Preparedness for when

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

I wonder if there are any passing legal eagles to advise on the potential purchaser's position should a retailer refuse to accept legal tender in return for goods or services? Are we allowed to say, OK, if you won't accept the legal tender of this country, I assume you will allow me to take them for free? Bye-bye!

Legal tender is an oft abused term. It has two specific uses, the settlement of bills owed to the government and the payment of debts to a court of law. It doesn't actually have any other enforceable use. You can settle debts using another form of payment if the other party agrees, but they can't refuse payment in legal tender.

I have not come across any legislation which dictates the methods of payment, though there is substantial amounts of legisalation regarding sales records - how else would the government get their cut.

Bet it's not legal. But how would if figure if you bought a meal in a restaurant, went to pay and they only did cards and you didn't have one? Refuse to take your cash? Call the police because you're obviously a crim or hold you hostage in dishwashing hell forever?

They would have to make it very clear before you purchased anything.
One that amuses and bemuses me, a local garage has a sign which says something like, ensure you have a valid method of payment before purchasing fuel.
I had a card backed with sufficient funds to fill quite a few cars, their machine refused to process my card, I didn't have sufficient cash to cover the purchase (unusually for me). They hummed and harred, accepted that I would return later that day and settle the bill. As it happens I thought to stop at a cashpoint a few hundred yards down the road and was able to draw the funds - the garage then had to accept the problem was with their equipment (until that point they were convinced I'd tried to commit fraud (having been a semi regular customer for a dozen years is why they didn't phone the police.
In hindsight I wish they had called the police, I'm curious to know what the courts would make of charges of securing goods by deception when the fault lay with the merchant and their equipment.

calicocat, gold. Plain gold jewellery or coins. Goes anywhere, any time. Imagine you are impoverished and tearfully pulling off your wedding band to sell.......isn't the buyer's business to know its one of the thirty or so wedding bands you happen to have purchased secondhand years ago as a store of value against such an event.

I'll second wedding bands and chains, easily portable and convertible, its been the convenient way to easily move wealth for centuries. And if TEOTWAWKI happens, there'll still be people prepared to trade for gold in the belief that it has real value.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

:T Well said, Frugalsod.

I was quietly shocked in Poondland last year to see some children (possibly about 14 y.o. ?) paying for goods using some kind of debit card. I assume its one of those special ones aimed at youngsters via their parents, in order to get them indoctrinated into cashless (and consequenceless) spending at a young age.

I've worked in the debt advice sector and I hate debt. I hate it because it enslaves people and I hate it because I have seen it destroy lives. Anything which encourages habits which lead to indebtedness is an abomination.

One of my colleagues, logged onto a national debt advice line, had to talk a married father-of-two down from a suicide attempt, because of his debt. Ain't many office jobs where you have to do things like that. And I've seen people lose rented homes for want of a couple of hundred or less at the critical time.

We should all aspire to debt-freedom, it's the ultimate way to stick it to the man.

Thanks.

What we need to learn is that debt can be useful for some things. A mortgage is one such example but there are also other items which can be brought more easily with credit, such as big ticket items. I am looking at getting a sofa bed on interest free credit next year once debt free but I am thinking of it as a way for me to keep the funds in my account while I pay it off. If I need to clear it quickly then I will have the funds to pay it off immediately.

What people need to learn is that the interest is like another purchase, so people need to work out what else they will have to cut out to pay that interest. It all adds up and if you are paying £600 in interest each year on that credit card then what do you have to forgo instead with that expenditure.

maryb

GQ the clothes may get damp and get musty - or even mouldy. Might be worth getting a vacuum seal bag to store them in? They also take up a lot less room that way

jk0

I would find a way to stash maybe £50 somewhere in your shed GQ, in case you lose your bag & need the fare to get to your parents' place.

Suggestions are: Folded up notes in the bottom of a tin of nuts & bolts. Coins can be put in a can of paint, as can keys. (Not sure how you'd clean the paint off, mind you. )

Edit: BTW, regarding that street that won't take cash, I was thinking the problem with trying to spend cash might be that they won't have any change. You can give them £1 for a 60p paper, but don't expect 40p back.

Better to boycott them as Calico Cat suggested.

Edit again: That Sky article now says the cards only street is only for a day's trial. Did I miss that originally, or was it not there?

Edit again: 12.41pm: There is something very fishy here. All the critical comments on that page after 5.49am have disappeared. Was this a government kite-flying exercise?

Possession

jk0 I'd like to have done all sorts with pallets, but I don't have either the skills or the tools unfortunately, and no time or money to acquire them at the moment although I'd like to.

jk0

Possession wrote: »

jk0 I'd like to have done all sorts with pallets, but I don't have either the skills or the tools unfortunately, and no time or money to acquire them at the moment although I'd like to.

Oh, I wouldn't pay for them. I have some from building materials deliveries from Wickes. There is a tile shop here in Reading that stacks them up outside for anyone to take. Possibly if you have a tile store nearby they may have some they are pleased to get rid of.

thriftwizard

jk0 wrote: »

This is worrying:

http://news.sky.com/story/1286583/cashless-high-street-ditches-notes-and-coins

Very worrying to me as a trader, on a personal level; 95% of my transactions, both at pop-ups and on my full-time stall, are cash. I had one of those card machines for a year & it was a complete waste of space & money; dratted thing never worked when needed & I'd have to send the poor customer 100 yards down the road to the cash machine. (I'm pleased to report that nearly all of them did come back.)

Seems to me that they would have us over a barrel if we went cash-free; they could charge us whatever they liked for the use of machines that don't work a fair amount of the time, not to mention the potential for tracking the transactions. Which would worry me as a customer... I don't use loyalty cards most of the time for that very reason.

Not good - to be avoided at all costs, methinks.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

a P.35 GI can opener

I think you will find, that's a P38 can opener.

[Deleted User]

thriftwizard wrote: »

I don't use loyalty cards most of the time for that very reason.

I never use them.

Possession

jk0 wrote: »

Oh, I wouldn't pay for them. I have some from building materials deliveries from Wickes. There is a tile shop here in Reading that stacks them up outside for anyone to take. Possibly if you have a tile store nearby they may have some they are pleased to get rid of.

Sorry, re-reading I see I didn't write it very well. I mean I don't have the tools to do much with them. We do have a tile store though, I'll bear that in mind!