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.

Imagine how much fuel is expended transporting heavy coinage from place to place. I certainly wouldn't want to run an amusement arcade these days.

Consider also the high levels of security, manpower and expensive tech that is necessary when transporting large amounts of cash.

Cash has its place, but I prefer cashless and I HATE COPPERS (1p/2p, not the police...). I think people should have the choice which to use.

Unfortunately, lots of smaller businesses don't shop around for the cheapest card processing options. Many just use whatever is offered by their High Street bank and, yes, end up paying stupidly high card fees.

Sometimes, it's because they want the funds almost immediately, i.e. next day, whereas cheaper card processing firms make you wait several days, or even a week or two for the money to be paid over, which may be impossible to work with due to cash flow difficulties.

Some simply don't know what alternatives are available. Eg, some card providers charge a fee per transaction but a very low percentage, some charge just a fee an no percentage at all, some charge a higher percentage but no fee, some have a monthly fixed fee and then very low charges per transaction, some have no monthly fee, but higher transaction charges. You have to "match" the best option against your business by shopping around and comparing alternatives.

Tin foil hat klaxon

I want cash to remain as a competitor, and as a back up in case of bank failures/issues.

Ironically it seems where cash is being retained most are in things such as drug dealing, not for good things.

I try to use cash where possible. I do think the government is pushing a cashless society. I have clients in China whose lives are controlled on their mobile phones. If you buy beer for example on a Friday via your card which is stored on the WeChat app, you will not be able to buy more on a Saturday. The QR code turns red. Similarly, on the social credit system if your score drops below a certain point you are not able to take public transport etc....

Why should I have to though? I'm happy using cash and all of a sudden places won't accept it
It's not all about you. I'm sure people were happy listening to vinyl, riding horses and using a landline. Things evolve. They change. You either accept it or you sit around like a dinosaur moaning 'why should I ...'

Many of us prefer cashless. I can go out with nothing but my phone. Or even just my watch. I feel so liberated but having to schlep a bag around with my wallet with blind and notes and cards.

I've said similar on other threads. You get the "what if there's a power cut" argument - well if there's a power cut, the shops are going to be closed as are petrol stations etc, as they need power to run the equipment. During Storm Desmond a few years ago, our entire city and nearby towns were without power for around 3 days. Nothing was open! The supermarkets handed out the contents of their fridges/freezers as it would perish without power but they weren't open and weren't selling anything. Our local village sandwich/pie shop opened up for a few hours to sell off their perishables, they didn't need the till as they knew the prices from memory. The post office, Spar shop, petrol station and pub all stayed closed. The train station closed, with trains not stopping - no electric on the platform and station buildings meant risk assessment kicked in to ban people from the premises due to no lighting, security, etc.

Why should I have to though? I'm happy using cash and all of a sudden places won't accept it

Turn it around. Why should shops accept it when they don't want to?

Why should your choices/opinions be more important than theirs?

You can't blame "our" government when our country is just doing what most other developed countries are doing. Do you never go abroad? Card use is even more widespread in many other countries.

Totally happy cashless. Yes it is trickier keeping track of those incidental things like a coffee here or a sandwich etc, but it just requires you looking at your bank account more often.
As for the 'why should I' attitude- because that's the way the world is now so you have to accommodate it.

That's China. It's absurd to be worrying about that in the UK.

You should talk to your bank. Your cards should work abroad.

Tbf, OP hasn't said she is happy with other people using cards.

If you are allowed a choice, why can't she advocate for herself to have a choice too?

Or is she supposed to be happy because you can schlep around?

I love a cashless society! Went to Sweden a couple of years ago and did’nt even exchange into euros. Did not spend one cent cash. Even the big issue sellers had card machines! I just forward my weekly spending cash to my Chase card. If I want to see how much is left in my account, I just have to look at the app on my phone. It could not be easier. It also rounds up each transaction to the nearest £ (at my request) and I get 2.7 interest on that. I used to spend a note, and drop the change in a huge whisky bottle. That has about £300 in it. The only time I dip into it is to give delivery drivers tips or door to door charity collectors. It will probably take 10 years to spend it! And even then, you can always tip online.

It can get expensive though, based on the bank FX rate, and the bank usually charges for each transaction too.

@Badbadbunny I am amazed that you had some rooms full of computers in schools in 1983. A very basic BBC computer in real terms cost £830. This was during Thatcher when education was starved of funds. The BBC computer only went on sale in Dec 1981, so it was still very new.
ZX Spectrum was only put on sale in April 1982 and it used a tape recorder to load up data. My brother who loves computers had one and it took ages to load up and did not seem to be able to do that much. You had to be a tec fan.
I thought the first computing O level was in 1984. But few schools offered it straight away.

I remember large companies I worked for running training on how to use email as it was not assumed people could do this. And I remember senior managers who could not get to grips with computers and got their secretary or pa to print off emails on paper.

Yeah just the same as if you were to withdraw the cash aboard or buy currency from the post office?

Ordinary bank cards abroad are usually a no no.
You need ones with a better rate.
But be aware that in some countries cash is still used a lot and cards may not be accepted. I mean if you only go to popular tourist resorts you will be fine. But off the beaten track can be different.

@Pearlygates I compare options. Sometimes cash is cheaper, sometimes cards. Often cards are better for larger purchases like restaurant bills and cash for small purchases as there is often a minimum charge per transaction. So you will pay a large charge for buying one bottle of water.

This is simply not true. We have had local power cuts and local shops have simply moved to manual cash transactions.

Ok, fair enough.

But if you had a revolut card you could have seperate account within your app in the currency of the country you're in. No transations fees, and no exchange charges. Your bottle of water costs what it costs...that's it.

If you don't know, I can't begin to tell you here. If you actually don't know ANY of the millions of differences between the UK and China that make your paranoia absurd, there really wouldn't be any point.