Could you live without cash?

usefulmale

Cash is one of your last remaining freedoms. Wish it away at your peril.

Why would anyone want to involve a third party in every transaction that you do?

The scope for control and surveillance via that third party is truely frightening.

borkid

ringo_24601 wrote: »

I'm sure there will be future technological updates coming..

So we can all pay for stuff using NFC/contactless on our modern mobile phones. How long until we can accept payments on our phones too?

A car boot sale would work well if we could all pay individuals quickly using phones. Maybe it would be linked to a specific 'purse/wallet' that kept money separate from our bank accounts.

You could create a cashless society easily once person to person payments were seamless.

If you could get a signal. I only need to go out of my village to not get a signal. I rural areas mobile signals are a big problem.

[Deleted User]

borkid wrote: »

If you could get a signal. I only need to go out of my village to not get a signal. I rural areas mobile signals are a big problem.

You can make payments FROM your phone without a signal. Like I said, I'd expect a 'wallet' of cash stored on your phone - maybe in a digital currency like bitcoin.

I've seen credit cards with buttons and displays - maybe the tech could be shrunk so small you won't even need a phone - just your card.

BBH123 wrote: »

I'm guessing a lot of amusement arcades would go out of business too.

I was in the USA a few weeks ago, and I went to a few different arcades with my kids. They all worked without cash - you loaded up a card with points, then the kids played with those points.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Those who like the idea of a cashless society should consider the following:

-every aspect of your life (your alcohol intake, the type of films you watch, the charities you support etc) becomes easily available to the right bidder. Are you sure you're happy for insurers and employers to see all this? Do you really think this data is truly safe, or kept for benevolent purposes?

-how could you proceed if your phone was lost/stolen/hacked? In a cashless society you could not get public transport, buy food, pay bills or contact anyone. I always have a spare note kept separately from my wallet; that will get me home in a taxi if I lose everything else. It's ridiculous to keep every aspect of your life contained in one (very thievable) location.

-what is the only thing preventing banks from introducing negative interest rates? The answer is the fear of a bank-run and people withdrawing cash in a panic. Once the banks have all of everyone's money under their control they can do as they please.

Nobody reads enough science fiction these days. We should have a healthy cynicism for the motivations of governments and multi-national corporate entities.

Izadora

ringo_24601 wrote: »

I was in the USA a few weeks ago, and I went to a few different arcades with my kids. They all worked without cash - you loaded up a card with points, then the kids played with those points.

That's not going to work for the 2p shove machines though which are, as far as I'm concerned, one of life's greatest delights

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I always have a spare note kept separately from my wallet; that will get me home in a taxi if I lose everything else. It's ridiculous to keep every aspect of your life contained in one (very thievable) location.

Even though I pay for the vast majority of things on card (it's a pathetically small percentage but the cashback adds up eventually) I can't stand having no cash for emergencies. Having £20 split between my phone and my travel wallet has helped me out so many times when I've forgotten my purse or not had time to draw money out on my way to the station and need a cab home at the other end.

[Deleted User]

Oh how my kids love those 2p machines at Butlins

I don't want to get rid of cash. I just think it's very handy having both electronic and 'analogue' payment systems is a good way forward.

badmemory

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

Those who like the idea of a cashless society should consider the following:

-every aspect of your life (your alcohol intake, the type of films you watch, the charities you support etc) becomes easily available to the right bidder. Are you sure you're happy for insurers and employers to see all this? Do you really think this data is truly safe, or kept for benevolent purposes?

-how could you proceed if your phone was lost/stolen/hacked? In a cashless society you could not get public transport, buy food, pay bills or contact anyone. I always have a spare note kept separately from my wallet; that will get me home in a taxi if I lose everything else. It's ridiculous to keep every aspect of your life contained in one (very thievable) location.

-what is the only thing preventing banks from introducing negative interest rates? The answer is the fear of a bank-run and people withdrawing cash in a panic. Once the banks have all of everyone's money under their control they can do as they please.

Nobody reads enough science fiction these days. We should have a healthy cynicism for the motivations of governments and multi-national corporate entities.

Unfortunately, some will accuse you of being paranoid, I see you as sensible and farseeing. Governments are only as "nice" as we make them and unfortunately at present we are not doing so well in that direction. They also seem to have no interest in reining in any of the corporate entities who are providing their finance.

We should be asking ourselves, who has most interest in removing our access to cash. It is not yours & mine.

It would give far too many people far too much information. It is all very well to say I have no secrets so why keep the info secret. That has never been an agruement that will work with me.

zagfles

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

Those who like the idea of a cashless society should consider the following:

-every aspect of your life (your alcohol intake, the type of films you watch, the charities you support etc) becomes easily available to the right bidder. Are you sure you're happy for insurers and employers to see all this? Do you really think this data is truly safe, or kept for benevolent purposes?

Oh dear, I've just purchased a large amount of booze for a party. I paid by card. Will my employer find out and think I have a booze problem?

-how could you proceed if your phone was lost/stolen/hacked? In a cashless society you could not get public transport, buy food, pay bills or contact anyone.

Err...use a card? We're talking "cashless", not "cardless".

I always have a spare note kept separately from my wallet; that will get me home in a taxi if I lose everything else. It's ridiculous to keep every aspect of your life contained in one (very thievable) location.

So stick a spare card where you stick the spare note. I already have 7 cards and several accounts, I'm sure in a "cashless" society everyone would have several options.

And anyway, unless you keep vast amounts of cash at home, or you're paid in cash, you're usually reliant on a card to get cash anyway.

-what is the only thing preventing banks from introducing negative interest rates? The answer is the fear of a bank-run and people withdrawing cash in a panic. Once the banks have all of everyone's money under their control they can do as they please.

Nobody reads enough science fiction these days. We should have a healthy cynicism for the motivations of governments and multi-national corporate entities.

We should also have a healthy cynicism for the motivations of those who want to keep cash. The ECB have already stopped producing very high denomination notes because they were mainly used by criminals.

catkins

I prefer to use cash. I will draw out a certain amount if I am going shopping and then use that.

I use my local market quite a lot and almost all the traders want cash - fruit and veg stall, cheese stall, dog food stall etc.

I went to Sweden earlier this year and had already changed my money when someone told me that almost everywhere only take cards. In 3 weeks of using restaurants, bars, caf!s, coffee shops etc I only found one coffee shop that didn't take cash

onomatopoeia99

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

-every aspect of your life (your alcohol intake, the type of films you watch, the charities you support etc) becomes easily available to the right bidder. Are you sure you're happy for insurers and employers to see all this? Do you really think this data is truly safe, or kept for benevolent purposes?

So who, apart from my bank and the recipients of the payments, can see which charities I support by direct debit at present? There is no cash involved now, a cashless society would not change this.

I am absolutely certain that my insurer (Direct Line) and my employer cannot. However, I'm prepared to bet real money, say £10 to the charity of your choice, if you can provide evidence beyond reasonable doubt that an insurer or my employer has access to the history of charitable donations on my bank account.