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History of payment methods

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  • Floss
    Floss Posts: 9,002 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    sheilavw said:
    I remember hand writing cheques in Sainsburys, then at some point I just needed to sign because they printed them in a machine
    Ooh I remember that!
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  • joedenise
    joedenise Posts: 17,638 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    sheilavw said:
    I remember hand writing cheques in Sainsburys, then at some point I just needed to sign because they printed them in a machine
    They still do that in French SMs!
  • MattMattMattUK
    MattMattMattUK Posts: 11,156 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    When I was a kid it was cash, because children only had savings accounts with passbooks. When I turned 18 I got a debit card and a credit card, only major retailers took cards and it was slow, but it got quicker and more widespread. I have probably written no more than five cheques in my life and I do not think any for twenty years.

    I have not used cash for five years and for five before that cash use was infrequent, now it is rare for me to use a physical card as I tend to pay nearly everything using my phone. I would suspect that in another 5-15 years we will not even need a card or phone to pay, our transactions will start to become fully biometric, it will just be a finger print scan (subsurface ultrasound scan), or an iris scan. As much as some people like to complain cash is dying and will likely be little more than a relic in five years time, possibly totally dead within a decade.
  • DullGreyGuy
    DullGreyGuy Posts: 18,613 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    When I was a kid it was cash, because children only had savings accounts with passbooks. When I turned 18 I got a debit card and a credit card, only major retailers took cards and it was slow, but it got quicker and more widespread. I have probably written no more than five cheques in my life and I do not think any for twenty years.

    I have not used cash for five years and for five before that cash use was infrequent, now it is rare for me to use a physical card as I tend to pay nearly everything using my phone. I would suspect that in another 5-15 years we will not even need a card or phone to pay, our transactions will start to become fully biometric, it will just be a finger print scan (subsurface ultrasound scan), or an iris scan. As much as some people like to complain cash is dying and will likely be little more than a relic in five years time, possibly totally dead within a decade.
    So you aren't buying into the "digital pound"?

    Being younger than many members here cannot remember as far back, started working properly in 1993 and whilst I and all the other new starters were paid monthly by bank transfer a good number of the long standing staff were paid weekly in cash. Always found the waxed paper envelope that they stapled closed through the notes odd. 

    Went to uni in Scotland where the £1 note was still fairly common in the late 90s, always brought a few home to England as when you handed them over most mistook them for £5. The one that annoyed me though was the removal of the 0.5p coin. Whilst initially sweeties became 2 for 1p rather than the original 0.5p each that quickly ended.

    Found it surprising going to the US in the 2010s that the old click clack machines were still being used... already had one card that wasnt embossed back then but the staff insisted on using the machine despite it only capturing the outline of the card. 

    These days dont carry my wallet either, just use my phone for payment. Did mean on one occasion checking into a hotel was more complex as forgot to bring any cards but Im sure in time that will be corrected too. 
  • MattMattMattUK
    MattMattMattUK Posts: 11,156 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 22 June 2024 at 10:08AM
    When I was a kid it was cash, because children only had savings accounts with passbooks. When I turned 18 I got a debit card and a credit card, only major retailers took cards and it was slow, but it got quicker and more widespread. I have probably written no more than five cheques in my life and I do not think any for twenty years.

    I have not used cash for five years and for five before that cash use was infrequent, now it is rare for me to use a physical card as I tend to pay nearly everything using my phone. I would suspect that in another 5-15 years we will not even need a card or phone to pay, our transactions will start to become fully biometric, it will just be a finger print scan (subsurface ultrasound scan), or an iris scan. As much as some people like to complain cash is dying and will likely be little more than a relic in five years time, possibly totally dead within a decade.
    So you aren't buying into the "digital pound"?
    Nope, I do not see the point, nearly all currency is digital now anyway. To me it just seems a bandwagon to jump on as they are/were looking at the Bitcoin crowd, I do not imagine any major economy will end up issuing one in anything more than a limited test run.
    Being younger than many members here cannot remember as far back, started working properly in 1993 and whilst I and all the other new starters were paid monthly by bank transfer a good number of the long standing staff were paid weekly in cash. Always found the waxed paper envelope that they stapled closed through the notes odd. 
    I think I am younger than you, I did not start working until the 1999. I have never been paid in any other way than monthly bank transfer, though a few places I worked also offered weekly bank transfer which I never understood why people wanted.

    Some of the companies near me used those envelopes when I was growing up, particularly the tool making companies. I remember finding one on a Saturday morning in the school holidays when I was 12, still sealed and full of money. I was walking my neighbours dog and it was on a path so I took it home, it had the name of the company on it and a man's name, but no address, I found them in the yellow pages. On the Monday morning I walked up there (with my parents permission) on my way to play football, went in to reception and went to hand it in, the receptionist called in the manager who then went and got the man named on the pay packet. The man burst into tears, gave me a huge hug followed by a twenty pound note and then asked the manager if he could use the office phone to call his wife. That was something I did not really understand properly for many more years.
    Went to uni in Scotland where the £1 note was still fairly common in the late 90s, always brought a few home to England as when you handed them over most mistook them for £5. The one that annoyed me though was the removal of the 0.5p coin. Whilst initially sweeties became 2 for 1p rather than the original 0.5p each that quickly ended. 
    I have never seen a pound note in circulation, or half penny coins, which were worth the equivalent of more than 5p when they were withdrawn. We should really follow the example of Australia and New Zealand and get rid of our 1p, 2p and 5p coins now.
    Found it surprising going to the US in the 2010s that the old click clack machines were still being used... already had one card that wasnt embossed back then but the staff insisted on using the machine despite it only capturing the outline of the card. 
    It always struck me as odd just how antiquated the American banking system was and is. The US is still well behind most of the rest of the world when it comes to contactless, Google Pay, Apple Pay etc. with much lower acceptance overall compared to Europe, Asia, Australia, even Canada just over the border.
    These days dont carry my wallet either, just use my phone for payment. Did mean on one occasion checking into a hotel was more complex as forgot to bring any cards but Im sure in time that will be corrected too. 
    I still carry one, although out of habit rather than for practical reasons, I am old enough to not get asked for ID (oddly unless in Waitrose, buying £30 a bottle wine, which meant I had to go to my car to get my driving license as they refused to sell me £300 of wine even though I was a 40 year old, it has happened more than once as well). I am sure ID will become digital in another decade though.
  • booneruk
    booneruk Posts: 733 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 22 June 2024 at 9:34AM
    I remember taking a huge mixed bag of coins and notes to a post office and swapping them all for a postal order, which I then posted across the country in exchange for some hideously (compared with today!) expensive computer hardware (I believe it was a 20MB hard drive that cost about £150). This was probably 1996 and a year or two before TSB decided to tantalise me with the offer of a chequebook and credit card.

    Older me would have told younger me not to lean on that credit card too much!
  • MattMattMattUK
    MattMattMattUK Posts: 11,156 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    booneruk said:
    I remember taking a huge mixed bag of coins and notes to a post office and swapping them all for a postal order, which I then posted across the country in exchange for some hideously (compared with today!) expensive computer hardware (I believe it was a 20MB hard drive that cost about £150). This was probably 1996 and a year or two before TSB decided to tantalise me with the offer of a chequebook and credit card.
    I sell off my legacy computer kit, hard drives are ones where older drives can really sell for high amounts. Listing them with full model details, drive numbers, firmware numbers from the stickers etc. and I tend to put them on in the £60-100 range with next working day dispatch. I sold a 10MB drive a few years back for £95 and they sent a dedicated vehicle to pick it up. There are two kinds of buyers, either those who have embedded systems and they only function with specific drives, where replacing the system would cost a fortune and emulation is tricky, or data recovery companies who need exact drives to transplant platters into. 
    booneruk said:
    Older me would have told younger me not to lean on that credit card too much!
    Exactly the same for me, got a credit card a few months after I turned eighteen, filled it up, sat on it for a few years then spent two years working two full time jobs to clear all my debts, but then that was also a valuable lesson that set up up for the future, so it was probably worth the cost. 
  • Blue_Doggy
    Blue_Doggy Posts: 855 Forumite
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    I had my first credit card (Access) in 1982, which was originally used for petrol purchase only. My husband had had a charge card (American Express) for a number of years previously. 
     
    Personally, I never found cheques cumbersome to use, in fact I still use them occasionally. I think of them as a “Money-Saving” device, as they give a pause for thought (“do I really want this thing?”). I also use cash from time to time, especially when making a low-value purchase from a small independent retailer as otherwise the credit card charges eat their profit.
     
    As you may have guessed, I’m a bit older than some who’ve commented here, and I find it bemusing to see people paying for things with their mobile phones - how does that work, then? What happens if there is bad mobile signal, or the phone is lost, stolen, broken or runs out of charge?
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  • sheilavw
    sheilavw Posts: 1,670 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    I remember until quite recently my Nat West cheques had pictures of birds on them! I still use a cheque to pay my milkman, he puts a bill through about once a month (I only get 3 pints a week) and I put a cheque in an envelope in the empty bottle. I also pay my ground rent twice a year by cheque which I post off
  • molerat
    molerat Posts: 34,546 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    DullGreyGuy said:
    Went to uni in Scotland where the £1 note was still fairly common in the late 90s, always brought a few home to England as when you handed them over most mistook them for £5.
    I remember flying down to England in the early 90s and getting the bus out of Heathrow.  Paid with a Scottish £10 note and the driver gave me the change in £1 notes (even though I have a clearly English accent)
    These days dont carry my wallet either, just use my phone for payment. Did mean on one occasion checking into a hotel was more complex as forgot to bring any cards but Im sure in time that will be corrected too.
    Lidl had a problem a few weeks back when the machines were not accepting contactless, luckily I had a real card with me - stick it in the slot and type in the PIN

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