Anyone else still pay by cash?

The_Groat_Counter

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82011811#Comment_82011811

I am amused about just how fired up people can get about this, on both sides of the argument - it's like some folk are salaried employees of the respective cash-is-king / cash-is-dead marketing boards!

For what it's worth, close friends in the Spanish power black-out last year found having some cash pretty handy to pay for some staples at a shop, plus a meal at a cafe. In both cases some shops and cafes kept on going with cash being taken.

Ballard

I completely see why people use cash for budgeting reasons, but I’m in the camp of rarely using it myself. I use a credit card so that I receive Avios, but I could equally get a cashback card. It’s also easy to look back and get a list of payments made.

Some people have genuine concerns that cash will one day be phased out, but I can’t see that happening any time soon, and I hope that it’s around forever.

On the flip side, I don’t think that any business should be forced to accept cash (or cards for that matter). It’s a business decision for them. There are costs involved in both forms of payment.

With regards to having cash for emergencies, I generally hold £20-50 in cash just in case. I see this in relation to issues with the payment system rather than power cuts. I suspect that many shops would close in the event of a power cut, certainly the larger ones.

AstonSmith

I work in a small independent shop in a rural (toursity) area and I'd say cash use has dropped to about 20% of transactions, and only for lower value items. Over a certain amount I won't even wait to see what they produce, I just set the card machine. I do get surprised when my assumption is wrong (ie cash produced), but it's not about the cash itself per se.

I think having an emergency banknote is good practice. It's more likely that the Internet will drop for our whole area (which happened last year several times) than a power cut. We used to have dial-up as our backup for card processing before VoIP, which was useful in those cases, but now our backup is mobile data, which is typically also affected by the connectivity blackouts. Our acceptance of cash gave us an edge over the nearby card-only businesses.

On a personal level and to answer the question: I rarely use cash now, or even physical cards. My phone's wallet is my primary payment method, but I do keep cash and card on my person in case.

Lens

Ive not paid by cash in ages until yesterday when I attended a village fair. It was £1 cash only entry fee, and £12 cash only to enter the fell race, £3 cash to park in a field, in addition to many of the stalls were cash only. There was no ATM in the village however luckily the post office was open on the bank holiday so were able to withdraw some cash.

Other than that I find it easier to budget and more convenient to use contactless/google wallet as I can track spending. I find it very rate to need cash but do usually carry some around just in case.

danny13579

Bigbobby

I just find that still being traditional it gives me a lot of peace of mind and feel less stressed knowing visually how much I have spent and what is left over.

Nothing wrong with that. It works for you, stops you from overspending, you're in complete control, and that's all that matters. You are probably in a better position financially than your laughing mates.

I generally don't use cash, I also don't use mobile wallets (as I don't have a smartphone) but I do keep a small amount of cash on me for the odd place (e.g. some old school market stalls) that still don't accept debit/credit cards.

DigForVictory

I use what's convenient for me & the vendor. So cash for window cleaner & fruit-&-veg market stalls & most car boots, credit card online or for any purchase where I want some consumer safety, I'll even write a cheque if I'm making one payment for several things (school bursar finds this both hilarious & useful).

libra10

I still use cash for some supermarket shopping, mobile hairdresser, farm shops etc.

Although it's considered to be the 'old fashioned way', there are many small companies who would go out of business if cash was phased out completely.

TadleyBaggie

I prefer to use Apple Pay whenever possible, however their are plenty of establishments around where I live that are still cash only.

strawb_shortcake

I rarely use cash, mainly as someone in my family usually a child, always seems to know and I'll be asked to give them cash for something or other. Though when I do have cash, I like the change for one of my money boxes

My Husband on the other hand he does like to have £20 cash in his wallet - for some reason the children never ask him for money 🤔

Brie

I like to have cash for small businesses to save them the bank fees but tend to ask the first time if that's what they would prefer. The weekly shop at the market is mostly cash as is the farm shop, art classes and tips should we eat out.