Cashless society ?

[100SRV]

Cash = independence of authority.
Give up cash and the ability is there to control every transaction.
As with many things this is cuts both ways because it means a black market is also viable.

[Superflow]

RizzoTheRat said:

I take it you didn't then find any of the really annoying places that only take Maestro and not Visa or MasterCard? Fortunately they usually take cash as well though (Albert Heijn supermarket chain for one).

Fortunately not no,though it must cost them sales everyday,really like the Dutch and would be happy with a home in the Jordaan area ,lovely spot.

[J4CKO]

bloomen said:

J4CKO said:

I was thinking that another benefit of going cashless is hygiene.

One of life's great pleasures is filling a Coinstar machine with a mountain of change which I do for a relative every now and then. However by the end of the process my hands have gone a weird shade of dark grey...

Yeah, pretty grubby most change.

It would be interesting to see if the move to cashless does have an effect on the transmission of colds and stomach bugs, I bet someone who is averse to hand washing who is ill can infect plenty of people in a day handing back change, with the best will in the world its like passing a disease sample round. But may not pan out like that.

There are always knock ons, positive and negative with stuff like this, for example LED bulbs are a great safety benefit, less likely to cause a fire due to less heat generated, wont burn you plus I remember changing traditional bulbs every weekend pretty much, so getting a chair, standing on it, or stepladders and changing a bulb. Now as a grown man I should be able to change a bulb without mortal injury but every time you stand on a chair to reach a bulb its a small risk, multiple that by millions of folk having to swap bulbs, has that meant that less fall off stuff ?

[tannhauser]

craigjm said:

This thread is turning into a competition to try and find the most obscure reason why cashless won’t work. There are solutions to all of them that don’t require you to carry round coins.

How about when the card system is down, or a retailer's card unit is playing up? That's not a particularly obscure reason! In fact, the very thing happened in my local sandwich shop the other day - cue loads of people having to drive up to the supermarket for... cash!!

[bigdog3]

100SRV said:

Cash = independence of authority.

As with credit cards, your ATM history can be monitored to detect any unusual activity

[bad company]

CanAm said:

Welshbeef said:

I’m not sure what shops or garages do if a customer fills up and then payment system fails and they have no cash.

How do you retract petrol?

There was a thread on this very thing recently. It all turned very ugly.

Didn’t that happen to all the BP stations for a short time last year?

[ecsrobin]

So a new food hall is opening up with pods of independent artisan retailers, the kind of place where you’re likely to pay £10 for just a burger.

They’ve announced they will be cashless great news in my eyes as it speeds up the process however someone has kicked off blaming the banks (pretty sure the retailers chose to do this and pay for the privilege) and also saying the poor will be effected as they can’t get a debit card.

However surely if you are poor enough to not be able to obtain a debit card then you probably shouldn’t be spending £10 on a burger and £7 on a beer? Or is that a very narrow minded view?

[red_slr]

As I have mentioned before, it (often) costs a business more to pay cash into the bank than to take a card payment esp if you factor in the time to actually go to the bank.

[Frimley111R]

red_slr said:

As I have mentioned before, it (often) costs a business more to pay cash into the bank than to take a card payment esp if you factor in the time to actually go to the bank.

Yes, I remember this. A business is/was charged when paying in cash due to the manual handling. It's why so many used to offer you cashback on card transactions...just to get rid of cash

[Robertj21a]

Frimley111R said:

Yes, I remember this. A business is/was charged when paying in cash due to the manual handling. It's why so many used to offer you cashback on card transactions...just to get rid of cash

As far as I can recall, businesses have, for many years, been charged for banking cash. It seems that the general public don't realise that.

[TorqueVR]

Robertj21a said:

As far as I can recall, businesses have, for many years, been charged for banking cash. It seems that the general public don't realise that.

Last year I noted a £12.50 charge on my bank statement and after some research found that a client had paid a £1250 invoice in cash at my bank. Any other method would have been less than 50p. Robbing bds.

[alock]

I've had 3 places in the last week refuse a card. Cash only.

Local shop in our village near Winchester. £10 minimum spend for card payment.
Coffee shop in Ryde on Isle of Wight. £15 minimum spend for card payment.
Chinese take-away in Basingstoke. £12 minimum spend for card payment.

[Shakermaker]

CanAm said:

Welshbeef said:

I’m not sure what shops or garages do if a customer fills up and then payment system fails and they have no cash.

How do you retract petrol?

There was a thread on this very thing recently. It all turned very ugly.

I once went to fill up with petrol but didn't realise I had left my debit card and credit card elsewhere, despite having my wallet in my pocket. No means to then pay once I'd filled up.

The garage were prepared for that, and I filled out a form and left it with them; they already had my car reg on camera of course from the forecourt but instead of me making a deliberate criminal offence of driving off without paying, they had a solution in place and I was able to go back the next day on my way home from work and settle up without issue.

[Robertj21a]

alock said:

I've had 3 places in the last week refuse a card. Cash only.

Local shop in our village near Winchester. £10 minimum spend for card payment.
Coffee shop in Ryde on Isle of Wight. £15 minimum spend for card payment.
Chinese take-away in Basingstoke. £12 minimum spend for card payment.

Eventually, they'll all change if they want to stay in business.

[Kermit power]

Robertj21a said:

alock said:

I've had 3 places in the last week refuse a card. Cash only.

Local shop in our village near Winchester. £10 minimum spend for card payment.
Coffee shop in Ryde on Isle of Wight. £15 minimum spend for card payment.
Chinese take-away in Basingstoke. £12 minimum spend for card payment.

Eventually, they'll all change if they want to stay in business.

Anyone else remember the days when M&S refused to accept credit cards?

To me it feels like something which sits alongside my childhood memories from the Seventies & Eighties, but I've just checked... April 2000!!!!!

John Lewis only gave in a few months before them as well... It seems like a completely different world now.

[Frimley111R]

Robertj21a said:

alock said:

I've had 3 places in the last week refuse a card. Cash only.

Local shop in our village near Winchester. £10 minimum spend for card payment.
Coffee shop in Ryde on Isle of Wight. £15 minimum spend for card payment.
Chinese take-away in Basingstoke. £12 minimum spend for card payment.

Eventually, they'll all change if they want to stay in business.

My hairdressers/barbers is the same. The owner cringes when i come in and say 'Have you got a card machine yet??' They say it's too expensive but not as expensive as not having customers who only have cards. She's mad but she knows she'll have to give in soon. Small/old school business mentality.

[Superflow]

Frimley111R said:

My hairdressers/barbers is the same. The owner cringes when i come in and say 'Have you got a card machine yet??' They say it's too expensive but not as expensive as not having customers who only have cards. She's mad but she knows she'll have to give in soon. Small/old school business mentality.

Cash in hand:

That's why they don’t want a card machine.

[Kermit power]

Superflow said:

Frimley111R said:

My hairdressers/barbers is the same. The owner cringes when i come in and say 'Have you got a card machine yet??' They say it's too expensive but not as expensive as not having customers who only have cards. She's mad but she knows she'll have to give in soon. Small/old school business mentality.

Cash in hand:

That's why they don’t want a card machine.

We had a new Kurdish barber open up at the end of our road a couple of years ago. I asked them if they took cards, and just got a perplexed look, followed by "Of course! We are business!".

Between that and being excellent barbers, I wouldn't go anywhere else now.

[ecsrobin]

I’m guessing my barbers must be one of a few that doesn’t take cash. I even have to book online or via app.

[alorotom]

It’s total rubbish and fake news all this peddling that some people can’t get debit cards - anyone can. Revolut for example is a totally free, non credit checked, online / app managed service.

Don’t have access to the internet, no problem, there are shedloads of prepaid debit cards that you can top up at any number of pay points (the same as where you can pay your council tax, electric, gas, etc...)

It’s just excuses for not moving with the times.