Will cash soon be obsolete?

kmc314

Hi

I'm a moneysaving newbie so I hope that I've posted this in the right forum.

Is cash going to be obsolete soon, within the next ten years? I saw an item on tv about it and it's really worried me as I don't use credit/debit cards.

any help/advice would be great!
Karen:o

Ian_W

kmc314 wrote: »

Is cash going to be obsolete soon, within the next ten years? I saw an item on tv about it and it's really worried me as I don't use credit/debit cards.

Hi Karen & welcome,
Cash will become obsolete much sooner than that - maybe next year! So if you or any other MSEers want to send me your obsolete spondoolis now I'll dispose of them in a truely enviromently friendly way [the old wine into water trick!].

Seriously, over 30yrs ago when the first CC were introduced into the UK [Access then Barclaycard IIRC] TV programmes like "Tomorrows World" were forecasting a cashless society in 10, 20, 30yrs time. I personally still don't see it happening any time soon, cash is still so convenient for small items and many co's charge extra for CC transactions.

Don't know how old you are but another serious point is that by not having CCs you are not building up a credit history for the time when you do need to borrow money or take out a mortgage. I'm certainly not encouraging debt, you can use them and pay off the balance each month. It's a strange world we live in but by not having had CCs or loans with a good history of repaying them borrowing money can be more difficult! Worth thinking about?

Willman_Rodders

Following on from ian W's comment I recall Nat West trialling a system, I think in Swindon but I could be mistaken, in the late 80's/early 90's. They issued everyone living there with plastic cards, and retailers with point-of-sale outlet machines. So if you had a beer, you paid for it with a card. When you bought your shopping you paid for it by card. etc etc But the trial was pulled for a number of reasons - the main one being it simply did not work.

Several years before this experiment I recall a colleague (who had attended one of the same bank's management training courses) returning to the branch where I worked bemoaning the fact that he had to write a sizeable essay on 'the cashless society'. We, that is the other staff members, thought at the time what a rediculous topic to ask an up-an-coming manager to write about.

Another trainee manager returned from the same couse with a topic 'How can banks offload their high street premises'. Again, we all thought it was an exercise in essay writing rather than a serious topic.

But in reality the Banks were considering Karen's 'thread' seriously in the 1980's, and were concerned about how the high cost of maintenance and impracticality of their high street property portfolios.

I suspect the Banks still are concerned about their premises stock. As for money being replaced completly with electronic transfers I doubt it will happen in our lifetime - no matter how young you are today. But, even if I am wrong, it is something that will not happen overnight - not least because to implement such a strategy at present would be political suicide for whichever government party even mentioned such an idea. Society will have to change its viewpoint first, before such a major change could be seriously discussed, let alone implemented. (Just look at the controvery around identity cards.). You will have plenty of time to prepare for the change.

moonrakerz

I live not a million miles from Swindon and can remember the hype about the cashless card trial in the mid 90s. It was called Mondex, I think.

It seemed to die a death fairly quickly and I do remember reports of people who had them were having problems with it.

As for Ian Ws reference to Tomorrow's World - that programme was the 'kiss of death' for anything that appeared on it !

Grandmama

I am in the same position as the KMC314. Do not need credit cards. Since I gave them up 20 years ago I have more money in the bank than ever. Only spend what you have. Credit is what you have not! Cash is coming back into fashion. With all the debit and credit card scams around I know take out enough cash to cover my shopping, bills and car fuel etc. OK, it does mean that could be mugged for the £200 in my pocket but that's a lot less than someone clearing out my bank accounts. Maybe I will be like my old Grandma with a stash under the mattress and in a pot on the mantelpiece.

Becles

My Gran would never survive if we went cash-less.

Grandad did all their finances until he died 7 years ago. Gran couldn't get to grips with looking after them, so my Mam does them for her now. Gran can't manage plastic cards etc., so Mam takes her to the bank once a week to do a counter withdrawl and she pays cash for everything.

Gran has got the onset of dementia now, so there's no way we'd be able to covert to anything other than cash.

There must be plenty of old people, people without bank accounts and possibly other groups like mentally disabled people who would be alienated if we went cash-less, so I can't see it happening.

user55

Wouldn't be able to give the kids pocket money for a start! My daughter would be bereft without her little purse full of pennies!