Cashless society ?

[toon10]

okgo said:

Not with Apple Pay. Means I barely ever even carry a wallet now. It's great.

Apple pay is great. I paid for fuel after misplacing my wallet using my phone. I panicked when I went to the till and realised my wallet was not in my pocket as normal. The young chap on the counter just asked if I had an iPhone. What a relief!

[okgo]

Well you do have to set it up of course, but once done, its all fairly good. More secure than a card too really.

[markcoznottz]

Thankyou4calling said:

markcoznottz said:

Good working knowledge. A lot of the staff that used to work for me frequented these places. So not hearsay. Obviously some are worse than others, but if they aren't wearing safety gear, for example, they are breaking the law. Try doing that on a building site. I guess regarding illegals, the border agency don't have the staff given the number of sites.

There’s no legal requirement to wear safety equipment or clothing when working at a hand car wash so no law broken.

Despite what people think there has been a detailed study into the trade.


https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cms...

[Thankyou4calling]

Have you read the report?

There have been 14 prosecutions for wage violations in the last 20 years and 11 of them were unsuccessful.

So 3 ! In 20 years!

[sas62]

IMF are now blogging how central banks can introduce negative interest rates without going fully cashless.

They are saying that during a future crisis only 3 OECD countries currently have high enough interest rates to be able to drop by the 3% to 6% that would be required, and still remain positive. (Turkey, Mexico, Iceland)

https://blogs.imf.org/2019/02/05/cashing-in-how-to...

Interesting read and could help cryptocurrencies.

[98elise]

Thankyou4calling said:

markcoznottz said:

I wasn't, I simply don't know how they get away with it, no other trade does.

How on earth would you know a hand car wash is employing illegal immigrants, has no h and s policy, no COSHH, no staff contracts, etc etc?

Do you have a working knowledge or are you simply guessing?

Have a read....

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cms...

select committee summary said said:

.... widespread practices of undercutting labour standards and other regulation... the majority of hand car washes may have some illegality around them,...a ‘spectrum of exploitation’ is taking place.....non-payment of the minimum wage or holiday pay, to serious cases of debt bondage.... linked to trafficking into and within the UK for labour exploitation. This is modern slavery in plain sight on Britain’s streets.... serious health and safety risks and the possibility of labour exploitation......shocking cases of health and safety violations.....chemical burns amongst workers resulting from prolonged exposure to water and cleaning agents.

[markcoznottz]

Thankyou4calling said:

Have you read the report?

There have been 14 prosecutions for wage violations in the last 20 years and 11 of them were unsuccessful.

So 3 ! In 20 years!

Yes because there is no appetite for difficult cases with a limited chance of success. Like the guy from the petrol forecourt association says, they had to follow legislation re discharge to foul sewer, yet a high % of hand car washes discharge straight into surface drains. They could get these operations on a number of fronts.

[RizzoTheRat]

toon10 said:

okgo said:

Not with Apple Pay. Means I barely ever even carry a wallet now. It's great.

Apple pay is great. I paid for fuel after misplacing my wallet using my phone. I panicked when I went to the till and realised my wallet was not in my pocket as normal. The young chap on the counter just asked if I had an iPhone. What a relief!

I've become a convert to Garmin Pay, but still a bit paranoid if I don't have my wallet with me for backup. Had to borrow some cash for breakfast in a cafe the other day as it turned out to be cash only.

[RizzoTheRat]

Looks like free access cash machines are on the decline
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48107372

Although if the fee they get from the banks has dropped from 25p to 23p per transaction, how are they managing to justify charging up to £1.99 for a transaction to make up for it?

[irish boy]

Any atm never mind free ones are going to become scarce over here. 14 been stolen this year alone. Can’t see many business owners wanting one one their premises.


https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/...

[TCS1]

RizzoTheRat said:

Looks like free access cash machines are on the decline
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48107372

Although if the fee they get from the banks has dropped from 25p to 23p per transaction, how are they managing to justify charging up to £1.99 for a transaction to make up for it?

Note machine used to send engineers from either Glasgow or Inverness (100mi one way at least) to sort out any issues with my old ATM which I inheritied when I bought a very rural store. The job would take up 1/2 their day atleast. Fee was £1.95/transaction which had been in place for years - high charges are not a new thing. From a business POV they were making a large loss on it as the volume of withdrawls would never cover the expense of fixing it every other month. I switched supplier but I still have one that charges albeit a lot less now but no one would provide free to use - I think it's pretty obvious why in the rural locations although it feels like taking advantage as banks close and reduce hours. I wonder what proportion of their income is provided by those machines charging £1+ per transaction vs free to use.

Edited by TCS1 on Wednesday 1st May 12:10

Edited by TCS1 on Wednesday 1st May 12:17

[AlexRS2782]

RizzoTheRat said:

Looks like free access cash machines are on the decline
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48107372

Although if the fee they get from the banks has dropped from 25p to 23p per transaction, how are they managing to justify charging up to £1.99 for a transaction to make up for it?

The one in the wall of the Spar in a nearby village currently has a £3.99 charge per withdrawal / transaction The store used to be a Morrisons Local until last year when it closed and then reopened as a Spar, but the new owners seem to have left the old Morrisons signage up that says the machine is free to use when it clearly isn't.

Loads of people still seem to happily use it though - even with the stupidly high fee. I'm not sure why, as if they walked about minute or two further into the village, they'd be able to use the one in the wall of the One Stop which is free.

[Algarve]

irish boy said:

Any atm never mind free ones are going to become scarce over here. 14 been stolen this year alone. Can’t see many business owners wanting one one their premises.


https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/...

A rep came in wanting to put one in our bar. I showed him this and sent him on his way - https://www.portugalresident.com/2016/11/16/thieve...

I wouldn't risk it out here and its nowhere near as common as back home.

I think you'd need to be fully mental to put a cash machine in a little business in England. Unless its a strip club or something where its essential to operation.

We've got a real bank cash machine < 30 seconds walk so there was no upside at all.

[ATV]

If you owned a small retail business that was traditionally cash-only (barbers, sandwich shop etc) how much custom do you think they are losing by not having a card payment option?

And is there any PH consensus on which of the card-payment service providers are the best/most cost effective?

[Tootles the Taxi]

sas62 said:

IMF are now blogging how central banks can introduce negative interest rates without going fully cashless.

They are saying that during a future crisis only 3 OECD countries currently have high enough interest rates to be able to drop by the 3% to 6% that would be required, and still remain positive. (Turkey, Mexico, Iceland)

https://blogs.imf.org/2019/02/05/cashing-in-how-to...

Interesting read and could help cryptocurrencies.

Ah, cryptocurrencies. Another (block)chain in the financial natural selection process. Designed to encourage the gullible and greedy to exchange proper money for ... well we're not really sure what cryptocurrencies are.

At least these people will become destitute and thus not have the spending power to become desirable and procreate, thus weeding their particular type of stupidity gene out of the pool.

[gothatway]

RizzoTheRat said:

Looks like free access cash machines are on the decline
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48107372

The tracks on that digger look a bit slack to me. Guess the ne'er-do-wells didn't think to check before they nicked it or indeed to sort it out before using it.

[Tankrizzo]

ATV said:

If you owned a small retail business that was traditionally cash-only (barbers, sandwich shop etc) how much custom do you think they are losing by not having a card payment option?

And is there any PH consensus on which of the card-payment service providers are the best/most cost effective?

It's definitely swung the other way where any business like that, that doesn't take card payment, stands out now.
My local chippy has won loads of awards and is in quite a posh little village but doesn't take card; every time I'm in there someone gets caught out by it. They have to have a big sign on the window now saying "cash only". I can only presume it's not financially worthwhile to put card facilities in.

[bad company]

Tankrizzo said:

It's definitely swung the other way where any business like that, that doesn't take card payment, stands out now.
My local chippy has won loads of awards and is in quite a posh little village but doesn't take card; every time I'm in there someone gets caught out by it. They have to have a big sign on the window now saying "cash only". I can only presume it's not financially worthwhile to put card facilities in.

Sounds like a chippy run by dinosaurs.

[Robertj21a]

Tankrizzo said:

It's definitely swung the other way where any business like that, that doesn't take card payment, stands out now.
My local chippy has won loads of awards and is in quite a posh little village but doesn't take card; every time I'm in there someone gets caught out by it. They have to have a big sign on the window now saying "cash only". I can only presume it's not financially worthwhile to put card facilities in.

They'll regret it once the sales fall off and it's too late to get those customers back. If they want to keep a successful business going ahead then they have to keep up, not use blinkers.

[captain_cynic]

Robertj21a said:

They'll regret it once the sales fall off and it's too late to get those customers back. If they want to keep a successful business going ahead then they have to keep up, not use blinkers.

But that isn't happening.

There's a small sandwich shop near where I work, cash only, lines are horrendous because the sandwiches are that good. People who get caught out just go the the nearby cashpoint. Very few people have gone card only these days.

In fact I'd bet that the new "card only" pubs are going to go out of business first.