Cash is only used by the poor or elderly

[cheesefest]

There are still people that don't have a bank account. How can they cope today - esp during the early days of Lockdown 1.0 when it was frowned upon taking cash?

As soon as state pensions were able to be paid into bank accounts, my father sorted this out for his parents. This has helped a great deal during my grandfather's final three years with us and now with my grandmother aged 93 to frail and got poor vision not wasting time collecting pension from post office.

 

[Jean-F]

I like going into shops and watching an old lady pull out a huge wad of 20 pound notes to pay for her shopping. It reminds me of the 90s. Before all this tech carry-on swept the world

Before I retired in 2012, I drove a London Black Cab for thirty years, I used cash for virtually everything, except Direct Debits and booking holidays online etc.
When going out to dinner, I’d ask for the bill, and the wait staff would come over with a card reader five minutes after giving it to me, then stand there while I surreptitiously counted out some tens and twenties to settle up.
Often I’d take my wife to Waitrose, Canary Wharf, give her some cash, then park on the taxi rank in Bank Street and wait for her to wheel a trolley load out of Waitrose, then pick her up.
On holiday in the US or Europe I’d use a Halifax Clarity Card at ATMs, but often I’d buy three or four hundred pounds worth of US dollars at Thomas Global Exchange in Liverpool Street, they gave the best rates, then and now.
In addition, I took dollars and Euros in the cab, but at rates that would make a grown man cry, I used them when on holiday too.
If a fare balked at my exorbitant exchange rates, I’d say, “Okay, just give me a deposit, so I know that you’re coming back, and I’ll park outside a Bureau de Change with the meter running, while you change your dollars or euros, OR you can pay by card.”
Everyone was happy.

 

[dave28]

Not everyone walks around with bank cards or use mobile phones to pay.

They also still have this thing called coins where i live, you use them to pay the parking machines.

 

[Danm54]

Apple Pay always did for me. I used the Waitrose scanner app as well for the Fastest Shopping Experience Ever. Unless I purchased alcohol and then the miserable old trout supervising the tills would have to waddle over to wave her wand at the self checkout.

Everyone I've seen use it recently has needed 2-3 attempts to get it to work.
Maybe they're poor though and need to find an account with enough money in it to make their purchase. So not all poor people use cash?

I avoid self service tills if I can though, I prefere a brief conversation with a cashier rather than the faff of a machine, and I don't want self service to be the only option. Its not because I always buy alcohol....

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

Lots of self-employed tradies still get paid in cash for smaller jobs.

You mean the ones that if you pay cash there is no VAT .

 

[cheesefest]

Why do some elderly people pay with everything with a note then never use their coins? Remember a customer dropping her contents of purse on the packing area of the till. She had about £33 in coins. Yet was going to pay her £13-14 shop with a £20 note. I said to her you need to use these coins. Took the coins to pay for her shopping.

Another thing, on self scans if your shopping comes to £10.05 and paying with cash. If you have 5p,10p etc - you pay that first, make sure its registered then put your £20 note in. Majority of customers I have seen pay £20 note first. Then put in the 5p. The transaction will end when money received is equal or greater than owned. Then get customers kicking off why they have £5 in coins.

 

[radderfire]

Also we've seen talk of governments issuing digital currency with the explicit intention of being able to track who's spending it and restricting what it can be spent on. Ie forcing dole money to only be spent on food/heating at certain allowed places. I can imagine that many people will feel that's not a power governments should have.

Personally I am in favour of some tracking and controls. For example, I don't see why someone should be able to spend dole money on alcohol or cigarettes. I don't drink or smoke, so why should I pay tax that then gets given to someone and spent on these? Plus there are a lot of social problems associated with alcohol. Same goes for illegal drugs. The problem is implementing such a system without giving a government too much power if it turns authoritarian, and there is no easy solution.

 

[cheesefest]

Personally I am in favour of some tracking and controls. For example, I don't see why someone should be able to spend dole money on alcohol or cigarettes. I don't drink or smoke, so why should I pay tax that then gets given to someone and spent on these? Plus there are a lot of social problems associated with alcohol. Same goes for illegal drugs. The problem is implementing such a system without giving a government too much power if it turns authoritarian, and there is no easy solution.

See that at work. Those on certain benefits with kids under 4 get Healthy Start vouchers, which get £4.25 (double that if under 12 months) for every child to spend on milk, baby formula milk (from birth) and fruit and veg with nothing added - chips don't count. See these handing over 3 vouchers then pay £80 on cigs/rolly baccy and booze. If they can afford £80 for that, they can afford £12.75 on milk, F&V.

 

[robfosters]

You mean the ones that if you pay cash there is no VAT .

My brother would throw a right hissy fit if that happened.

Over a year, he probably only pays tax on about 60% of his gross income.

 

[Raymond Lin]

My brother would throw a right hissy fit if that happened.

Over a year, he probably only pays tax on about 60% of his gross income.

Still more tax than Bezos lol

 

[Andrew_McP]

Cash is yours and only yours. Numbers on a screen are numbers your bank gives you permission to use. I use both.

Cash is increasingly seen as inconvenient and immoral. If I were Big Data (increasingly hard to distinguish from Big Government) skimming my %age off every financial transaction made digitally, that's exactly what I'd want. Which all sounds a bit conspiracy theorist; not a club I generally belong to. But there is something a little unsettling about the shift, over my lifetime, from being almost completely anonymous and 'free' as a citizen, to being almost completely tracked and held accountable by cameras, phones, and financial data trails. Society does not appear to be any more crime-free or more stable as a result. In fact it feels (and feeling is definitely not a scientifically, Big Data validated, measurement) like the opposite.

You could argue that being scammed by a Post Office parcel text is better than being mugged for your pension outside the Post Office though. At least the bank gets to skim a profit off the theft now.

 

[dlockers]

I resisted the urge to euthanize some stupid old git in morrisons last week.
Lunch time so loads of workers are in grabbing lunch, big queues at self service which normally go down pretty quickly. Old guy takes a trolley through the basket only self-service checkout. Stands at the front of the queue whilst there are 3 spare tills before the guy behind him points it out and he finally moves.
He then goes to what is clearly labelled as a 'no cash' till. He clicks the audible and visual message that again states no cash.
Proceeds to scan all of the contents of his trolley with a few 'unexpected items errors because he just can't get it right.
He then gets to the end. I'm at the front of the queue now. He tries to pay in cash. The machine just keeps spitting it back out. He flags down the assistant who points out its a no cash machine. He starts kicking off. Assistant points to the massive sign on top of the till and that it tells him as he starts scanning. Apparently he didn't see it...
Packs all his crap back in to his trolley. Takes another self-service that does take cash, blocking the entire self service area with his trolley in the process.

Definitely an OCUKer.

Edit: though at least if it was Jean-F it would have a sense of class about it.

 

[ElliorR]

Ah, the old stuck up your own “superior” backside syndrome.

 

[d_brennen]

Since getting a new phone with NFC, I've been paying for everything possible with Google Pay. Looking for a watch now that has it. Like living in the future!

 

[radderfire]

Cash is increasingly seen as inconvenient and immoral. If I were Big Data (increasingly hard to distinguish from Big Government) skimming my %age off every financial transaction made digitally, that's exactly what I'd want. Which all sounds a bit conspiracy theorist; not a club I generally belong to. But there is something a little unsettling about the shift, over my lifetime, from being almost completely anonymous and 'free' as a citizen, to being almost completely tracked and held accountable by cameras, phones, and financial data trails. Society does not appear to be any more crime-free or more stable as a result. In fact it feels (and feeling is definitely not a scientifically, Big Data validated, measurement) like the opposite.

I agree it is unsettling, and it's because electronic money does give the administrator a lot of power. If you take away the cash alternative, they have an extreme amount of power over people's lives.

 

[mid_gen]

This really. Cash is effectively anonymous and largely untraceable. If you pay with card your shopping habits and who you do business with is visible to a whole swathe of private companies. Cash is effectively the bitcoin of fiat currency!

2021 and people are still talking complete BS about Bitcoin

Bitcoin is traceable. Completely, 100% public, every transaction you make is on a public record that *anyone* can view. It's the whole founding principle that makes the system work.

I would much rather have my financial transactions recorded by a regulated, private company that is required by law to protect my data, than just have all my transactions a matter of public record.

 

[Bassmansam]

My dads a tradesman and is not poor and loves cash

 

[cheesefest]

Every so often, your bank requires you to pay for transaction via chip n pin. Really grates us when customer kicks off with us about this. If they went to another shop/cafe/whatever instead of my work, it would have done exactly the same. Get some customers that don't know their PIN. You are not forced to have the random 4 numbers autogenerated when you got the card. You just go to any ATM - until some years ago, it had to be the bank's ATM and change PIN there. It's under PIN services. Change it to something you remember. Please not 1234, 1111.

Then I have seen cards with the PIN written on a sticker. Like leaving your front door unlocked.

 

[!bluetonic!]

I resisted the urge to euthanize some stupid old git in morrisons last week.
Lunch time so loads of workers are in grabbing lunch, big queues at self service which normally go down pretty quickly. Old guy takes a trolley through the basket only self-service checkout. Stands at the front of the queue whilst there are 3 spare tills before the guy behind him points it out and he finally moves.
He then goes to what is clearly labelled as a 'no cash' till. He clicks the audible and visual message that again states no cash.
Proceeds to scan all of the contents of his trolley with a few 'unexpected items errors because he just can't get it right.
He then gets to the end. I'm at the front of the queue now. He tries to pay in cash. The machine just keeps spitting it back out. He flags down the assistant who points out its a no cash machine. He starts kicking off. Assistant points to the massive sign on top of the till and that it tells him as he starts scanning. Apparently he didn't see it...
Packs all his crap back in to his trolley. Takes another self-service that does take cash, blocking the entire self service area with his trolley in the process.

Is Dom Joly back filming?

 

[BowdonUK]

I own cash. I don't own digital currency.

If you don't own cash then you don't own money. You have to ask permission from your bank if you want to buy anything.

I haven't used cash personally in probably 10+ years. But I still recognise the intrinsic physical value of cash over numbers on a screen.