · 10/01/2023 12:11

No one is talking about cash only, but simply having cash as an option.