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

I hardly ever pay cash any more. More than once I’ve had to get cash out in order to be able to give my hairdresser a cash tip - to be sure he gets it. I pay by card online when booking.

The only other regular time is when having lunch with 2 ex colleagues - we split the bill 3 ways but it’s always cash with a good tip.

Nope. I usually carry a £20 ‘just in case’ but that disappears as soon as one of my kids appears! But no I don’t ever use cash. Really annoying when I go to a supermarket that has those £1 trolley things so I usually have a coin in the car.

The only time I use cash is to pay my fortnightly cleaner, and I have to make a special trip to the bank to get it. It’s such a pain as I usually have to go out of my way to find a working cash machine.

For those who say it’s easier to budget with cash, I have a Revolut card on my watch and only transfer onto it (takes seconds) the amount I want to spend that day. So same as cash budgeting but without the faff of going to a machine, and all transactions trackable.

Haven't used cash in years. I keep a small amount in my bag fur the bus in case the machine isn't working

Surely it's not possible to pay all your bills by cash?

" Even charity stalls on high streets and buskers have card machines these days! "

Yes, otherwise they won't have any costumers as people don't carry cash anymore. It's not because they want it.

Not very often and I hate it. Lots of shops make it very hard to spend cash if they even accept it, by having one till out of 5 that can take it.
I think it’s so much easier for the younger generation to get into debt by just tapping away for everything without being able to physically look in their wallet and see the money disappearing.
I do mostly use Apple Pay for almost everything and don’t really come by cash for this to be a problem for me but I don’t like the digital discrimination particularly for people who want to withdraw money and budget accordingly.
I saw a budgeting video on YouTube where a woman was putting money into envelopes to cover various bills and putting money away for Christmas and birthdays etc and I just thought - you can’t use that to pay any bills (or maybe I’m wrong and you can still pay bills with real money?) so you’re going to have to find a bank or post office to pay it all into and what was the point in taking it all out in the first place?!

How do you manage to get cash out then?

Things I have used cash for
. Paying for a Christmas meal with a club I belong to.
. Collections for retiring colleagues and those colleagues I had a great work relationship with when they are leaving
. Charity events at work- raffle, cakes etc

Yes but exactly, you adapt your business to be successful, you make things convenient for the person you want money from, it’s not an equal relationship, it never has been.

I bet lots of them do like it. Just like lots of people like paying by card. Young people especially I can imagine wouldn't be keen on collecting a hat full of coppers when they can put their card reader on a tripod.

Some small shops have signs that say amounts under £5 - please pay by cash. The shop I used to return a parcel which was the nearest one to able to park outside- parcel was big n heavy, had this policy

Some kids don’t like carrying change. Seen a lad bought things adding to £8.50 and handed a tenner. Asked the cashier to keep the change!

They must be mad to get rid of 15% of their money. Cashier placed the £1.50 in the charity coin box

They might well have a sign that says that. Doesn't mean it is necessarily for a logical reason.
I tend to find those shops are least impressed when they have to find £17.37 change for me though.

not in a retail business. It goes in the till and is counted up at end of the day and a record is kept in the cash book (whether that’s an actual book, a spreadsheet or accounting/POS software). Depending on the amounts involved it can be locked in a safe on premises, paid in during the day or taken off the premises. If you’re running a retail business, you have to keep records, especially if you’re making enough to pay VAT. They’re the really powerful body as they can come in and shut you down while they ‘spin’ your business for 3 days. Very lucrative business in insurance against this.

so there is a trade off in terms of security but high street banks were the fix.

(publicans and other remote trades often used to sleep with the take under the bed and had big guard dogs!)
so cashless is safer, more secure and cheaper many businesses but it entirely relies on the presence of electricity and the internet/phone lines.

there’s probably a balance to be struck. I certainly don’t miss having to spend hours queuing in the bank/post office to pay bills or the anxiety of having to walk to the bank to pay in thousands of pound in cash during the working day.

We will always have an informal economy, all countries do. The poorer a country is the larger it’s likely to be.

the tellers at my local bank reckon there’s a hugh increase in regular cash withdrawals and people wanting lower denomination notes (£5,£10s) and they’ve recently altered the cash machines to reflect this. Ours only ever gave out £20’s unless an odd number , no £5s at all but now one machine gives out £5s and the others give a mix of £10’s and £20’s.

all the smaller businesses that won’t take cash may have to start thinking about how resilient they are.

society will always find a way to trade regardless of what’s going on.

Well I keep things in different places to avoid that.

Someone who pays for everything on their phone is pretty likely to have a wallet of cards at home safe. More likely than someone who carries a purse around is have thought.

I work in retail and people use card for a 25p item. I try to use cash as much as possible. I like the feeling of a purse full of change...no idea why. I save 20p coins in a tin so if I use cash I can save more.

I work in retail and I ask if its cash or card as I have to press the button and I don't want to have to wait for the machine to catch up from the cancelled red button if they choose cash.

@Thiscouldbe

All of the barbers in our local town are cash. I’m not entirely sure how they get away with it.

If you mean the Turkish money laundering barbers they couldn't wash the dirty drugs cash through the till if they had signs up saying "card only". The whole point of them is to confuse/mix the dirty drug cash along with clean/genuine hair cutting cash.

Never use cash. Ive lived in a different country for 10 years and I can honestly say I’ve never handled or seen the notes and coins here.
Stopped taking out physical cards too. Everything is done on my phone via Apple Pay.

@TheChosenTwo

I saw a budgeting video on YouTube where a woman was putting money into envelopes to cover various bills and putting money away for Christmas and birthdays etc and I just thought - you can’t use that to pay any bills (or maybe I’m wrong and you can still pay bills with real money?) so you’re going to have to find a bank or post office to pay it all into and what was the point in taking it all out in the first place?!

I can do better than that. I was stuck in a long queue at our post office and a guy in front was insisting on using his debit card to draw out a specific amount of cash, something like £174.58. The cashier handed it over and he them immediately produced a utility bill and handed it back along with the cash. The cashier tried to explain he could have paid it directly with his debit card over the counter, but the guy was having none of it and insisted he wanted to pay the bill in cash as he didn't trust computers!

I can't remember the last time I paid for anything in cash. Probably a few years ago. I started to use just my debit or credit card during the pandemic, but nowadays I tend just to use my phone and leave the cards at home.

Every small business seems to have a card reader now, so I no longer need cash. Having people pay electronically saves businesses the bother of having to count and bank cash.

The last remaining bank in my area closed about 2 years ago. When we moved here, 40 years ago, there were 7 banks within a 3-mile radius of the house. Our nearest banks (not "our" bank, just any bank at all) are now about an 80-minute round trip in the car, plus parking charges.

Use it for hairdresser, gardener, cleaner, local butchers and bread shop, person who does some shopping for me. Always keep cash in. Just recently buying a poppy or could be any charity box. Recent lunch at garden centre.
I like to see how much I have left.