Cashless Society

RandomUser923759

What is everyone’s thoughts on a cashless society?

Do you think we will see it in our lifetime?

Personally I never carry cash and withdraw only specifically if I need cash for somewhere that does not take card.

Recently there are a few retailers in Westfield London who are completely cashless and also British airways. These are the only ones I have come across so far.

I struggle to see the benefit of cash at all.

If I withdraw 10.00 for a 7.00 club entry or something I squander the 3 pounds. Whereas if I could pay on card I’d only spend 7. For me cash makes me spend more.

Skippy13

I hope we don't. What are people who only have basic bank accounts or can't get credit cards supposed to do (although I presume basic accounts come with debit cards now though unlike when I had one). What happens when the Visa or MasterCard systems go down? If I'm with my husband I don't worry about carrying cash as he does but if I'm on my own I always make sure I've got some cash on me.

Uxb

A cashless society makes it possible for negative interest rates to be used by the Government as a way of enforcing their desires on the population for say more spending and less saving as a way of pushing up 'growth'.
At present such a a proposal would result in a mass move to cash and total withdrawal of all deposits from accounts.

boliston

Cash to me has little benefit - if a draw £10 it will usually last me 2-3 months as there are so few instances where cash is required - it's also much harder to keep track of cash expenditure as it is not fully itemised like a card

agrinnall

I suspect it won't happen in the UK for a while, but it is a lot closer in some other countries - I was in Denmark earlier this year and I don't believe I came across a single place that didn't take electronic payment, and at least one where an offer of cas was accepted but received with surprise.

elsien

boliston wrote: »

Cash to me has little benefit - if a draw £10 it will usually last me 2-3 months as there are so few instances where cash is required - it's also much harder to keep track of cash expenditure as it is not fully itemised like a card

I find the opposite. Spending on a card makes it far easier to overspend - it's not like spending "real" money. Whereas if you draw out x amount a week for food, once it's gone that's it. I find cadh makes me more aware of what I'm spending.

Shakin_Steve

You can't beat the feeling of a nice wad of cash in your pocket. It's empowering.

stehouk

Card transactions have overtaken cash now and banks closing 800 branches per year, atm's disappearing as they're not profitable enough because bank's don't want to increase they're fees to fund them.
Contactless cards, paypal, parentpay sorts the kids out with online top ups of their cards for school, mobile bank app's where money moves in seconds, i'm virtually cashless now.

RandomUser923759

I am as cashless as I can be, two of my biggest pet peeves are:

1. Withdrawing money for club entry, why can they not have contactless...

2. At enclosed events eg a festival where sellers do not have card machines etc and then you have to pay a charge to withdrawn your own cash!

SuiDreams

I'm another person who mainly uses cards, and have done for more than a decade, I still take cash for a night out, but that's the only time I use cash

daveyjp

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44973466

As with bank branch closures, it will be the consumer who decides how quickly cash disappears.

ATMs will close as their useage reduces and before you know it we will become cashless.

If I ran a cash based business I'd be missing out by not taking cards, apple pay etc. As soon as my rugby club upgraded its systems to take contactless and apple pay bar revenue increased dramatically.

This was particularly noticeable when we hosted student games. Barely any of the players or fans carried cash, so they weren't buying anything. Offered contactless and the money rolled in.