Carrying Cash or just Bank card

I have Apple Pay on my phone, so very rarely use cash these days .

sazz1
In the small town I live in quite a few businesses are cash only. The dog groomer, restaurant, hairdresser, cafe etc. I find it a bit behind the times compared to the large city I moved from. I don't like using cashpoints for safety reasons so get cashback at a supermarket

I’d be inclined to think that it has little to do with being behind the times and perhaps more to do with not paying tax on all of their income.

Use a combination of cash and card for payments. Usually larger bills, eg weekly supermarket shop use card, but local small family run businesses eg the butcher's and bakery, cash. I don't like using card for car parking charges or in restaurants and bars unless I can tip the server in cash. My children both use card payment and I think are pretty much cashless in paying for things. It may be a generational thing. Hubby prefers cash when paying but uses card if necessary.

I used to but not since the advent of Covid. Using the card is such simpler.

I usually only have cash for car parking. I keep it in the car.

I’ve already said about my use of cash, but I’d forgotten paying my GC for doing jobs.
Matelda, I agree about the credit rather than debit cards. When I found a claim on my debit card a couple of days ago, for parking somewhere I haven’t been since 2018, I rang the bank and they immediately cancelled my card. They said the transactions could have increased in the future. At least my credit card has protection. DH uses his phone or his watch. I could, but I prefer not to. I’ve lost watches and forgotten my phone. So far not my card.

Hate cards - love cash! Know where you are with it.

I prefer not to use cash as it’s so dirty and it helps the black economy for those who avoid tax!!

I too like to have a small amount of cash in my purse, usually around £20, for small purchases and for the grandchildren , but I mostly pay by card.

I virtually stopped using cash when the pandemic started, thinking it might spread germs.
I must admit this has meant I haven’t tipped my hairdresser sometimes.How do you tip your hairdresser by card “zoejury” ( just interested to see if I could do that). Do you just add it to the bill, if so is she the owner of the business? mine is not so I wonder would she get the money? I know no one can. say definitively ( depends on the salon) I just wondered if it was sometimes usual for that to happen.

Mollygo
I don’t know what bank your with but were they ever going to inform you ?
My bank contacted me within a couple of hours of my cloned card being used in a car park 200 miles from me.

I agree with MamaCaz. We are gradually being edged into becoming a cashfree society and I'm not sure it's such a good thing. Also, it would be inconvenient for me - I often give one of my grandchildren a cash prezzie. They're always saving for something or other, and they're all still young enough to have money boxes. My cleaner, my window cleaner, the tip for my hairdresser because the salon I go to only has one stylist on each day, the Christmas and Easter 'boxes' for all the people who make my life pleasant and easy throughout the year- I could go on, but you all know who else has cash.

Whilst I have been using card more during the pandemic I like to spend cash

I keep a small amount on me in case I buy something under a fiver some places won’t accept a card for that amount.

Boz

My hairdresser charges £22 for a blow dry. If I wave a £20 she just takes it. Love a discount, me.

No tip? Really?

GrandmaKT we’ve no banks either, but do have a post office.

Need cash for mobile hairdresser, fish man who calls weekly, paying farmer for caravan site(small 5 van site). Odds and ends when out and about. Mainly use card though.

In the past few years we have only used cash for the shopping trolley and the occasional taxi, everything else is paid for by card and internet banking. I used to pay the hairdressers with cash but they got a card machine during the pandemic when they reopened the shop. Before the pandemic we visited family in Devon and gave a great nephew money for his two little girls, I don’t recollect using cash for much else for at least four years. We send our youngest grandchildren’s pocket money to their parents by Internet banking and also any gifts of money to family the same way. I used to have a jar for collecting coins from change, it is half full but I can’t see it being filled up now. I used to feel uneasy withdrawing large amounts of cash from a cash machine and I’m glad that is a thing of the past, I can’t remember the last time I went to the bank.

I have always preferred to take out my housekeeping money in cash at the beginning of the month. I found and still find it easier to keep track of expenditure this way.

However, here during the height of the pandemic, shops were asking customers not to pay in cash and some places, such as the pharmacy, was simply refusing to take cash. So we had perforce to use our cards.

It went better than I had expected, but I can't say I cared for it and I am certainly not considering paypal or the like!

When I worked in a school the canteen was cashless, presumably to prevent bullying. Although parents could top up their childrens accounts online there was no facility for staff to do that. If I forgot to go to a cashpoint I couldn't buy lunch as the lunchbreak was too short to go out. Since retirement and the pandemic though, I increasingly use a card for everything, even very small amounts as many places discourage cash payments. If I pop to the local convenience store I often don't take my purse - I stick my card in my bra!

Sheilasue

I keep a small amount on me in case I buy something under a fiver some places won’t accept a card for that amount.

The reason for that is to make you spend more.

Supermarkets and shops, hairdressers and window cleaners take cards, but a card is no use for very small purchases, or for buying from a casual seller at a car boot sale or from a craft fair. Anyone who makes things on a larger scale or provides a service more frequently will get a card reader and set themselves up as a business with the necessary tax links and accounting resources, but a mother making cakes for a school fundraising event, or a church member manning a bric-a-brac stall at the church fair won't do that. With Christmas approaching and lots of people making crafts in a small way, there will be a need for cash in the next few months.

I carry my phone which has compartments for several cards and usually around £40 cash at all times.

I don’t feel unsafe with cash but all the banks and cash machines in a 10 mile radius have closed - thanks NatWest! The Co-op have stopped giving cash back and the only other local cash machine is old and dodgy and is well known for eating cards. So I don’t often queue at the PO for cash as even the window cleaner, market stalls, and chip shop take cards. I did get caught out yesterday when a minor garment repair was cash only but it doesn’t happen often. We did ask in a restaurant and a card tip didn’t go to a specific server but kitchen staff got a share which they thought was fairer.

We only carry cards now. Even our window cleaner takes card and we pay our cleaner by standing order every week.