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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

People who don’t carry their bank cards with them

868 replies

Auburngal · 16/03/2024 14:19

I was in Sainsbury’s this morning and systems are down. No contactless, chip n pin taking ages to go through. Unable to buy gift cards, mobile top up vouchers.

Systems going down like this happen not very often but when they do it’s awful.

On the self scan next to me a woman screamed at the manager on why she can’t pay on her mobile.

Why do many people don’t carry their bank cards anymore? The cards don’t weigh much. Plus if the contactless payment system goes down, hopefully their card will go through via chip n pin. Also they won’t look like idiots either. No sympathy for these.

Regarding contactless payments- sometimes your bank, NOT the retailer etc asks you to do a CnP payment as part of security. “I dunno my PIN”. You can change your PIN to any number you want (not 1234, 1111) at any ATM under PIN services.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
AnnieSnap · 13/11/2024 21:41

What is with the ‘people should carry their bank cards/cash’. Just mind your own damn business! I rarely carry anything other than my phone and that’s just fine for me. As for the poster saying they think that because they work in retail and are sick of colleagues getting grief when someone with just their phone can’t pay, that’s a twat problem not a lack of card/cash problem. I have occasionally found I can’t pay with my phone because the business’ machine is playing-up. I wouldn’t dream of blaming a retail worker for that. I was well aware that if I’d had a card with me, I would probably have been able to pay. Its only happened a couple of times over the years and I still prefer to just go out with my phone 🙄

GrumpyWombat · 13/11/2024 22:05

I very rarely have my card or any cash as I just use Apple Pay. I wouldn’t be a dick in a shop though 🤔

Allfur · 13/11/2024 22:07

I don't carry cards and rarely go in to supermarkets, but i do know my pin number

Gonegirl7 · 13/11/2024 22:10

Usually only always have my phone on me. I wouldn’t go far from home though without other forms of payment (just within the town I live in eg wouldn’t drive like an hour away without full purse)

Whothefuckdoesthat · 13/11/2024 22:32

As the years pass, there'll be fewer and fewer very old people (say 90 plus) who had their working life at a time when people were paid in cash and paid bills etc in cash, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. But for anyone younger, they must have been living under a rock, as bank accounts, credit cards, etc., were pretty normal back in the 80s, which is over 40 years ago! My mum is 76 and opened her first ever bank account a couple of years ago and only because the govt wanted to stop using the Post Office to pay pensions into. It was doable without photo ID, thank God, but the concept of using her card to pay for something is completely alien to her. She goes to the post office to withdraw cash (walking past three atms) and pays all of her bills with that.

A dislike of technology seems to be hereditary as I don’t use any sort of apps, no internet banking, I wouldn’t even know how to make my phone pay for something if I wanted it to, I don’t have a personal email address and I only pay for things by card or cash. I do use atms though, so maybe I am a bit more high tech! It’s really interesting to see how many of you use your phones for things.

OutOfTheHouse · 13/11/2024 22:42

Whothefuckdoesthat · 13/11/2024 22:32

As the years pass, there'll be fewer and fewer very old people (say 90 plus) who had their working life at a time when people were paid in cash and paid bills etc in cash, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. But for anyone younger, they must have been living under a rock, as bank accounts, credit cards, etc., were pretty normal back in the 80s, which is over 40 years ago! My mum is 76 and opened her first ever bank account a couple of years ago and only because the govt wanted to stop using the Post Office to pay pensions into. It was doable without photo ID, thank God, but the concept of using her card to pay for something is completely alien to her. She goes to the post office to withdraw cash (walking past three atms) and pays all of her bills with that.

A dislike of technology seems to be hereditary as I don’t use any sort of apps, no internet banking, I wouldn’t even know how to make my phone pay for something if I wanted it to, I don’t have a personal email address and I only pay for things by card or cash. I do use atms though, so maybe I am a bit more high tech! It’s really interesting to see how many of you use your phones for things.

So she likes to make life difficult for herself. Using cards to pay is hardly a new concept. Chip and pin started about 20 years ago when she was mid 50s and cards and having a bank account her common place then. I had my first payment card when I was at uni and that was 30 years ago when she was in her 40s.

Whothefuckdoesthat · 13/11/2024 23:14

OutOfTheHouse · 13/11/2024 22:42

So she likes to make life difficult for herself. Using cards to pay is hardly a new concept. Chip and pin started about 20 years ago when she was mid 50s and cards and having a bank account her common place then. I had my first payment card when I was at uni and that was 30 years ago when she was in her 40s.

She manages her life just fine actually. She doesn’t find it difficult at all not using a card. It would cause her all sorts of stress to start worrying about chip & pin now. And I’m aware of how long chip and pin has been about, thanks. Sadly, she had sod all money to put in a bank account and in those days, income support was done with a book. Very much like a cheque book. Where she’d queue up in a post office, give them her benefit book and they’d give her cash. And as atms (which weren’t as widespread and so needed the bus fare to get to) didn’t dispense coins and gas meters didn’t accept card payments, there wasn’t really much point in her having a bank account.

It’s all very well looking down your nose at people who haven’t embraced technology but maybe try and understand that there are often reasons for that, and that people have very different experiences in their lives.

taxguru · 14/11/2024 08:51

I think the point is that the "direction of travel" has been blatantly obvious for a few decades and that some people just stuck their head in the sand, and made no provision at all for what was inevitable. We've had widespread debit cards for 40 years so no need for people to be going into banks to withdraw cash when a debit card and hole in the wall would do it quicker and easier. We've had telephone banking since the early 90s, internet banking since the early noughties. Cheque books have been pretty much obsolete for at least a decade, probably two. Businesses mostly moved over to paying wages by BACS a couple of decades ago.

I have little sympathy for people who deliberately chose to ignore the progress and stuck rigidly to their "old ways" for the past few decades, when they were off an age where they had all their faculties and could have embraced the changes at a time when they were capable. Relatively slow and easy changes could have been made over time, in fact, over decades. None of the current situation happened overnight, it's been a VERY slow progression over decades. Anyone, currently of working age, or recently retired in the last decade or so has no excuse at all. (Unless they're mentally disabled which is a whole different matter).

I still know people in their 50s today who are just nothing but awkward and still insist on using cheques to pay bills - they're just "anti" everything modern. They're really going to suffer/struggle as all areas of life are only going to get more and more tech driven. They're perfectly capable of doing things online (all are heavily into the internet when it suits them, have smart phones, etc), but seem to have a weird sense of self importance that everyone else will bow to their whims - news flash, they won't and they'll just find themselves marginalised and then too old to change their ways when there are no alternatives, which is inevitable in another decade or so.

I have more sympathy for people, say, in their 80s and 90s, who may have been paid cash throughout their working life (unlikely but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt), and simply never needed banking facilities at all, i.e. the old "money in a jar" type of person who paid their bills in person across a counter. I accept that was a way of life for most people up to the 80s, and if someone was middle aged in the 80s, then fair enough, they may have seen no reason to change their ways. The number of people falling into this camp are small and getting smaller and will probably be close to zero within a decade. Those with, say, dementia, won't even be able to cope with "real cash", so it doesn't really matter whether they're using cash or online banking, most will need someone else to do it for them, and once a POA is set up, then the holder will find it a lot easier to do it online than trail around paying bills over the counter.

The reality is that, soon, there'll be no physical bank branches. We've only one left in our town. There used to be at least a dozen, plus lots of sub-branches of building societies etc. Even our main post office is earmarked for closure in the latest round of closures. People have been busily closing their bank accounts in banks that have closed and moved their money to the banks still open - many have had to constantly change. They still don't get the message. Trailing between branches closing and opening accounts is just wasting time and chasing something that simply won't exist in a decade.

Everyone who is able, needs to get on board with the internet. It IS the future, however much people want to stick their head in the sand. They're not harming anyone but themselves. Banking, shopping, car parks, event tickets, ordering food in restaurants, etc etc is only going one way. Get on board or be left behind!

Cappuccinowithonesugarplease · 14/11/2024 09:07

I think it's sad the way tech is going now. I haven't liked in the uk for a few years, in my new country cash is still king.
There was a video going round recently of an old man who went to buy some strawberries but the shop tried to refuse his cash. He stood his ground saying it was legal tender and left the correct money on the counter. The shop assistant kept saying she was going to call the police. Imagine calling the police on someone for paying cash?
Mad times.

Cappuccinowithonesugarplease · 14/11/2024 09:11

taxguru · 14/11/2024 08:51

I think the point is that the "direction of travel" has been blatantly obvious for a few decades and that some people just stuck their head in the sand, and made no provision at all for what was inevitable. We've had widespread debit cards for 40 years so no need for people to be going into banks to withdraw cash when a debit card and hole in the wall would do it quicker and easier. We've had telephone banking since the early 90s, internet banking since the early noughties. Cheque books have been pretty much obsolete for at least a decade, probably two. Businesses mostly moved over to paying wages by BACS a couple of decades ago.

I have little sympathy for people who deliberately chose to ignore the progress and stuck rigidly to their "old ways" for the past few decades, when they were off an age where they had all their faculties and could have embraced the changes at a time when they were capable. Relatively slow and easy changes could have been made over time, in fact, over decades. None of the current situation happened overnight, it's been a VERY slow progression over decades. Anyone, currently of working age, or recently retired in the last decade or so has no excuse at all. (Unless they're mentally disabled which is a whole different matter).

I still know people in their 50s today who are just nothing but awkward and still insist on using cheques to pay bills - they're just "anti" everything modern. They're really going to suffer/struggle as all areas of life are only going to get more and more tech driven. They're perfectly capable of doing things online (all are heavily into the internet when it suits them, have smart phones, etc), but seem to have a weird sense of self importance that everyone else will bow to their whims - news flash, they won't and they'll just find themselves marginalised and then too old to change their ways when there are no alternatives, which is inevitable in another decade or so.

I have more sympathy for people, say, in their 80s and 90s, who may have been paid cash throughout their working life (unlikely but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt), and simply never needed banking facilities at all, i.e. the old "money in a jar" type of person who paid their bills in person across a counter. I accept that was a way of life for most people up to the 80s, and if someone was middle aged in the 80s, then fair enough, they may have seen no reason to change their ways. The number of people falling into this camp are small and getting smaller and will probably be close to zero within a decade. Those with, say, dementia, won't even be able to cope with "real cash", so it doesn't really matter whether they're using cash or online banking, most will need someone else to do it for them, and once a POA is set up, then the holder will find it a lot easier to do it online than trail around paying bills over the counter.

The reality is that, soon, there'll be no physical bank branches. We've only one left in our town. There used to be at least a dozen, plus lots of sub-branches of building societies etc. Even our main post office is earmarked for closure in the latest round of closures. People have been busily closing their bank accounts in banks that have closed and moved their money to the banks still open - many have had to constantly change. They still don't get the message. Trailing between branches closing and opening accounts is just wasting time and chasing something that simply won't exist in a decade.

Everyone who is able, needs to get on board with the internet. It IS the future, however much people want to stick their head in the sand. They're not harming anyone but themselves. Banking, shopping, car parks, event tickets, ordering food in restaurants, etc etc is only going one way. Get on board or be left behind!

There is nothing wrong with things moving on but why take away the choices we have always had? Forcing everyone to go cashless. Cash is real, gold is real, a screen is not. Digital currency means nothing.

SerendipityJane · 14/11/2024 11:11

Cappuccinowithonesugarplease · 14/11/2024 09:07

I think it's sad the way tech is going now. I haven't liked in the uk for a few years, in my new country cash is still king.
There was a video going round recently of an old man who went to buy some strawberries but the shop tried to refuse his cash. He stood his ground saying it was legal tender and left the correct money on the counter. The shop assistant kept saying she was going to call the police. Imagine calling the police on someone for paying cash?
Mad times.

That isn't what legal tender is. Not that there is any point in explaining - it's been done to death everywhere (including MN) and people still get it wrong. Usually very loudly. (See also: opening misdirected post 😀)

When I was growing up, there were parents of friends who did not have a telephone. I wonder how they got on ?

chaosmaker · 14/11/2024 11:33

Saschka · 13/11/2024 18:10

For a supermarket shop? That could be £200. I don’t think many people have that amount of cash on them routinely on the off chance the card readers are down.

Then you'd have to get your essentials only and the rest another day.

SerendipityJane · 14/11/2024 11:43

Bottom line is that carrying cash is a gift to muggers and other ne'er do wells.

Wexone · 14/11/2024 12:10

Cappuccinowithonesugarplease · 14/11/2024 09:07

I think it's sad the way tech is going now. I haven't liked in the uk for a few years, in my new country cash is still king.
There was a video going round recently of an old man who went to buy some strawberries but the shop tried to refuse his cash. He stood his ground saying it was legal tender and left the correct money on the counter. The shop assistant kept saying she was going to call the police. Imagine calling the police on someone for paying cash?
Mad times.

A shop owner can choose whatever way it accepts payment. Legal tender has a narrow technical meaning which has no use in everyday life. It means that if you offer to fully pay off a debt to someone in legal tender, they can’t sue you for failing to repay - does not imply a right to pay with cash in other contexts. The shop can state what form of payment it accepts - You as a consumer can choose not to shop there based on that.

blackheartsgirl · 14/11/2024 12:18

i have adhd and I’ve lost count of the times I’ve lost a bank card, I just can’t help it.

Apple Pay is brilliant for me.

might as well carry cash instead

SockFluffInTheBath · 14/11/2024 12:19

Also they won’t look like idiots either. No sympathy for these.

What a stupid thing to say. You look like an idiot because your payment method is down, hurr hurr.

housemaus · 14/11/2024 12:30

GrumpyWombat · 13/11/2024 22:05

I very rarely have my card or any cash as I just use Apple Pay. I wouldn’t be a dick in a shop though 🤔

Yeah this. Haven't withdrawn cash in probably close to a decade, except on holiday in countries where Apple Pay couldn't be used, and couldn't even tell you where my bank card is. In the several years I've solely been using Google and then Apple Pay it's been a problem maybe once in a shop, and I just wasn't a dick about it and went home to get my card. I think (hope?) what OP means is 'don't be a dick if you're not going to carry a card' which is far more reasonable than 'everyone has to have the payment options I deem sensible available at all times'...

EmmaEmEmz · 14/11/2024 12:34

I don't even own a purse. I never have cash on me and rarely have my card on me. I think there's been two instances in the last five years or so that my phone hasn't worked to pay, so I used the get cash code on my phone and withdrew the cash.

Panama2 · 14/11/2024 12:35

I’m once we are cashless we are at the mercy of computer systems working, not being hacked and governments having a complete overview of what you are doing with your money.

use cash

housemaus · 14/11/2024 12:41

Panama2 · 14/11/2024 12:35

I’m once we are cashless we are at the mercy of computer systems working, not being hacked and governments having a complete overview of what you are doing with your money.

use cash

If the banking system goes down and you can't withdraw cash from machines, you're equally at risk of computer systems not working, and as the majority of people are paid electronically then I have no option to withdraw cash from....shock horror.... a card machine working on computer systems. Speaking of, that if BACs etc systems fail and you don't get paid, you're still at mercy of computer systems. All using cash would do for me is mean governments don't know what I'm doing with my money but as I don't give a shit if the government want to see what I'm doing with my money and lots of the businesses I frequent are card only, it would just be a pain in the arse! I can't see how a vague fear of being tracked financially would outweigh the inconvenience tbh

SocksAndTheCity · 14/11/2024 13:23

SerendipityJane · 14/11/2024 11:43

Bottom line is that carrying cash is a gift to muggers and other ne'er do wells.

So is waving an expensive phone around in public, at least here in central London. Muggers gonna mug.

Panama2 · 14/11/2024 13:57

Systems going down is why you should make sure you have access to cash.

SerendipityJane · 14/11/2024 14:07

SocksAndTheCity · 14/11/2024 13:23

So is waving an expensive phone around in public, at least here in central London. Muggers gonna mug.

Phones are less fungible than cash. Car thieves gonna car thief so you don't lock you car I take it ?

taxguru · 14/11/2024 16:17

SerendipityJane · 14/11/2024 11:43

Bottom line is that carrying cash is a gift to muggers and other ne'er do wells.

It also fuels the black economy, tax and benefit fraud.

OutOfTheHouse · 14/11/2024 17:35

Wexone · 14/11/2024 12:10

A shop owner can choose whatever way it accepts payment. Legal tender has a narrow technical meaning which has no use in everyday life. It means that if you offer to fully pay off a debt to someone in legal tender, they can’t sue you for failing to repay - does not imply a right to pay with cash in other contexts. The shop can state what form of payment it accepts - You as a consumer can choose not to shop there based on that.

There are very few cases where the whole ‘legal tender’ is actually meaningful, as you say.
One situation is when you have put petrol in your car and go to pay. There is one man (it’s always men) who is forever getting in the paper because he will buy petrol and then want to pay with commemorative £5 coins or some such shit.

As for a pp saying that cash is real, no it isn’t. It doesn’t really have any actual value does it. No more than the numbers on my banking app.