Strapped of the old sausage

[C]

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Every Saturday lunchtime I eat at my local café and every time I pay on my phone.

It occurred to me that I have not had any cash in my wallet for about 3 years!

The good thing about electronic transactions is that I now only need to carry my phone and that my wallet is no longer needed and safe at home.

I use electronic transactions for everything - including buying The Daily Mirror to read whilst waiting for my food [The Guardian, at the weekend, is too bloody expensive!]

Anyway folks, what about you - do you still use cash or are you like me and strapped of the said sausage...?





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[GoogaMooga]

No. I will resist as long as I can. It's basically a ploy to impose a digital ID and social credit on us, we will be at the mercy of the government. We'll end up like China. I hate digitization (for the most part), and above all, I hate the mobile.

[C]

I hate the mobile.

*makes a note not to text the sad old Luddite*




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[ChrisB]

Cash if possible. I'm still a Luddite as well. I've never got over the Industrial revolution

[C]

I've never got over the Industrial revolution

Blame Jethro Tull

Bloody seed drill



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[robertff]

Generally use a credit card for absolutely everything and pay it off religiously every month, never paid interest and that way we get lots of freebies from the supplier of our credit card.

Cautionary tale though, pay careful attention to your cc statements as twice we have found that we have paid twice for something when the first contactless payment apparently didn’t go through. Fortunately we kept the receipts and had our extra payments refunded.

Also, I wanted to pay cash for something the other day but was told they didn’t take cash - thought there was a law introduced to prevent that happening and that they should take cash, am I mistaken?


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[C]

I wanted to pay cash for something the other day but was told they didn’t take cash - thought there was a law introduced to prevent that happening and that they should take cash, am I mistaken?


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interesting Rob - I needed to look it up

A number of Google searches reinforced this:

In the UK it is not illegal for businesses to refuse cash as payment and, in the same breath, it’s not illegal for them to refuse card payments, either.

The only situation where this isn’t the case is when a business is accepting payment for a debt.

However, more than half of British consumers feel that it should be a legal requirement for UK businesses to accept cash, so there is still strong feeling regarding the issue, even with the country’s widespread adoption of debit cards, credit cards and digital payments.

Deciding whether or not to accept cash is left up to the individual business but there are many reasons why they might want to go card-only




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[Six String]

I still carry cash all the time but I do use my card quite a bit. It depends on the venue/use. Farmer’s market I always use cash as some of my purchases are for $2-3 which seems silly for plastic and it would the eat into the farmer’s profit at that price point and most don’t take plastic anyway. Smaller places like restaurants prefer cash and some even add a bit to a card charge to cover the card’s fee. Wait staff prefer cash tips too. When I bought two guitars recently from a friend he wanted cash. I was going to write him a check but ended up having to go to the bank for a rather large cash withdrawl. There is a local wine shop/cafe that doesn’t take cash but that is uncommon at this point.

[ChrisB]

Also, I wanted to pay cash for something the other day but was told they didn’t take cash - thought there was a law introduced to prevent that happening and that they should take cash, am I mistaken?


.

Do what I did ......changed my dealer

[souphound]

I'm in the camp of those that still use cash for many (most?) things, but use either debit or credit cards sometimes. No real rhyme or reason. Usually though, if there's a tip involved, it'll be cash.

But I will fight to my last breath before I start using my phone for such things. I get nervous being so dependent upon one thing only (WHAT IF I LOSE IT????).

[Samoan]

I did a big shop about 3 weeks ago and paid conjointly, firstly with cash, in the form of coins, and the large balance by card.
I think I baffled the till assistant at first and had to talk her through it as I dug 45 pence from the bottom of my purse and presented it to her. I can't be doing with lugging coppers and five pence pieces around.

[C]

I can't be doing with lugging coppers [...] around.

I recall reading that coppers go out of circulation very quickly - a large percentage of people, when getting 1p an 2p coins, put them in a collection jar/tin at home.

I have a jar in my study full of coppers (and 5p) which I haven't added to for donkey's years!




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[C]

* sausage ----> "sausage & mash" -----> cash [Cockney rhyming slang]




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[Lord Rother]

Hardly ever use cash these days.

Feels a bit "strange" buying a single bread roll for 50p with a card but that's how it is now.

I've had a tenner in my pocket unused for about 3 months. Will probably withdraw a chunk this week though as I'm down to seeds and twigs now! Hard to come by at a reasonable price right now it seems so I might have to go without....

[trans-chigley express]

I still use cash for things that I don't want my wife to know about, such as CD purchases

[GoogaMooga]

"seeds and twigs" - hmmm...

[souphound]

I just bought non-alcoholic Heinekens and a pack of nasty cigs in one place and bananas and courgettes in another. Paid by debit because in both cases, there would have been too much change since I only had 20s on me. At the third place, using an automatic teller, the total for raisins and ice cream came to just under $15, so I slipped in one of those 20s because I was getting a fiver and a tiny bit of loose change back.

Ths to say that for such small purchases, the medium I use often depends on the change situation.

[C]

"seeds and twigs" - hmmm...

Yes, I noticed that too Googs




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[C]

I just bought non-alcoholic Heinekens and a pack of nasty cigs in one place and bananas and courgettes in another. Paid by debit because in both cases, there would have been too much change since I only had 20s on me. At the third place, using an automatic teller, the total for raisins and ice cream came to just under $15, so I slipped in one of those 20s because I was getting a fiver and a tiny bit of loose change back.

This to say that for such small purchases, the medium I use often depends on the change situation.

But if you used electronic methods every time you'd never have any annoying (small) change to worry about!

Before my wife went 'electronic' she had a purse bulging with the full range of change from two-pound coins downwards.

She'd go into the first shop and pay with a £10 note for items costing £3.80

She'd then go into the second shop and pay with another £10 note for something costing £4.50, not even bothering to utilise the change already accumulated from the first transaction.

This would continue with the third shop. And the fourth...

She would then end up with a bulging purse full of unnecessary shrapnel!




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[Walk In My Shadow]

I always carry some cash because it doesn't feel right to me to pay for two coffees by card. Or an ice cream cone.