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.

That's fine, those businesses with poor connectivity can still accept cash if they want to. It's one of the many factors that a business will consider when they make decisions about cash and/or card acceptance. Just like they make decisions on opening hours, what goods to stock, selling prices, etc. Everything they do is based on whether it's "worth it" to them upon consideration of costs versus benefits.

But poor connectivity will be an ever reducing problem as broadband and mobile signals are improving all the time with new infrastructure etc. There are fewer and fewer places with neither one nor the other. There are plenty of local initiatives in rural areas to improve connectivity when the "big" firms havn't got round to it yet, such as radio based internet, independent organisations running their own private cabling network, etc., which provide the most appropriate infrastructure for their own particular local problems.

Not sure why you think a business owner should have to count cash in front of the TV just because you want to pay in cash, when you could easily pay by card and save her the trouble!

As for their quiet times, perhaps it would be more beneficial for the business owner to spend the time researching cost saving options, or marketing, or negotiating with suppliers, etc., i.e. things that would improve the business rather than spending that time on a wasteful and pointless task like counting money!

Unless you only deal in cash i.e., are paid in cash and never put it in a bank, how to does cash help stop your example from happening?

Do you also genuinely think any UK government is going to commit to the level of investment required to make your example a reality and execute it in just 5-10 years?? You must have way more faith in our politicalians ability than me.

And for those referencing PayPal and the like you do realise that payment services like PayPal, Visa, Mastercard ,etc, and commercial banks are private companies and are therefore free to provide / withdraw their services to whoever they wish for whatever reason they wish (within the bounds of the law)?

Cash or card of course remains both a personal preference of the customer and of the business

To a business there are costs to any option or mix of options, I help out a couple of friends with their businesses.
Both take cash or card, and prefer one or the other

Card payments go directly into their accounts and are available to spend with suppliers and pay bills.
It costs to bank cash and takes longer to be available

But one of them also provides shop space to multiple traders, any money banked has to be seperate - and therefore more charges.
Where cash is taken then the famous £50 note can be accounted in the till & books and paid out to the trader with no fees (until that trader banks it - but no fees to the shop)
She also deals in collectibles, and when away at a show all the traders are doing deals with each other trading items - at the end of the day x owes y £, and hopefully they have taken enough in cash to pay that balance

I live in China and, with the exception of a red packet as a wedding gift for a friend, I haven't seen physical cash in about 3 years. I think most businesses legally have to accept it (and also presumably cards) but literally everyone exclusively uses 2 major payment apps. I like it: it's cleaner, fast, very convenient, and I don't need to carry a wallet. I can see how it might be difficult for elderly people or others who can't use phones, but those people would always have someone with them/taking care of them who can do the paying.
Cash should be an option but I don't really see why you'd prefer it.

And how many businesses are within walking distance of a bank? Where I live they are all at least an 8 mile drive.

Also this kind of comment is... a lie? Or at least a misunderstanding. I mean, I wouldn't pay for anything illegal with Wechat pay (e.g. after-school tutoring is now being stopped so people often pay tutors in cash) but alcohol, sex toys, whatever normal but "naughty" items you can buy from shops/online does not affect your "social credit".

And that is a major issue. Although you can deposit cash at a Post Office.

Any business I have ever worked for is on a High Street, so there is always somewhere close by to deposit cash. We also used cash without banking it. The cleaner was paid in cash - and yes through the books.

Post offices are closing down now too. Often being replaced by "counters" in shops, pharmacies, etc that only deal with postal items and don't handle banking services due to there being no security screens, safes, etc. Our village "post office" is a small counter in the corner of the chemists - all you can do there is buy stamps and hand over parcels/letters for postage - nothing else at all. The next village along is the same, post office "counter" in their convenience store. Nearest "proper" post office where you can do banking is several miles away in the same town where there's a bank branch!

I prefer cash too, defo makes me think more about spending where as tap can be without much thought.

Also it’s nice to be able to give a few euro ( Eire) to children and any charity collection, restaurant tips etc.

Cash is my favourite. €€££$$

Yeah, people really can't decide someone's labour has no value because the work they're doing happens to be for their own business!

Yes, indeed. I wonder how many employees are happy to take work home with them, unpaid, because they "can do it whilst watching TV"! Not many I suspect!

Really dislike where this is going. I do use card, but what freaks me out is what happens if there is a major communications outage?

Cash is a pain because it still involves using a card. I don't get paid in cash, so to pay other people in cash I have to go to an atm and use my card and pin to get some out. It's much easier to just pay by card in the first place. It's all the same money.

I also used to overspend more with cash because I would spend change rather than it staying in the bank.

What if all the ATMs break? It's unlikely.
But unless you keep all your money under your mattress and not in a bank then you're reliant on some form of technology to be able to pay for things.

Or more government control.
Everything you buy and everywhere you go is recorded in a card only society.
Carboot sales? How does that work?

Well you'd not get cash out of a cash machine or across a bank counter anyway if that happened. So unless you had a huge amount of cash under your bed, it wouldn't go far.

The stall holder just buys a £25 card reader and installs an app on their phone to bluetooth it too! Or some phones can act as a reader if they're modern enough so just install the app!

Some posters really investing a lot of time on this thread trying to convince us that totally cashless would be fine, but the consensus is, from the poll, that cash should remain.

DS does this. He's ADHD so quite impulsive. He has a Starling account with very little money in it. That's the card he uses for coffees, snacks, buying a book or a tee shirt. It is capped. he keeps his main account card for using only on more considered purchases. And it means he can keep a tally of how much he really spends on lattes and bao buns!

Fine for regular car booters. It would mean those doing a one off would not bother. We have done a car boot twice. I would not have paid £25, I would have just not bothered. Life is too short.

What if all the ATMs break? It's unlikely.
But unless you keep all your money under your mattress and not in a bank then you're reliant on some form of technology to be able to pay for things.

The fact that your money isn't even yours is worrying enough. And like many people said - the bank/government doesn't need to know every single transaction. Especially now, when they want to be monitoring corbon foodprint and "encouraging heathy choices".

Money has never been ours since banks existed and started making money. Unless you want to go back to the days of bartering gold and turnips.

And taxed accordingly.