Do you still rely on cash?

LKAY

I'm a mix too. Day to day spending usually debit card (even for small values £2 or less). But I do think cash is required in some situations as have been mentioned above, the unexpected cake stall, parking charge etc.


What I really wish would happen is to get rid of "copper" coins completely - 1p and 2p... I believe these to be now redundant (too little value). Society could function well with 5p as the lowest denomination.
How much does it cost the country to retain and produce "copper" coinage?? Savings to be made I think!!

LameWolf

I use a mix. There are times when only cash will do.

Small purchases such as my DH's newspaper, or visiting the fruit'n'veg market stall - if I buy just a bowl of tomatoes for £1 I certainly don't want to muck about with a card!

Popping a donation into a collecting tin for a charity I like to support; also if I make a purchase in a charity shop it's quicker and easier to use cash.

Both DH and I keep an emergency £10 in cash on us - if the bank or credit card's systems go down, cards will be useless til the problem's fixed.

Just as an aside - we don't either of us use contactless payment. I feel it's harder to keep track of; I gather some places don't automatically give a receipt for contactless payments, and without that as an aide memoir I would likely forget to put the purchase on my spreadsheet, and my household accounts would soon be in chaos.

GrandmaMab

I shop in small local shops and on the market. Cash is essential to my week

eastcott5

I use cash for smaller retailers, charity shops, markets etc. There was a radio program on the cost of the till machines. To connect them to the banks, keep them running and always a percentage on the purchase. some shops don't allow machines use for less than a certain amount - say £10. This has to be passed on somehow. i do use contactless - but try and get a receipt. I am more aware of spending if i use money. What about the Barclay card crash the other week.

pumpkin89

The cost of card machines varies significantly depending on the size of the retailer. If you want to support small/local/independent shops, paying in cash will reduce unnecessary costs for them. On the other hand, for large national chains, card payments actually cost less as they have low bank fees (high volume of transactions) and handling cash is quite expensive (manual counting, risk of loss, paying secure services to collect it from the stores...)

Norman_Castle

Card wherever possible. I've got an emergency tenner which very rarely gets used. I now find it odd to use cash.
Last year I drove a fair distance to a car boot sale then realised I'd only got a card with me. Doh.

NBLondon

I bet there are regular (i.e.e semi-professional) car booters who will take cards though... Certainly the craft fair world has had to move to them.

Here in London - I could probably go a whole month or more without using cash. I'm sort of still in the mindset of it feeling wrong to use a card for anything less than a fiver and that's possibly down to the small shops who charge(d) a premium for it to cover their extra costs (as eastcott said above). On holiday last month, I deliberately took extra cash for smaller transactions but still found that even a ice-cream kiosk on the prom was taking cards - I guess they were adapting to demand.

Bellisima

I do not rely on cash, but it is useful for small purchases at the market, charity shops and birthday money (a bank transfer is just not quite the same!). For everything else I use my debit card or a bank transfer.

Sarahdol75

My OH is still paid weekly by cash in a little brown envelope.

We both prefer cash to card, you know how much you have spent.

I know friends who put £1.00 or £2.00 here and there on a card, then the end of the month, when they get their bill they moan how much they have spent.

Kantankrus_Mare

We used to put absolutely everything on card mainly because it was easy and for the few extra tesco points it created.

At the end of every month, once the credit card was paid off in full, we had little, if anything left. I worked out an affordable budget for weekly shopping, petrol,holidays savings, lottery and our own individual pocket money. I draw that figure out once a week and it works brilliantly. Encourages us to be a bit more careful and never going over the budget.

So in answer to the original question, no I dont rely on it but it makes my financial life easier to handle.