Cashless Society

[simon.r]

I've just been sorting my credit card bills out online and it occurs to me that my use of cash has reduced significantly over the last 2 or 3 years.

A few years ago I'd have poo-pooed the idea of the cashless society, but the only places that come to mind where I use cash now are small local shops, pubs and taxis. This is mainly down to the fact that I have credit cards which give me anything from 0.5% to 3% 'cashback' - which isn't going to change my life, but is worth a few hundred quid a year if I use them whenever possible.

I suspect it won't be that long before I use virtually no cash, with everything being done by card or smart phone.

Frightening, isn't it?!

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Yes its Frightening... ... Card use permit you to be tracked and your purchases used to create a profile on you, Bank and Loyalty cards and social media will see gradually erode privacy.
Some university in the US has already done research into this, and was able to predict with 80% accuracy who students will meet where, based on social media alone.
Its amazing what we are willing to give up as a nation for convenience .

 

[biggs682]

please explain cash , surely its credit card or paypal only these days

 

[ASC1951]

Using cash can be a Good Thing. Lots of experiments show that people spend less when they pay for everything in cash, irrespective of how well off they are.

 

[Fnaar]

I took a whole pile of annoying 2p 1p and 5p to the machine in Morrisons the other day, and got a tenner for my trouble (the catch is that 8% or so is taken in charge, but I can live with that. Someone suggested bunging it into the slf-service till when buying something, and it counts it for you, and yopu don't get chatged the %age. But I couldn't be ar*ed, so I didn't :-)
So, cashless... not quite for me, but getting there.

 

[Archie_tect]

Somebody bought a paper and a birthday card with a card in front of me in the queue at the supermarket yesterday!

 

[ianrauk]

Use very little cash these days.
Even bought a coffee today for 2 quid with touch and pay on my bank card.

 

[Maz]

A primary school teacher I spoke to commented that teaching young children about money and addition has become more difficult because parents tend to use cards when paying for items.

 

[Crankarm]

The only people who use lots of cash these days are the unemployed, the retired, those who use car boot fairs, drugs dealers and those not having a bank account nor wanting a transaction to be traceable. Consequently many notes have traces of drugs on them, I am told.

Last year I was given fake twenties by till staff in Nationwide. They were revealed as fake by the local post master who still accepted them as I had a receipt for withdrawl not 10 minutes before. She said this wasn't the first time that she had been presented with fake notes that had been withdrawn immediately before from a bank/building society. Anyway I got to pay my bills and she told me she would complain to Nationwide. I never heard any more.

£5 notes are becoming pretty scarce so I always seem to have a handful of pound coins rattling around in my pannier pockets. Apparently a fair few £1 coins in circulation are fake as well.

 

[marinyork]

Somebody bought a paper and a birthday card with a card in front of me in the queue at the supermarket yesterday!

It's just that on the whole the UK has lifted restrictions on minimum spend and so on. All right so there are places like ALDI that don't take credit cards and pubs that might go on about a £5 or £10 minimum spend or a 50p surcharge and airlines famously got flagged up for their massive credit card charges, but on the whole this is true.

I was thinking about this recently, because my friend had his card blocked. When he rang up and asked about it he said they said they automatically blocked it on the 6th or 7th transaction in a single day. So I did wonder whether this sort of thing will become a lot more common.

 

[Glenn]

I took a whole pile of annoying 2p 1p and 5p to the machine in Morrisons the other day, and got a tenner for my trouble (the catch is that 8% or so is taken in charge, but I can live with that. Someone suggested bunging it into the slf-service till when buying something, and it counts it for you, and yopu don't get chatged the %age. But I couldn't be ar*ed, so I didn't :-)
So, cashless... not quite for me, but getting there.

If you have an account with HSBC or First Direct, then it's free to use HSBC coin counting machines in larger branches

 

[threebikesmcginty]

It's just that on the whole the UK has lifted restrictions on minimum spend and so on.

Sunday paper and a rip-off birthday card could easily cost £5 these days. I'd pay for anything with a card if I could, much easier and cleaner than filthy notes and stinky coins.

 

[Archie_tect]

Glenn, that's when you find out that 40% of your coins are counterfeit.... "Excuse me sir...."

 

[Crankarm]

It's just that on the whole the UK has lifted restrictions on minimum spend and so on. All right so there are places like ALDI that don't take credit cards and pubs that might go on about a £5 or £10 minimum spend or a 50p surcharge and airlines famously got flagged up for their massive credit card charges, but on the whole this is true.

I was thinking about this recently, because my friend had his card blocked. When he rang up and asked about it he said they said they automatically blocked it on the 6th or 7th transaction in a single day. So I did wonder whether this sort of thing will become a lot more common.

It's called profiteering.

 

[Crankarm]

I prefer the chocolate coins, myself.........much more useful

Until they melt.