Millions of people would struggle if the UK became completely cashless, report finds

Rob5342

SevenOfNine said:

I watch (mostly) the younger generation use their mobile phone banking apps to pay for everything, rarely (if ever) wanting a receipt (some establishments like Costa etc don't even bother to offer one), which means they've no clue whether bank statements are accurate, never check off receipts against spending. 

That's not true - if you use a decent bank you get an app notification whenever you spend and can check it it's correct there and then. I never look at my actual statement, but I check the transactions in the app every time I get a notification.

It's the same with budgeting - if you handle your bills in a seperate pot/space/account then all you have to do is look at the balance in the app, which is easier and quckker than counting how much cash you have. It also means you can transfer anything spare into your savings, instead of it staying in your wallet.

phillw

SevenOfNine said:

which means they've no clue whether bank statements are accurate, never check off receipts against spending.  

I think you might be in a very small minority of people who actually do that.

Most people who pay with cash don't check their change & I'm not sure I would be able to detect counterfeit currency either

All my spending goes on a credit card.

penners324

I'm in the card only category. Get the notification then check my banking app each day. 

Ergates

SevenOfNine said:

Why 'go cashless', if shops etc don't want to accept cash, then don't. Those who only want to use cash can shop where there is more flexibility. I bank on line, use credit card that has a 0.5% cashback for all use, have a debit card but almost never use it, & pay cash for smaller purchases. I've even got a cheque book but can't recall when I last used that!

I watch (mostly) the younger generation use their mobile phone banking apps to pay for everything, rarely (if ever) wanting a receipt (some establishments like Costa etc don't even bother to offer one), which means they've no clue whether bank statements are accurate, never check off receipts against spending.  

Some years ago something went wrong with the card payment facility at our local Asda check outs. Abandoned shopping EVERYWHERE! Not mine, I got my purse out.  I wonder if one day a totally cashless society might come unstuck.

A mobile banking app making a mistake with a transaction is *less common* than a person making a mistake (e.g. giving incorrect change, entering the wrong amount at the till).

If you want to do budgeting/checking spending then the most accurate way to do this is using a spreadsheet.  If you use the data available from your online bank account, the figures are already in an appropriate electronic format which simplifies the process and reduces chances of error.

Taking a physical piece of paper and manually entering it into a table introduces a whole host of additional points of failure where things could go wrong (e.g. paper receipts are easy to lose, it's easy to mistype a number).  Collecting paper receipts for every purchase is a waste of time and paper - it's a faff and it doesn't improve your ability to track spending.

Ergates

trickydicky14 said:

How would car boot's keep going with no cash. A lot of folks only keep heads above water by getting clothes and house hold stuff from car boot sales.

If only there were some simple method people could use to pay a person without using cash.   Why has nobody thought of such a thing.  Maybe something using those mobile phone things everyone carries round these days or something.   It's a mystery.

Ergates

Auti said:

With money getting tighter and income static (but bills racing ahead) I prefer cash for day to day spending. I use internet banking for my bills and necessities but for day to day physical spending I use cash, that way I know what I have to spend so I can stay in budget and there is no unremembered impulse buys or impulse purchases. I cannot get into debt and my bills are covered. I know a few people of various ages who are doing this now.

Use a pre-paid cash card.  Transfer a fixed amount onto it and you can't spend over that.

Rob5342

Ergates said:

Auti said:

With money getting tighter and income static (but bills racing ahead) I prefer cash for day to day spending. I use internet banking for my bills and necessities but for day to day physical spending I use cash, that way I know what I have to spend so I can stay in budget and there is no unremembered impulse buys or impulse purchases. I cannot get into debt and my bills are covered. I know a few people of various ages who are doing this now.

Use a pre-paid cash card.  Transfer a fixed amount onto it and you can't spend over that.

Or just put money into pots/spaces in Monzo/Starling so you only have a certain amount left available, or have a spending current account with no overdraft that you put the days or weeks money into. If anything is left over you can transfer it into your savings, that's much easier than messing around with cash.

libra10

For everyday purchases, cash is king!  If the money isn't in your purse/wallet you can't spend it.

Cash is a great budgeting tool, and what happens when there is a problem with your bank card, or possibly lost it?  

Not everyone has the internet, many older people who have never used computers could lose their independence, having to rely on relatives or friends.

Cards have their uses, but they're not infallible.

Ergates

libra10 said:

For everyday purchases, cash is king!  If the money isn't in your purse/wallet you can't spend it.

Cash is a great budgeting tool, and what happens when there is a problem with your bank card, or possibly lost it?  

Not everyone has the internet, many older people who have never used computers could lose their independence, having to rely on relatives or friends.

Cards have their uses, but they're not infallible.

Cash is a terrible budgeting tool - it does nothing to tell you where and when you're spending your money unless you also take and keep all your receipts.  Which is a faff, prone to error (it's easy to lose a small piece of paper) and is also nothing to do with cash.   Paying for everything on cards ensures that *all* your transactions are logged and also provides you with details of each and every one.

If you mean "cash helps me not spend more than I can afford" then that isn't a property of cash, that's just how you like to do things, and there are myriad non-cash was you can do the same thing.

People who would need to rely on friends/family to help with internet banking would probably already need to rely on those friends/family for multiple other aspects of their lives.  For instance, most bills can't be paid for with cash, so removal of cash would make *no* difference to those things anyway.  Cash is only really used for shopping these days, the main alternative - a card of some sort - doesn't require a computer or the internet to use, so that's irrelevant.  If they use a credit card they'll get a monthly bill which will have to be  paid like all their other bills (so they'll either need assistance as with their other bills or not), if they use a debit card they just need to know their balance which you can find out anywhere you'd be withdrawing cash from.

Cards are not infallible, but then neither is anything else, certainly not using cash.  Businesses that deal with cash (e.g. shops) have to spend a significant amount of time counting the cash they've taken to make sure it aligns with the amount the tills say should be there (which it invariably won't) - don't need to do that with card transactions.

Daliah

SevenOfNine said:

I watch (mostly) the younger generation use their mobile phone banking apps to pay for everything, rarely (if ever) wanting a receipt (some establishments like Costa etc don't even bother to offer one), which means they've no clue whether bank statements are accurate, never check off receipts against spending.  

Who says they are never checking their bank statements against spending? You don't necessarily need a receipt for it. And getting a paper receipt doesn't mean people check their bank statements against them. Besides, many retailers offer e-receipts, so it's more environmentally conscious to use those. Personally, I rarely ever use Costa's (or other coffee shops) but I am pretty sure they are one of the ones that do e-receipts.