To ask you about cash?

[PassingStranger]

What with card payments going down and threats to shops online systems

Are you thinking you should keep more cash in the house? I am.

It's not really promoted as being safe though. They always say money is safer in the bank.

Would you consider having more cash available?

I love cash, I use mainly cash as it helps me keep more of a track of my spending

I have a sign in my cafe saying we prefer cash although we do take card as well. And it's not a fiddle, I can still pay my PAYE staff in cash, suppliers, etc. We have an electronic till and order system but in the event it crashes we can take orders manually, as I used to when we first opened.

As a pp said, cash remains cash. £10 spent in cash is always £10. £10 on your card becomes less every time it's spent with the banks making more and more money. And at what point, once cash becomes rarer, will they start charging not only the business but also the card holder? If there's no alternative they'll have us over a barrel!

It's the same here (maybe we are in the same village?🤣🤣). Their chips are much nicer than the others who take cards.

Also, I often need to pay for bus fares in cash. I know you can do it by card or phone but in our semi rural area the signal needed by the card readers is often weak or non-existent, so it's easier to just offer the £3 in cash and know that you can get on the bus.

Similar issues sometimes when I am staying with my elderly mother and we use taxis. The card reader signal can drop so it's best to have some cash (under £10) as a backup.

So I often have about £20 - £30 cash in my purse but use my card/phone for most things where I can.

I have £100 or so in the house but not in one place (pockets, bags, phone case etc) enough for just in case

I always keep £1000 in the safe, and £100 hidden in my car.

I’m mostly astounded by how many people on this thread seem to have a safe. I’ve never known anyone with a home safe.

Really?

A small fireproof safe isn’t expensive and is essential for storing important papers, photos, jewelry and cash.

Well obviously since most buses are electric.

Some shops will always find a way to open. Like when the panic buying was going on and little corner shops were selling stuff at an inflated price.

See I don't get these arguments. It's like we're a be what may mindset and don't think we'll be inconvenienced at all or it'll be over quickly and there's just no point in preparing for anything.

Maybe we need a good rattle to get us out of our complacency.

Having worked in cyber security I will always have some cash in the house. I also have a good amount of bottled water, around 2 weeks of food and the usual batteries / candles / and cars that are both fuel and electric.

You’d be shocked at how vulnerable many of our systems are.

It’s clearly not essential as I dont have one and neither does anyone I know (as far as I know, obviously, but I dont think I know a huge cohort of secret safe owners). Most of those things are held online. I dispute the value of keeping large amounts of cash about. Photos I can see, but most of mine are stored online now and to keep the hard copies I’d need a second room, not a small safe.

For short outages I have what I need at home. If financial and power systems collapsed for days or weeks on end cash or gold will be as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

I always keep some cash in the house. Not enough to cause a crisis if we get burgled but enough to pay for a week's food and a tank of diesel. Living in the sticks, the availability of cash points or bank branches is dire.

I shop weekly and with store cupboard and frozen items we could always survive at least a week

We also get power cuts fairly frequently, so I have a log burner and a shed full of wood for use when the central heating fails. We have a well, which I suppose we could use in an emergency, although I'm not keen on that idea.

I currently get £300 from the cash machine and use it until it’s gone then replace it keep it - kept in the safe. I am thinking of getting some more to build up a stash for emergencies but I’m not sure how much I would feel comfortable with. Certainly not enough for a year as a previous poster has said!

I do have a stash of dollars and euros from previous holidays, about £500 in each currency which I keep forgetting to sort out! I used to go away a lot so would have used it up but recent health problems have kept me at home. That’s not going to be any good if Tesco tills go down!

My parents have had a safe for years.

I have a gun safe, which also houses a few valuables tucked in the back. The only person who knows the safe is there except me is the local firearms officer.

So you might be my best friend but you still wouldn't know I had a safe.

I’ve got a safe it’s empty and open. The alarm people installed it as a freebie when I bought a system.

You're. (You are.)

I'm not sure if I agree with that. I get charged by the bank to pay cash into my business account, so £10 cash become £9.50 (or whatever their rate is), whereas £10 transferred electronically remains £10.

I actively have to discourage customers paying me in cash as it is such a pain.

I also don’t know anyone who has a gun (apart from a couple of farmers). If I did though, I would know they had a gun safe because they would have to.

Marks and Spencer’s aren’t going to accept cash with a paper and pen though are they? They’re just going to shut.

the reality is, the chances of all banking systems and shops going down is tiny at present. M&S get cyber attacked, you go elsewhere

in a world where no one can accept money, it quickly becomes obselete. We’ll be bartering within weeks

Well yes, £10 paid electronically by BACS remains £10 but not £10 paid through a card machine - you might get the whole £10 sent to you but you're paying a percentage in your fees plus the costs of your card machine. Like I say, we avoid paying the cash, in and being charged, by paying employees and suppliers in cash

Thankfully, where we live in the sticks, the butcher takes cash, the farm shop takes cash, the neighbour who sells eggs takes cash and the local mill takes cash for 16kg sacks of flour.

In the past I've traded a trailer load of cooking apples for three kilos of hand made sausages, and swapped home made apple pies for eggs.

The joys of living in a rural community, we'd find a way to cope without money. 😁

@countingthedays945
It's not a great time to be buying bullion, it's virtually the highest it's ever been

We have a fireproof safe - got it when we paid off the mortgage and got the deeds to our house. Now registered with land registry, so less need, but passports, visa, wills, a bit of cash go in there.

A month ago I had to leave my trolley when there was a power cut. There was a window of 20 min to pay for your shopping before everyone had to leave the store. Cash would have made no difference.

I lose less from people paying by card than I do paying cash in. So, you are correct in that there are fees, but the banks are increasing the fees for cash to reduce its use.

My card machine is free, and there are no account fees, so I just lose the transaction charge, which, per above, is lower than paying cash in.