Cashless Society

Skippy13

takman wrote: »

So the reason you arn't cashless is because you don't want to be!, you should have said that instead of making up something about Contactless Payments not coming out immediately :rotfl:

I haven't made anything up so please don't twist my words to suit yourself.

If contactless showed up immediately with the mainstream banks (I'm not talking about the app based banks), if the corner shop took payment for less than £2, if the hairdresser accepted card then maybe it would work but, until that time, it won't. You can't force everywhere to accept card so a cashless society is a long way off.

antrobus

badmemory wrote: »

Anybody know how I would pay my window cleaner if there was no cash. ...

I pay my window cleaner by faster payment. You can anybody by FP if you have their bank details.

Ballard

antrobus wrote: »

I pay my window cleaner by faster payment. You can anybody by FP if you have their bank details.

I think that that would be easier with Paym but I don’t know whether it’s widely used. I’m not aware of any of my friends using it and I never have.

Ballard

Bettie wrote: »

Although bookies take cards it holds everything up and when you have a shop of race by race punters you can't be doing cards on the off.
A lot of those that insist paying by card and give the bookie enough time to process it then whinge when told winnings must go back on the same card.:rotfl: They want cash as it takes too long to get back on the card.

At present there are issues as you’ve described but they’re not insurmountable in the short to medium term.

I must admit that on the fairly rare occasions that I place a bet I always pay cash because I don’t want to hold people up if there’s a queue. Sadly the issue with delays with the winnings being credited would very seldom be a problem for me.

takman

Skippy13 wrote: »

I haven't made anything up so please don't twist my words to suit yourself.

If contactless showed up immediately with the mainstream banks (I'm not talking about the app based banks), if the corner shop took payment for less than £2, if the hairdresser accepted card then maybe it would work but, until that time, it won't. You can't force everywhere to accept card so a cashless society is a long way off.

I don't see why the mainstream banks have to support payments showing up immediately before you can go cashless, there is nothing wrong with using App based banks.
The good thing about them is that you can use them as a virtual wallet and put money in them instead of withdrawing cash.

But i do agree that a lot of smaller retailers are stuck in the past and either don't accept card payments or are on an expensive contract where they can't afford to accept low value payments (not realising they can get it far cheaper).

Sapphire

takman wrote: »

But i do agree that a lot of smaller retailers are stuck in the past and either don't accept card payments or are on an expensive contract where they can't afford to accept low value payments (not realising they can get it far cheaper).

... and a lot of people spending money also do want to have the option of using cash for spending, and withdrawing money from a bank in cash, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is, as a previous poster said: 'I also don't like the idea of effectively surrendering my purchasing power to the state and/or financial institutions.'

spadoosh

takman wrote: »

Well you don't have to be with only one bank and if you had a MasterCard it may have worked fine.
But obviously that is a negative of card payments.

Cash would definitely work

Not really a positive thing..

thats down to persepctive, i suspect the homeless person and the drug dealer would disagree.


I've never actually found much money down the back of my sofa or in my jeans. Although I did find my Pockit Prepaid debit card and it had just over £3 of credit on it; so yes you can find bank cards with money on them!. You found youre own bank card, that mustve been exciting. I prefer it when i find my OH's money.



Only if your silly enough to have only one account! Are you suggesting i should be prepared by having more than one payment method open to me? I refer you to me wanting to keep cash as a payment option



Now this is where you have it completely back to front.

If you loose a bank card you loose no money because they won't have the pin and Contactless and Online purchases will be refunded by the bank.

Any cash you loose forever which is a big negative of cash. It is, swings and roundabouts with cash though, what you lose tends to come back. Ive got 3 bank accounts, of which i can only ever the combination of one card and one pin at any given time. You could say bad memory or number skills but i dont keep mobile phone numbers stored in my phone, i remember them. Theres options and other things that could help me but ultimately you cant compete with the ease of handing cash over and recieving goods and change.



On Facebook messenger if you mention paying someone some money you get a button pop up to send them money and it doesn't cost anything. There are many ways to send money electronically for free.
The problem is not the cost but having a system that everyone uses. what, like cash?

Also it costs far more money to buy a till, have a safe to store money and transport cash to the bank than any card payment costs to process.Ive never ever done that. If ive sold something it didnt require a till, nor a safe, nor taking things to a bank. sell something, someone gives me money, i put it in my wallet (which i use to also store my bank cards, so its not specific to cash use) and then keep it until i buy something, if its a particularly large sum, i would take it to my bank but i m not getting a safe or a till.

I prefer the ability to buy and sell goods without the need for electricity or working communications. It might be extremely rare but the fact that ive been caught short due to restricting my payment methods to card only due to either, computer (tills/cash machine) errors, communications errors or the most extreme power cuts. Suggests to me that limiting payment methods to electronic only is a bad idea.

takman

Sapphire wrote: »

... and a lot of people spending money also do want to have the option of using cash for spending, and withdrawing money from a bank in cash, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is, as a previous poster said: 'I also don't like the idea of effectively surrendering my purchasing power to the state and/or financial institutions.'

If you want to look at it from that point of view then you already are "surrendering" to the bank by having your wages paid into them and then using their system to withdraw it as cash. Some cash machines charge you to withdraw cash, there is a limit to how much you can withdraw each day, you need to pre-arrange to withdraw a large amount from a branch and if the bank freeze your account then you can't even withdraw any cash at all.

So as soon any money goes into the banks system it doesn't really matter if your spending on your card or withdrawing cash your still taking part in their system.

To truly be free from the banking system you need to be paid in cash and pay for everything in cash. But i bet 98%+ of people who use cash won't be paid in cash and only ever make cash payments.

spadoosh

takman wrote: »

If you want to look at it from that point of view then you already are "surrendering" to the bank by having your wages paid into them and then using their system to withdraw it as cash. Some cash machines charge you to withdraw cash, there is a limit to how much you can withdraw each day, you need to pre-arrange to withdraw a large amount from a branch and if the bank freeze your account then you can't even withdraw any cash at all.

So as soon any money goes into the banks system it doesn't really matter if your spending on your card or withdrawing cash your still taking part in their system.

To truly be free from the banking system you need to be paid in cash and pay for everything in cash. But i bet 98%+ of people who use cash won't be paid in cash and only ever make cash payments.

If the bank freeze your account would you not rather have some money under the mattress?

I know people who have had their overdraft facilities removed instantly only for their wages to not cover the overdraft and for them to be left short for a month for thousands of pounds.

I know people that have had accounts frozen due to adverse credit on other accounts.

I know people who have had their credit files negatively effected due to bank policies.

This isnt a case of get rid of banks, no one will suggest that. Its a case of getting rid of cash is stupid when we have a far from perfect system in place.

You dont need to carry cash if you dont want to, i can guarantee youll have issues before i do though, carrying both cash and cards.

Its not going to be much of an issue if you have access to loads of credit, have loads of banks and dont really live hand to mouth. As soon as you add in a little bit of poverty cash is king.

takman

spadoosh wrote: »

Cash would definitely work

thats down to persepctive, i suspect the homeless person and the drug dealer would disagree.

So that's a reason why someone may want to use cash but also an example where getting rid of cash may reduce illegal activities.

spadoosh wrote: »

You found youre own bank card, that mustve been exciting. I prefer it when i find my OH's money.

Surely only children only think finding money down the sofa or on pavements is exiting?. If i see money on the street i actually never pick it up, i just leave it for someone who would enjoy finding it.

spadoosh wrote: »

Are you suggesting i should be prepared by having more than one payment method open to me? I refer you to me wanting to keep cash as a payment option

It depends on how much cash you usually keep on you. Do you keep a thousand pounds at home?.

Having a second/third bank account means you can securely keep some cash (preferably earning interest) just in case you can't access your primary account for some reason. You could keep a thousand pounds at home in cash but it wont be very useful if you needed to pay a bill quickly if something went wrong with a primary bank account.

Which is a negative of bank accounts but realistically you can't pay energy bills, car insurance etc in cash unless your happy to significantly overpay for it.

spadoosh wrote: »

It is, swings and roundabouts with cash though, what you lose tends to come back. Ive got 3 bank accounts, of which i can only ever the combination of one card and one pin at any given time. You could say bad memory or number skills but i dont keep mobile phone numbers stored in my phone, i remember them. Theres options and other things that could help me but ultimately you cant compete with the ease of handing cash over and recieving goods and change.

I disagree with "what you loose tends to come back" if you loose your wallet with £50 in it or more then your unlikely to find that again.

I personally think it's easier to pay with contactless than you give cash and check your change but neither method is particularity difficult or time consuming.

Your saying you can remember many mobile phone numbers but can't remember three 4 digit pins?.
But that again shows how secure card payments are. If someone got hold of your card nobody can spend any money without you being able to get it back. If someone got hold of your cash then it's gone without a trace.

spadoosh wrote: »

what, like cash?

Also it costs far more money to buy a till, have a safe to store money and transport cash to the bank than any card payment costs to process.Ive never ever done that. If ive sold something it didnt require a till, nor a safe, nor taking things to a bank. sell something, someone gives me money, i put it in my wallet (which i use to also store my bank cards, so its not specific to cash use) and then keep it until i buy something, if its a particularly large sum, i would take it to my bank but i m not getting a safe or a till.

That comment was referring to the hidden cost of processing cash for businesses and i'm not suggesting you need a till to buy and sell items privately :rotfl:

The problem with using cash for private sales is you need to make sure you have enough. So you have to make a trip to a cash machine or a bank to withdraw cash with takes time.

spadoosh wrote: »

I prefer the ability to buy and sell goods without the need for electricity or working communications. It might be extremely rare but the fact that ive been caught short due to restricting my payment methods to card only due to either, computer (tills/cash machine) errors, communications errors or the most extreme power cuts. Suggests to me that limiting payment methods to electronic only is a bad idea.

spadoosh wrote: »

If the bank freeze your account would you not rather have some money under the mattress?

I know people who have had their overdraft facilities removed instantly only for their wages to not cover the overdraft and for them to be left short for a month for thousands of pounds.

I know people that have had accounts frozen due to adverse credit on other accounts.

I know people who have had their credit files negatively effected due to bank policies.

This isnt a case of get rid of banks, no one will suggest that. Its a case of getting rid of cash is stupid when we have a far from perfect system in place.

You dont need to carry cash if you dont want to, i can guarantee youll have issues before i do though, carrying both cash and cards.

Its not going to be much of an issue if you have access to loads of credit, have loads of banks and dont really live hand to mouth. As soon as you add in a little bit of poverty cash is king.

Yes the reality is that currently removing cash completely would have a negative effect across the country.

I can't see cash being made obsolete for a very long time. But the culture of payments will continue to change and cash will continue to become less and less used and physical shops will eventually start rejecting it as a payment method.
I wouldn't be surprised if this started in supermarkets. They already have scan as you shop terminals which don't accept cash payments. Plus cash is a massive headache for them to process because they have to have strict policies in place to make sure staff aren't stealing. They could also reduce the numbers of staff if they didn't accept cash.

Some people still say "cash is king" yet you can't buy things online in cash and you can't get the best deals on car insurance, energy bills etc by paying cash. It is certainly on the way out.