4 reasons cash is dead and you shouldn’t use it…
Comments
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societys_child wrote: »As an ex overseas trucker, I'd have been in some dire situations without cash in my pocket. Bent officials don't do plastic.
And when things really go wrong, you can't fly home on a piece of plastic . . .
We still send ours out with running money. Being old ish myself I can get sentimental for the days you handed your passport with notes in it and got it back without the notes:o0 -
The title of the article is daft - cash certainly isn't dead and probably won't be for a long time, if ever. Although I was recently at a place (can't remember what it was now) which only accepted cards, no cash at all.
Having said that, the points in the article are all good ones - cards do have lots of advantages. I've received a lot of perks through card use and used card protection quite a few times when firms have failed to deliver what I paid for.
I'm not really persuaded by all the tin-foil-hat arguments either. In the 25 years or so that I've used cards, I've had a handful of fraudulent transactions and one instance of a card being cloned and used to withdraw large amounts of cash (on a credit card account). I didn't lose out financially for any of these and there was no major hassle.
So I'll stick to the cards as much as possible and just keep the cash for the occasions when it's really the only option.Let's settle this like gentlemen: armed with heavy sticks
On a rotating plate, with spikes like Flash Gordon
And you're Peter Duncan; I gave you fair warning0 -
It also means business will have to pay between 2% and 4% on every single transaction which will cost them a lot of money.
Do you have a source for that? Debit card fees are typically very low, and credit card fees are more like 1.5%.
And do you think handling cash is free? Small businesses may find that their business bank account charges them to pay in cash, and larger retailers will be more worried about the question of physically getting the money safely to a bank or wherever else it needs to be.Let's settle this like gentlemen: armed with heavy sticks
On a rotating plate, with spikes like Flash Gordon
And you're Peter Duncan; I gave you fair warning0 -
I usually agree with what Martin says but I really hope he does a bit of further research. This seems to look at security only and not the implications of using cards over cash.
Using plastic reduces the feeling of pain when spending so it has been proven you are more likely to spend more money when using plastic over cash where you feel and see the actual pain of spending the money. McDonalds for example noticed a 12-18% increase in purchases when they installed card machines.
Plastic has its uses for large payments but cash overall stops you spending as much and helping you budget.0 -
In 1950, 100% of transactions were by cash, and it was probably the case that cash wasn't the best for all of them.
No it wasn't. There was widespread use of cheques, postal orders, stamps, payable orders, bank drafts, etc. You would use a postal order or stamps to pay for small items via mail order (yes, we did have mail order back then!). You'd use cheques or bank drafts for bigger payments. We were a long way from being a "cash only" society.0 -
No one has mentioned the risks - how about being unable to buy stuff when there's a power cut or the broadband is down?
During Storm Desmond, our towns were without electricity for four days. There were people stranded away from home because they couldn't get any cash to pay for taxi fares, train tickets, etc. There were people who couldn't buy any food nor drink because they had no cash and the cash machines weren't working.
For those of us who were affected, it really brought it home just how vulnerable we are without electric, and even moreso without cash in our pockets!0 -
You don't have to be a tin foil hatter to be concerned about what will happen when we get to a cashless society. I say 'when' as I think it will definitely happen through hopefully not for a while yet.
Your financial transactions can be tracked and you will be at risk of cyber fraud. Plus just look at what happens when banks or cards go down. I'm amazed at the people who complain about not being able to buy food due to not being able to use their card. Just as concerning, many people don't seem to have much in the way of food supplies at home. Or even a small cash reserve 'just in case'.
We are sleepwalking into a nightmare. It's an accident waiting to happen imo.0
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