Do you carry cash?

Wrote just one cheque in the whole of last year, and that was for tonight's Holgate Grammar School Old Boys' Association Annual Dinner.

Otherwise, it's mainly cash, with card for large purchases.

 

I just put my bank details on the bottom of invoices & tell clients they need to email me if they want a payment link, which I do by Payzone. The vast majority do bank transfer, especially all by big venue payments & club jobs. Keeps costs manageable. I only started taking card 12 months ago. It used to be cash or cheque only, but few people have a cheque book & my nearest convenient branch to pay them in is up in Horsforth, which is a ball ache, so decided to bite the bullet & take cards. If you are in retail there is no option, but in a service business it is a bit easier.

 

I always carry both, I use a cashback credit card for most things and pay it off at the end of the month, it’s surprising how the ‘reward’builds up.
I always pay cash for small items when possible though out of fairness to the retailers because of the charges.
Maybe it’s me that’s getting old but I refuse to be bullied into pissing about with a card or phone for a couple of hours car parking.

 

I’m a mix of both. But how about my crazy idea, and this is from a technology hater - Get rid of cash altogether. Seriously, think of the benefits;
* No more tax dodging
* No more benefit fraud
* Reduced muggings
* Reduced crime (are you going to buy a stolen TV and pay by BACS?)
* As above, would drug users pay their dealer with Apple Pay? Likely not.

Yes there are drawbacks to my bonkers idea, but do the drawbacks outweigh the benefits??

 

I think you have to have a tenner in your wallet. Sometimes I pick food up from a market stall. Also as has been said, some places don't accept cards ( the same don't issue receipts, nearly always tax-evading Italian delis in my experience!) But yes, otherwise I'll pay everything by card, to rack up my points.

 

I almost went to that, along with 3 or 4 others (discussed it when met up at a funeral in August), but in the end some of us couldn't make it.

I hope you have an enjoyable evening and maybe see you next year.

 

It would definitely cut down on the amount of small businesses and tradesmen who dodge tax if they've got a paper trail following them.

 

Cash for normal every day purchases, debit card for bigger purchases such as food shopping and fuel and credit card for all online purchases - I never use my debit card online.

I had to buy some shares last year and that had to done by cheque. The last entry on the stubs was 2010. It took me ages to find the chequebook.

 

There are lots of reasons not to get rid of cash:

*people with abusive partners would lose all control of their money as the partner could take the card away from them/check all payments on a statement. Same with disabled people who would have to hand their card and PIN number over to carers. Some people also don’t like the lack of privacy from your bank knowing every transaction at every time and place.

*not everyone has a bank account for various reasons, they would have no way to spend or receive money

*technology problems means that if a bank has a problem/the electricity goes off/your card stops working then you are unable to buy anything. If the internet went down countrywide (let’s say from a cyber attack for example), no one would have any means to buy anything whatsoever. In some areas digital payments are not able to be made yet.

*some people use cash to help them budget and would really struggle with not physically having the money

*the bank would have every penny of your money leaving you at their mercy of possible negative interest rates and transaction fees if they so chose

*every transaction can leave you with a chance of being a victim of fraud if your details are stolen

 

Over here in Denmark everyone has used card for years but now nearly all places take "mobile pay" which is done through an app on the phone. Quite rare to see cash transactions. You can also use this app to pay money to anyone for any amount.....its fantastic, so much easier. Naturally as a consequence most bank counters have closed down but that's inevitable I guess.

 

31 years old only used my card probably 10-15 times in my life cash all the way. Easier to manage and budget no looking for cash machines when going out drinking etc

 

I don’t understand your last point. Surely only people who use cash need to use cash machines? People who only use card wouldn’t need one. Not saying any way is better than any other, I just don’t understand your logic there.

 

Also modern technology can screw up. The Monday before Christmas in the supermarket a woman held up a long line because she was having card problems and had no cash on her. It's best to always carry cash in case any issues arise.

 

I think they mean they've got the cash from the machine in advance of going out and possibly going somewhere that doesn't take cards then having to source some cash .

 

Cash only for me

 

Same here. It's easier to keep track of what you've spent and also easier to avoid being charged too much. It saves risking losing your card by accident or misplacing it somewhere. You aren't holding queues up either when someone wants to pay for a few quid of odds and ends on a chip and pin machine.

 

Have to say, I disagree with basically everything you’ve said here.

I get a notification on my phone and watch whenever I spend anything on my card, I can then group payments within the App into budgets and categories, I can automatically put money into a ‘pot’ which means it is no longer spendable on my card (saving for a holiday etc) not sure how cash is easier to keep track of than that.

I’d rather lose my card which I can freeze in 5 seconds from my phone than lose cash, which is then gone.

Paying for ‘odds and ends’ is contactless now, even from a watch or phone, which is a lot quicker than pissing around with getting cash out of your wallet, handing it over, waiting for change, pitting change away.

 

Well the other half never seems to have any cash, I do know that.

 

How can it be easier to keep track when you literally get a statement with every transaction on it?