Cashless society

The butcher and greengrocer still rely on cash so my purse isn't quite cashless. Don't like having an empty purse.
The window-cleaner is also cash only.

I mainly use my card for purchases but keep some cash to pay for things where it’s difficult such as the cleaner ( who doesn’t take cards) or for a bag of sweets for a grandchild which is such low cost as to make the card seem ridiculous.
I am happy to pay on line or using my Apple Pay app as well as by card but I don’t think losing cash altogether is a good thing!
By the way does the tooth fairy take cards now ??‍♀️

Spangler yes, the Co-op has a divi card. You pay £1 to be a "member" and get an annual voucher dependant on your spend and their profits.
You can get pay as you go payment cards too but they have fees attached.

Notice this thread goes back to January, pre- covid-19. Now it would seem more practical and safer to use contactless if at all possible.

Not for at least a decade, maybe more, but I think we are heading towards a cashless society. As those who cannot cope with electronics die off, children growing up with it will just accept it. How many of us have marvelled at the confidence shown by grand/greatgrandchildren using electronic gadgets?

Those of a certain age will remember the Coop "divi" and most will remember Green Shield Stamps. Both were an early form of loyalty card.

Nowadays loyalty cards are big business, and you, the holder, are the product. Every time you amass points on your card you are telling the store, what you bought, when you bought it, how often you shop, how much you spend. All that information is logged and a profile of you is built up.

But the really sinister thing is that copies of that profile are sold on and other profiles from credit, debit and mobile phone purchases are bought, to fill in the gaps. This is why there's such a rush to get us to a cashless society.

Corvid 19 has given a fresh impetus to a cashless society, have you noticed how the self-service checkout tills have 50% card only choice? You can catch the disease from cash, so we are led to believe.

For me, cash is king, but that's only because I can't have a sort of pay as you go card that can be topped up and I remain anonymous. We can't have that can we? How are we going to trace you?

By the way, I don't know if the Coop still have a divi, or a loyalty card but Green Shield are still around, they morphed into Argos.

I have mixed feelings about this.
Yes most of the time I use cards but cash does still have a place.

A local newsagent won’t accept card payment for the daily paper. We pay the window cleaner with cash as neither of us does online banking.

Then of course there is car parking as not all allow payment by card.

I would be sorry to see cash disappear completely but I guess it’s inevitable.

I had cause to call my bank recently. While waiting to speak to someone the automatic system read out the balance I owed on my credit card account then proceeded to tell me that I was allowed to spend £9,900ish more!
I was shocked as I thought my credit limit was 1 or 2 thousand. I have decided to request a much lower limit as presumably this would prevent scammers removing very large sums from my account.
I also feel that a contactless card is risky as anyone can tap to pay multiple smallish amounts if the card is found, but it is so convenient I am still putting up with it.

You don't need a receipt if you have a banking app as it's all on there immediately. What irks me is when you say no to a receipt, so they print it off anyway and throw it in the bin. I thought it was supposed to save paper!

Thanks everyone. I think I will continue to use both. I do wish Supermarkets wouldn't give you a load of 1 and 2 p's when using self service. I find Tesco the worst, I might use my card for all supermarket shopping in future.

I check my credit card and bank statement everyday, not because I am a control freak (I consider myself organised) but if something is wrong I would rather know sooner rather than later. If I didn't have the paper receipts I might forget a legitimate purchase I have made.

Exactly so floorflock. On the occasions that I do use my debit card, I always keep the paper receipt. At the end of the week, I enter the details of every receipt into my accounts system and then check that off against the bank statement. Any discrepancies and I can see straight away to check with my bank. I can balance my bank statement to within £1 of my accounts.

I assume you mean about the receipts Smileless2012? If so, I'm glad it's not just me..

I use both. I like to have cash on me as well as a credit and debit card.

We have an old Roses chocolate jar and put 1p's, 2p's and 5p's in it and when it's full there's always about £70 to pay into the bank.

That irritates me too floorflock.

My phone doesn't have the internet so I can't (and don't want to) pay by phone. I will pay by card but will not use contactless. I like using cash and will continue to use it. We live in the sticks and people like cash where I am, we are not all in the cities and we are not all used to paying by card alone. We do need choices. I would be devastated if I couldn't use cash as there are many places I would not be able to continue to go to if card/phone was the only option. How on earth do you all pay for a loaf of bread at the bakery? I clearly use cash. To me a phone is for phoning. Cash is money. My biggest gripe with cards is that I keep being asked IF I want a receipt? Of course I do! How do you keep track of what you spend and check it against you statement if you don't have a receipt?

Oops wrong thread

It really doesnt sound like neglect TBH. Food is being put on front of her, she just isnt eating much of it. When there are posts about non vegan GC doing this most replies say "dont worry and dont make a fuss about it, just ignore it it's normal and will pass"

I always use cash abroad and am much more careful of what I spend. At home the only thing I regularly use cash for is paying for lunch at work. We have to load our accounts with cash in a machine then pay with our fingerprint. The annoying thing is that parents can load their kids' accounts online but staff can't. I've had an occasion when my local cashpoint was out of order and I had to leave for work half an hour early to drive to a different cashpoint or I wouldn't have had any lunch! The won't give us credit normally either. It's a real pain!

I never use my debit card except very occasionally to draw some cash from an ATM. Contactless all the way for me. Your debit card is a direct conduit to your bank account....

I never carry cash. I always use my cards. I haven't had a cheque book for years, either.

That is the crux of the matter, we need choice , not decisions made by others forced on us.
I choose to be mostly cashless but respect others who are not happy using cards.

As my husband now does 95% of the shopping I have persuaded him to pay by card. The reason being at each shop he would just hand over notes and get change. He didnt bother to give the correct money so he would bring home loads of change to go in my purse. I am not allowed to carry a heavy handbag and the change purse was weighing it down.
But I did manage to go into the local supermarket on my own to buy some food on Thursday which was an achievement.

I use both. However an example of the advantage of cash is like on Saturday I went to a fast food outlet in the shopping mall. Those using their phones and cards to make purchases stood in a long queue for their food with one person serving. Those with cash, like me, waited about 2 minutes in the queue in their fast section where about 7 staff were serving. Again in another store a couple were the only ones at the till trying to pay with a credit card at a card only till. I went to another till and paid cash and was out in minutes. Obviously every purchase is different but we need to continue to have a choice.

Like someone upthread I opened another bank account when I was working which has money transferred monthly with which I pay for most of the things I buy as I'm not comfortable with my main account card being used for everything. I also pay for a lot of online things by PayPal. I don't use cash that often but again have to have some in my purse for some small items or my hairdresser and nail salon. I don't record what I've spent the cash on but every other transaction goes through my personal accounting system which I would be lost without.

I prefer to use my credit card as I then have a printout of what I spent money on. I also keep some cash in my purse for some hairdressers or if we have a family meal out and all pay some and one person pays with their card. Usually granddad and I put much more in