Going Cash

kah22

I'll tighten up the remarks I made at the beginning. 

Buying anything from say £300 up then card, money transfer, electric bills, insurance obviously that's not cash. Think about it though; a visit to a hole in the wall say once a week, take out what you think you'll need and you'll soon learn how much you really spend.  If you spot an item you really want then another visit to the hole in the wall, then maybe you'll think do I really need it!

I'll be taking out £100 this morning and seeing just how far it goes. Second week, last week I managed on £85.35p. I'm single, retired and have no responsibilities..

booneruk

I use my credit card for everything (via Google Pay) and have a direct debit set up each month to pay the full amount. I budget for this in my upcoming month's budgeting spreadsheet. I much prefer this method - no cash to be stolen, the benefit of credit card protections etc.

Having to use cash (usually only for a hairdressing friend) messes up my planning! 

mandy47

Even our local ice cream van is card only. I do wonder how kids spend their pocket money if they don't have a young person's debit card. 

DullGreyGuy

kah22 said:

I'm sure there are stats floating about whether you win or loose by using a card I have to be honest and say my phone was my bank

It will depend on how you define "winning"... merchants cannot charge you more for using a card so you won't lose financially just from using one and there are various potential upsides like cash back/airmiles etc you can gain from each spend and increasing number of cash free places you can still buy at. 

The flip side is management, it's easy to keep tapping and spend more than you thought but banks give you tools to manage that, particularly challenger banks. Having hard cash really isn't that much easier if you take the same blind eye approach... you put £X in a box for this months spending if each of you are blindly reaching into it and taking money its easy to then find at the middle of the month there is just a couple of fivers left in there. With both methods if you blow your monthly budget early you have a choice to make on if you live off the freezer and entertainment is walks/TV or you exceed the months budget.

Rosa_Damascena

JIL said:

IrishRose12 said:

I only use cash.   I've never used my phone to pay for anything and have never tapped my card.  
The only time I use my cards is online shopping.  And this year I'm planning on doing a lot less of online shopping and using physical stores.  I prefer seeing what I'm buying physically and ensuring I'm not wasting my time or money in returns.  

A few of the shops around me are actually starting to refuse card transactions now as the costs aren't worth it.  

If a shop only accepts card payments I don't buy from them.  Simple as that 🤷‍♀️

If I don't have the money in my purse then I can't buy something.  I hate the thought of depending on technology and the internet working when I went to pay for something.
Many times I've been out or on holiday and watching people being rather embarrassed or angry because the WiFi is down, or the card machines aren't working. They rant and complain about it crying about how it's a disgrace etc..... when if they'd not been so lazy and had cash on them the problem would be solved 🙄

I'll never be forced into the cashless society, I refuse to allow the government follow my every move and how I spend my hard earned money.  And I'll always have the money to drop into a homeless person's cup, or into a charity box or have money for my children to buy things at their school bun sales and jumble sales. 

I don't agree with being technology dependant..... I prefer to have to actually use my brain and common sense.

Also, all this dependency on technology, and insisting on technology is what is really causing the global warming problem on this planet.  The heat from all the devices, charging things, running the electricity etc is whatbis heating up this earth.  Nothing else. 

A wonderful sentiment however your money, however it gets to you via wages or pension will have been the subject of a bank transaction or technology. 

That's very far fetched to say the heat from devices is causing global warming. Even if it was true and it isnt. Had you thought about how many machines would be needed to print off all the notes or make the coins to replace the cashless transactions?  

Actually its the data storage that is the big environmental drain. I do understand the reluctance to syop using cash but personally I don't like faffing around with it.

@kah22 - I don't understand your £300 cc benchmark; Section 75 kicks in at £100.

MrsStepford

I don't use cash and haven't done in years. Pretty much everything we buy is done online. Even when Husband calls into a supermarket for a few bits, he uses a card at the self-service till. 

sillyvixen

I don't often use cash but usually have a £10 note and about £10 in change just in case. One of the stores I used to cover at work had a parking app for the carpark I  used but the WiFi was hit and miss so I always made sure I had parking change when working there and put money in the machine to get a pay and display ticket (especially after hearing from customers who paid on the app and had notification of payment but still received fines as it hadn't updated updated properly). It's nice to know I have a pound coin if I need one to use a trolly if shopping somewhere different. Due to Christmas I have a lot more cash than usuall as my Dad always gives me cash and this year my Mother in Law did the same, thankfully, I think it is the first present I have had from her i will use!! 

Usually if I am out and about i will just use my card, but will try and make a determined effort to use the cash I have received to treat myself if I see something I want.

weenancyinAmerica

So for those who do everything by card - do you have charities that you support or do you just not support any? Do you have DD for those payments as well? The amount of giving has gone down in America just at the time government spending has also gone down for helping those in need. The government officials says the charities will take care of it, the charities say the government will take of the poor - and really no one is. We have had about 100 people die out on the streets this year in my county if not more - and it doesn't get cold enough to snow here. We just don't seem to have many people who care any more.

JIL

weenancyinAmerica said:

So for those who do everything by card - do you have charities that you support or do you just not support any? Do you have DD for those payments as well? The amount of giving has gone down in America just at the time government spending has also gone down for helping those in need. The government officials says the charities will take care of it, the charities say the government will take of the poor - and really no one is. We have had about 100 people die out on the streets this year in my county if not more - and it doesn't get cold enough to snow here. We just don't seem to have many people who care any more.

I have a payment come directly out of my wages for a charity that I support.

I also do a number of donations throughout the year paid on my credit card. Its actually better for the charity as well as I am able to tick the box and say I am a tax payer and they get 25% extra. 
I have bought meals, and drinks for the homeless again on my card.

As we say in the UK where theres a will theres a way.

bouicca21

@weenancyinAmerica most of my charitable donations are by DD.  I live in an affluent London suburb and even here we have a need for food banks.  I used to put food into the collecting points in local supermarkets but then I thought it must be so much better for the organisers to be able to stock up on what they actually need so I turned it over to DD. 

Even tradesmen carry those portable card readers.  The last time I used cash was when I was on holiday and discovered the car parks in that area used a different app to the ones in my home area.  Fortunately the machines also took cash, so while I faffed around trying to get a signal and download the requisite app, my friend took my emergency tenner and rushed around trying to find a shop where he could buy something cheap and get change for the machine.  You wouldn’t be able to do that here, because all the car parks in my borough are cashless, so it’s RingGo or nothing.