Do you still use actual cash to pay for things? Ive just realised I've not used notes & coins for months

[ApexDragonfly]

Its suddenly struck me that I've completely stopped using actual money in every day life. If I go out anywhere I use my phone/watch to pay so no longer bother carrying my purse most days. If my teen dc ask for money I just do a bank transfer rather than handing them cash. Ive just booked a friend group Christmas dinner and everyone transferred their deposit to my bank account. I think the last time I used actual money was when I was on holiday, but even then things like taxis were via an app, flights and hotel booking were paid online, and bigger restaurant bills I paid via card.

I think what's made me realise this is that the news is full of govt warnings to have some actual cash in case of a cyber attack. And I checked my purse and found I had £100 cash in it (I went camping in June, so took went to a cashpoint to get actual money in case i needed it. Turns out I didnt spend any of the actual cash money and have used my card to pay for everything since then).

Surely I'm not the only one who has gone cash free? Ive enabled voting

YABU - I still use cash for most things.
YANBU - I never/hardly ever use cash

It has happened a few times before. 2.5 years ago, Sainsbury’s systems went down and a few days later, stores had unprecedented amounts of deliveries. For example my friend who works for a small Sainsbury’s (not Local) and they get 12-15 boards of produce and 65-75 roll cages of fresh in a normal week.

For 4 days, they got 18-23 boards and 120-125 roll cages of fresh. Both in extra cases and non ranged. It was chaos for my friend who was a code checker.

There are a few carparks round here that still have cash only machines. Last year I hopefully saved someone's day when I found a young man, probably late teens, dressed in a suit and panicking as he had no cash, just his phone, and he was en route to a job interview. I, and another middle aged luddite who still carried cash, paid his parking fee between us. I hope he got the job!
I've also had card/phone payments that haven't worked occasionally, particularly in small businesses like the rather out of the way cafes I tend to stop in when I'm out cycling, so I always have an emergency twenty quid in my phone case. (It used to be a tenner but I guess that's inflation!)
I do the majority of my spending electronically but I always have a bit of cash on me for emergencies. None of my children ever carries any cash though - I think it's a generational thing to some degree. I remember being amused by my parents' refusal to use cash machines in the 1990s as they didn't trust them, but now I'm turning out the same! 😂

Do you still use actual cash to pay for things?

Nope.

For some unknown reason I withdrew cash from an ATM back in June, it just sat gathering dust until I consciously decided to get rid of it last week by paying a takeaway driver.

It's just a pointless, unnecessary nuisance these days, and the sooner it's consigned to the dustbin of history the better.

Does anywhere even take cheques anymore!!

Yes I use cash daily
always have done and always will
same with my other half

I use my card if I really have to but I’m happy to walk away if the shop won’t accept cash
their loss not mine

I stopped when COVID hit. Right now I can't think of any place in the house where I have any coins or notes - there used to be subbed coins in a tiny plastic pot in the car but I haven't seen that for ages. Everything is done on my phone, I hardly ever use cards either. I have a backup credit card in a fleece pocket which might get used once a year.

Haven't voted as neither of your choices apply, in that, I don't "Use cash for most things" but I do use cash fairly often.

In the last week

• lunch at a cafe, that is cash only
• donation at a coffee morning
• bought lots of bits at a Church fete
• 2 x this week I've put coins in to pay for coffee at non-profit places
• birthday money in a card
• bought myself some flowers from a vendor at the side of the road

I wipe my arse on £50 notes. Try doing that with a debit card.

Or Apple Pay.

I use 50/50.

Yes, of course they do!

I thought of this thread when I was having lunch with another close friend today. She keeps the majority of her life savings in cash under the floorboards.

Gotta hope her house doesn't catch fire or she'll lose the lot.

It’s nonsense when businesses say they can’t take cards, we take card payments in the middle of a field for scout events on our phones! It doesn’t cost that much. If they are worried about the cost just add on £1 to the fee.

Back in the Noughties in Zimbabwe, Z$ 1 trillion wouldn't pay the bus fare from one side of Harare to the other, so using million dollar notes was considerably cheaper than bog roll.

Unfortunately it was illegal to deface an image of Robert Mugabe.

The car park i used a few weeks ago was cash only.
I needed cash for the McMillan coffee morning for cake. I also needed a £1 for a locker.

I was in Belgium a couple of weeks ago and the bus was cash only. I didnt have any so I as disembarked from the bus the driver let me back on for free!!!

Yes, I paid my bin cleaner yearly by cheque

Do the people who only carry phones and use them to pay not worry about what would happen if they lost it or had it stolen?

It was more effective before the change to plastic notes.

It's less risky than losing your card. Very inconvenient but no one can use it in the way they can a lost or stolen card.

I use it at my local cafe because the owner prefers it and I like to be nice. Other than that, never ever use
cash.

I know. Who can be so gullible! They’re fudging the tax man! I’ve worked for HMRC for many years do never fall for the ‘waaa! Bank transaction fees are so expensive!’ Nonsense.

Has she not heard of interest if she puts it away!

Bring cash to Cornwall! Some areas have such bad connections that pubs, cafes, parking are all cash. One place we visited recently had a sign up saying sorry, smartphones rarely work here! And directed you back to the nearest cashpoint.

I've found that to be the case in lots of places in Wales, too.