It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

DairyQueen

I think the amount of physical cash needed depends to an extent on how you shop, what services you use, and where you live. 

Out here in the sticks service providers who make home visits (hairdresser, gardener, cleaner, podiatrist, window cleaner) do not carry card machines and prefer to be paid in cash. My elderly parents use these services a lot and therefore have a greater need for cash than I do.

Most retailers take card, and so do parking machines, but there are exceptions. Our newsagent doesn't accept card payments and only accepts bank transfers from local people they know. They therefore rely mostly on cash. Our local car parks can't always be relied-on to accept card payments.

The community shop in which I volunteer sometimes has issues with the card payment service. We then resort to cash, or the honours system (i.e. they return and pay later) for locals that we know.

I sometimes need cash to settle my share of the bill when eating out with friends/family. One person pays the entire bill by card and the other/s divvy-up with cash.

We use three main current accounts with different providers, plus a couple of extras that service regular savings accounts. That mitigates against the risk of one provider suffering a service failure.

A risk for us is if we lose our home internet service for a prolonged period as mobile internet is patchy. Especially so if we were in lockdown or quarantined at the time. It would require cash to finance some food shopping if supermarket delivery was not accessible and, possibly, to settle with local service providers who are usually paid by bank transfer.

If the entire card or banking system crashed it would be a national emergency requiring government intervention. The likelihood is so small that it's not worth mitigating against the risk by hoarding cash.

We are using less cash than we did before the pandemic but my purse's £50 float has been replenished twice. OH's £200 float has been emptied more than that as we hold a reserve just in case parents run short before we can get to a cash machine.

All-in-all no plans to reduce numbers of accounts or increase/decrease physical cash. Our needs and risks are pretty much the same.

jimi_man

DairyQueen said:

I sometimes need cash to settle my share of the bill when eating out with friends/family. One person pays the entire bill by card and the other/s divvy-up with cash.

Yes I remember when that was common. It's really awkward, since if you go as a couple then you often need £50+ depending where you eat and I never have that sort of cash, which means going to the cashpoint first.

Fortunately in most places these days, everyone just splits the bill onto their separate cards which makes life so much easier. 

saver_ali

One thing that I realised yesterday is that OH and I need to use our Halifax Clarity Credit cards again so they don’t close the accounts. As retired people I think we might have difficulty getting new cards. We normally only use the cards for foreign travel, to get good exchange rates and low charges, but we haven’t been abroad for over a year now. 

Bravepants

saver_ali said:

One thing that I realised yesterday is that OH and I need to use our Halifax Clarity Credit cards again so they don’t close the accounts. As retired people I think we might have difficulty getting new cards. We normally only use the cards for foreign travel, to get good exchange rates and low charges, but we haven’t been abroad for over a year now. 

I have the same credit card for exactly that purpose foreign travel with work - it's a great card to use to get currency out of foreign ATMs, and avoids having to go to the Post Office or Travelex.

I do buy things on the card, for the additional consumer protection, and to eek out the marginal interest rate on my current account, but I always pay it off in full every month. I've had it a long time now and my credit limit has edged up to 5 figures! Although God forbid I need that much!

saver_ali

Bravepants said:

saver_ali said:

One thing that I realised yesterday is that OH and I need to use our Halifax Clarity Credit cards again so they don’t close the accounts. As retired people I think we might have difficulty getting new cards. We normally only use the cards for foreign travel, to get good exchange rates and low charges, but we haven’t been abroad for over a year now. 

I have the same credit card for exactly that purpose foreign travel with work - it's a great card to use to get currency out of foreign ATMs, and avoids having to go to the Post Office or Travelex.

I do buy things on the card, for the additional consumer protection, and to eek out the marginal interest rate on my current account, but I always pay it off in full every month. I've had it a long time now and my credit limit has edged up to 5 figures! Although God forbid I need that much!

We have other credit cards for everyday spending, all earning Avios to help pay for those foreign trips!

atush

Sea_Shell said:

What about the actual card payment system going down?     Either widely or just in the shop you're in

Exactly, happened to me in my local pharmacy where i was getting my flu shot- had to pay cash.

bigfer

saver_ali said:

One thing that I realised yesterday is that OH and I need to use our Halifax Clarity Credit cards again so they don’t close the accounts. As retired people I think we might have difficulty getting new cards. We normally only use the cards for foreign travel, to get good exchange rates and low charges, but we haven’t been abroad for over a year now. 

I never knew that. Every family member has one, does every card need to be used and if so how often? I only got them for the cash out of ATMs abroad, but have now gone down the Starling Bank route. Thanks in advance.

saver_ali

bigfer said:

saver_ali said:

One thing that I realised yesterday is that OH and I need to use our Halifax Clarity Credit cards again so they don’t close the accounts. As retired people I think we might have difficulty getting new cards. We normally only use the cards for foreign travel, to get good exchange rates and low charges, but we haven’t been abroad for over a year now. 

I never knew that. Every family member has one, does every card need to be used and if so how often? I only got them for the cash out of ATMs abroad, but have now gone down the Starling Bank route. Thanks in advance.

I think it depends on the company, but I have had unused accounts from other banks closed in the past. DH and I both had emails from Halifax last month saying that they would close down our online access if we didn’t log on, so I didn’t want to take the risk that we might lose the cards too. It can be very hard to open new credit card accounts once you’ve retired, regardless of your credit rating. 

MallyGirl

jimi_man said: Yes I remember when that was common. It's really awkward, since if you go as a couple then you often need £50+ depending where you eat and I never have that sort of cash, which means going to the cashpoint first.

Fortunately in most places these days, everyone just splits the bill onto their separate cards which makes life so much easier. 

For meals in groups - when they were allowed - we'd just pay our share on a card directly. Our local pub is now card only so the friend we occasionally meet there just does a bank transfer next day to cover his share after we pay the tab. Much easier than carrying cash.

DT2001

I’ve been catching up on your excellent thread. 6 months of posts over the last couple of weeks. Some nice ‘off thread’ discussions as well. Spreadsheets I think are a good starting point however I wonder if a worst case scenario puts people off retiring as soon as they could. Splitting your income into basic needs and luxuries shows what you need in the worst case (lockdown has probably helped with what one needs as a minimum). If you took just natural income and topped up in poor years from cash your capital would be reasonably protected. My MIL moved her investments onto an income basis to allow use of the IHT gift from surplus income allowance. Her capital figure has fluctuated however the income has remained fairly constant although we expect this to fall in the coming year. So I think such a strategy is good for anyone that is cautious especially as many on here are looking at early retirement so later on SP will kick in to provide a known level of income.
moving from saver to spending phase is obviously quite a challenge. We are not there yet as OH enjoys her work and in normal times we get plenty of time off. We have both been self employed for many years with quite widely fluctuating income so I am hopeful that we’ll cope with ups and downs in retirement (we aim to leave the capital to our children so will not intend to take a ‘fixed’ safe withdrawal amount). If, as Sea Shell has this year, seen growth I’d have added it to the luxuries fund for next year. 
I probably need to analyse our spending more as I use a simplistic cash-flow once every few months - end balances of bank accounts + savings/pension inputs - income -starting balances. During lockdown  we (4 adults and 2 teenagers) spent circa £1500 p.m. so I have revised down my ‘basics’ figure for retirement as I hope not to be feeding them all. Surplus income on retirement will go far as OH enjoys seeking out bargains and we home swap to keep costs down.