Do you ask for a receipt?

Our local charity shop won't accept cash, even for the most trivial amount, anymore. Contactless only now.

A new law was passed in Germany recently, making the issue of a receipt for all purchases compulsory, however small. This was to prevent undocumented sales which didn't include VAT, doing the gibt out of their share.

However, it has caused an uproar among the environmentalists, as it has increased the use of paper, and the receipts are not recyclable as they are mostly on thermal paper. Not to mention the number of people who throw their receipts away, either on the ground or by leaving them in the trolley. If they had refused them at the till (which, of course, you can do), the cashier could have put them in her bin.

Many supermarket chains offer a "paperless" option in their app, but I think the till still has to spew out the printed receipt. I don't know anyone who does this, though.

It is definitely worth checking the receipt. I try and remember to do it whilst still in the store. Not long ago, I had a very high amount and when I looked over the till slip, I noticed that she had charged me for 12 of one item rather than only the one! I got it rectified immediately with no trouble.

Sorry - in the first paragraph above,that should read "doing the government out of their share"

I have worked in accounts for almost 30 years and my business accounts are balanced to the penny but I never balance my household accounts .

I know exactly what we haven’t got without seeing it written down . Obviously we take a lot more care with larger items or things that may back taking back.

I always get a receipt. I rarely have to ask for it, not that I have been shopping for months apart from Aldi.
Most places expect contactless payments these days, so it is good to have a record.
A bakery shop manager was sacked for helping her elderly customers out by paying for their purchases with her own card and accepting their coins in payment.

I've always felt that notes were the most germ laden items, let alone now! We haven't touched cash since March, I tend to get a receipt DH doesn't unless it's a large amount. Contactless is required more and more and eventually cash will be a thing of the past.

Always take a receipt. Especially with the charging for store bags, i always worry that some one may think i have walked out without paying, and i have been known to return to a shop for something i had forgotten. Plus of course if you return an item you need it.

I always take my receipt at self-checkouts now - ever since not doing so and being stopped at the exit because I set off the alarm - a security tag hadn’t been taken off a piece of meat.

I had to stand and wait while they went through a bin looking for the receipt I hadn’t bothered to take.
Never again!
I don’t do it for outgoings-checking purposes, though I will check a receipt at the time if the bill seems higher than I was expecting.

Since being a shoplifting suspect I’m much more conscious everywhere of having any receipt handy now.

Very small cash purchases....no. Larger cash purchases.......definitely, purposes of guarantee for a start and how else would the business owner know if the cash had gone through their till??? CC and DC always.........always reconcile the statements when they arrive. Quite a few businesses now offer online receipts, just give them your email address and the receipt can be stored electronically, therefore saving paper!

I know the feeling Witzend. I always take my receipts and put them in my bag just so I know what I am doing.

A few weeks back I done my shopping and just as I got near the doors I realized I did not pay for my T.V. guide which had been under a free newspaper. No harm done as the paper stop kiosk is just near the doors and has a till. I paid for the magazine and took my receipt. All safely done and had paid for everything so headed off to exit. The security man stopped me at exit and asked if I had paid for my shopping.
I had my receipts so everything okay but I was mortified to be a shoplifting suspect, and I told them I will never set foot in that store again as sometimes I go in there maybe twice a week. All they said was "that's up to you madam"
I always take my receipt wherever I shop.

H1954 your last sentence. Does that mean the shop keeps your email address/receipt in case of a problem? I had to give my email address for this and was expecting an email from them which I never did receive.

I use my credit card for as many payments as I can. Keep a list of these in a small notebook, and do a check against the on-line account at least once a week.
Do check my on-line bank account three or four times each week.
Use cash for very small items (ice creams for g.children etc) .and do not get receipt for those. Do not imagine ice cream vans could even provide one!!
Use zapper when doing weekly shop, but always ask for receipt and I keep these as they are very useful to see how prices on items I purchase in the supermarket change (usually increase).

Horrible, isn’t it, @3nanny6?

As it happens I was stopped again at the door just the other day - once again one of those small security tags evidently hadn’t been taken off - Asda again! - but I had my receipt handy and told the bloke (not too crossly) that I was thoroughly fed up with this happening.

He didn’t bother checking my bag but told me rather patronisingly to calm down, madam, and waved me on.

Alas I’m unlikely to shun that shop in future because it’s the closest and most convenient. Pre Covid I could walk (downhill) and get the bus back, uphill with bags!

I would be quite happy not to have a receipt for any thing,
as long as they take your e-mail address and e-mail it to you.
But each their own.

Another who worked in accounts for many years and had to reconcile both sterling and currency banks every month so this spilled over into my personal accounts. I always take the receipts.

I have a separate current account for on-line purchases, and document each one with a running total in a cash book. I don't keep a large amount in that account, just top up as and when it runs low.

I don't ask for receipts on small items from my main account. This morning I filled the car with petrol at the local unmanned Asda and opted for no receipt. However, when viewing my recent debit card transactions on line, it is recorded as a sale of £1. I shall keep an eye to see if it is rectified, but with no paper record I don't know if there is much I can do to put it right. The petrol tank is definitely full but I don't remember the exact cost.

Shysal when our debit card was hacked many moons ago (we only use credit cards now for purchases) there were odd small amounts items listed on the statement which I found odd. Apparently the scammers start with a small amount to see if you notice it. If you don't they carry on with larger and larger amounts!

I buy everything with credit card (cash back).

There's only two of us but I kept every receipt for a month. What a huge amount of paper!
Now I just look at the receipt for my big shop whilst I am in the store, checking to see that all the offers have gone through. That's the main error I've found over the years.

I do use my phone to pay for everything now so can see immediately what I pay matches what the till/display says.

I keep receipts if an item has a warranty/guarantee. Most occasions this has come by email. Saving paper.

Witzend ; yes it is horrible. Mine was Sainsburys and I shop there all the time. There have been two security guards there for ages which see me going in there always. This was a newer security guard although they never bother me because I am in the shop to buy and not to steal so with a suspect that I was shoplifting coming from him I was somewhat cross.

I will happily shun there store in future and luckily there is a new big store that caters for everything opening in 10 days
so I will take my custom and spend my money there.
All my friends ask me why I shop at Sainsburys as they say it is far too expensive.

I never bother with receipts, but then I use my debit card to pay for things (I hardly ever have cash). Everything is then automatically there to see online with the bank. My bank is excellent - I get through to someone straight away when I ring (none of this "press 1 for... press 2 for...")

I used to balance the accounts every month, but haven't done it now for many years.
I have a reasonably good idea of what I can afford and haven't come a cropper yet.

I don't take a receipt for small amounts, but do if it's more than 2 or 3 pounds.

I haven't used cash since the start of lockdown.

I take them out of habit, but rarely look at them! Receipts will sit on my desk in a pile for a week, then out they go.

At Christmas time I keep all receipts in an envelope, in case any of the gifts may need to be returned.

I do find now that since so many stores have 'loyalty' cards with either your phone number or email that they have good records of items purchased. Last year I purchased some pyjamas, kept and tossed the receipt after sitting on my desk for a week. Then the seams on the pyjamas fell apart within a month, but I had tossed the receipt by then. When I called the store, they had a record of the purchase, and made a credit for me without fuss.

Getting closer to going paperless.

I use my credit card to pay for more or less everything, both for convenience and so that I can collect loyalty points. I pay it off in full every month and check receipts against the monthly bill with itemised amounts.

Some years back, I realised I had been charged £220 instead of £22 for one purchase. I should have been more observant in the shop, I know, but I reported it to my bank and had the receipt as proof. When the shop failed to come up with an explanation, they charged them with fraud as they would have known their takings didn't balance at the end of the day, and the bank refunded me in full while their investigations continued!! I always keep my receipts for a year.

I always ask for a receipt of I've paid by credit or debit card so I can check my statements when they come in.

Always get a receipt for everything I buy. And always offered them at end of transactions