Are You Still Using Cash?

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I realised today that I haven’t actually used cash for months. I use Apple Pay for general purchases, a credit card for online, bus and parking are paid using apps.

Is this a general trend or are people still holding folding?
 
I've not used any for the last three months as I've been locked in the house like most people have. However, there is no way I'd ever stop using cash and go completely electronic unless they actually done away with cash as a means of payment.

Big brother corporations (and others) tracking what I spend my money on for profit or some other nefarious purpose is something I will always try and avoid.

Now where's that tin foil? . . .
 
Before the lockdown i only used cash for my favourite coffee shop. Elsewhere, I have used cards only for some years.
 
If I forget my card, I'll still use cash but that tends to only be at the golf club so I stick the change on my pre-payment/discount card. They have to handle the pre-payment card anyway so a note isn't any more risk to them - they live in the same wallet!
 
I hadn’t thought about until now but I reckon the only thing I’ve used cash for since lockdown is buying eggs once a week from the neighbouring farm, most other things have been purchased online.
 
I think in the next year or so many more people will be using cash. Saw it in the crash of 2008, when money gets tight people tend to use cash rather than card as it's easier to keep track of spending. There are going to be so many more unemployed with very limited spending.
 
I only use cash in paces which don't accept cards, there are still a few of those around here. In fact I have just used cash when collecting a pizza. The strange thing is that you can pay online for a delivery, but as they don't deliver to us I had to pay cash...
 
john.margetts said:
Before the lockdown i only used cash for my favourite coffee shop. Elsewhere, I have used cards only for some years.
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My favourite coffee shop doesn't take cash ATM. I came off the beach the other day and tried to buy some pastries there using my Garmin watch. Unfortunately, the Garmin wallet app had crashed. "ah - pay me next time - we know you'll be back" :)
 
Other than a few minority cases where cash is the only option, I have been using card only for a few years.
 
I use cash when I can in the smaller local shops, and will continue at the moment, they will be struggling even
with re-opening and would like the to keep any money in total and not pay the card providers
It may seem a pittance but it's not just what they lose on your payment it's for every customer
 
I think the only place I use cash is my local (thats Barnsley for you).

I try not to carry cash as it normally ends up in the sandwich shop at work.
 
I only use cash when there's no alternative. much easier to keep track of spending if you use a banking app.
 
Cash and cards, depending on what I want to buy, but I prefer to have the choice. The 'cashless society' doesn't appeal to me at all.
 
Marc said:
I only use cash when there's no alternative. much easier to keep track of spending if you use a banking app.
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This!
Last time I used cash? Probably sometime last year in summer when the kids place doesn't take card. Still, I always make a point asking to pay with contactless first.


People say cash helps you to budget. But if all spending goes onto one single credit card. To keep within budget, simply look at remaining balance in the banking app, how close is it to a the affordable limit you have set in your mind?

One is itemised list of all your previous spendings.
The other is a pocket full of changes that you have no idea where the money went.


People also say small local shops will struggle to pay processing fees. I say there are many alternatives to Visa/Mastercard. I'm a believer in technology solving problems, one existing tech that works as alternative to cash is cryptocurrency. If you want more stable currency: Paypal gift, bank transfer into mobile numbers, even Alipay.
No matter how small the merchant, in China, they all accept Alipay or Wechat pay. Just scan the QR code and pay, money is transferred instantly and there are no processing fee. If you've used Tesco pay app, it's very similar.
 
I haven't used cash since sometime in the first half of March. I was in NW Scotland and used cash in the local builders' merchant. In London I don't use very much cash anyway and as I haven't been in a shop since 16th March I haven't used any since then.

Dave
 
wyx087 said:
People say cash helps you to budget. But if all spending goes onto one single credit card. To keep within budget, simply look at remaining balance in the banking app, how close is it to a the affordable limit you have set in your mind?
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That's not how it happens (though we are 12 years on from 2008 so..) What I saw in 2008 was people going to super markets, using the cash machine to take out enough money for the shop and then shopping. If you have only got £50 you can't spend any more, shopping using card it's too easy to spend that extra £5 or £10 because you are not seeing the cash go.
 
I use cash almost all of the time, card for fuel ( 3% money back )and online, if I don’t have cash I can’t impulse buy. Little willpower?
 
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Steep said:
That's not how it happens (though we are 12 years on from 2008 so..) What I saw in 2008 was people going to super markets, using the cash machine to take out enough money for the shop and then shopping. If you have only got £50 you can't spend any more, shopping using card it's too easy to spend that extra £5 or £10 because you are not seeing the cash go.
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That does not compute.

If you take £50 out of cash machine for supermarket, you will never get it £50 exact on the stuff you need, the change will inevitably be spent on unnecessary stuff.
With cards, if you spent more, you can re-evaluate your monthly budget by spending less on the next trip. If you spent less, the change stays in your account, slowly accumulate into savings.


For this case, the handheld scanners offered by most supermarket is your secret weapon. Not using silly mind games. You know exactly how much your cart is costing and you can adjust items before checkout.
Once again, technology saves the day ;)
 
My gardener, window cleaner & handyman only like cash. Me, I like a mixture and when on holidays (in the UK) hotels & fuel goes on cards and everything else is payed for with cash.

I find with cash you have an element of control with the spending.
 
The takeaway in my village is cash only, and if I'm in when my window cleaner comes round, I will pay him in cash. Other than those two things, I pay for pretty much everything by card now
 
Not using cash made life very difficult when people were self isolating
Obviously if I did a shop for one of my elderly neghbours I didn't have their bank card
and wouldn't have taken it even if offered.
I am still owed money from one person and some of them wanted to pay by cheque, no banks left here
so a visit to town, it's not always as easy as people think.

wyx087 said:
If you take £50 out of cash machine for supermarket, you will never get it £50 exact on the stuff you need, the change will inevitably be spent on unnecessary stuff.
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For some people that £50 is not only for their supermarket shop, it's what they have to spend for a week
after all their other bills have been paid
 
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Mostly use contactless when I am out, very infrequently - one is in the high risk group (diabetic),

Last drew cash (£30) before lockdown, still have about £1.50 in my purse.
 
Me, barely used any cash for the last three months as others have said. And i've hardly used my van either for the same length of time, having bought a full tank of fuel just before lockdown.

Till last Friday when I needed both. My electric bike needed a brake repair and the repair shop is about 20 miles away. So.....loaded the bike in the van , which inevitably had a flat battery. The mechanic arrived, started me up and I was away, thinking that a good 20 mile run would charge the battery. Did it ****!

Loaded the bike up again, turned the key and nothing. Still completely dead. Van too heavy to push and the battery too dead for a jump start. So I had to phone the local garage for a jump start from a heavy duty battery - duly successful. Then the mechanic wanted cash. Fortunately I was carrying some or I'd have been stuck out in the sticks.

But I'll carry on using cash for small items eg coffee shops, newsagents, etc when things get back to normal.
 
I was just talking about this yesterday when my credit card statement came in for June it was £40.88p which was a tank of fuel,.................. June 2019 statement was £540! Hardly spent a thing.
 
I use cash almost all the time. Card payments are mostly for petrol at the no attendants and no both place, online purchases and expensive items when I don't want to be carrying a lot of cash and also for the extra protections cards offer. So I'm basically cash unless I have to use cards.

The window cleaners have just been, they're the only cash tradesmen we deal with regularly so I could go cashless as long as I had a pound coin for trolleys at some shops and if I didn't think it was such a soulless experience. One thing I hate using cards for is presents for the family kids as telling them you've put some money in their account just isn't the same as giving them a card with money in it and so I've never done it. On my last birthday one of my sister put some money in my account, "Thanks" I said but in reality I just didn't care, I'd rather have had a bar of chocolate.
 
When I worked in the garage if a car needed a bulb at service/mot time we would just fit one and I charged cost +1p, no labour, so many wanted to pay by card it had to change, cash was as before, card was bulb plus a half hours labour, bulbs paid on card were costing me money. And people complained!
 
I use cash as much as possible as I am a private person and don't want anyone tracking what I've brought and where I've been . I disabled contact less on my cards as two people were ripped of at work, But do use cards for bigger payments as it gives me proof of purchase. A number of business owners that I know where lots of small payments are made will only take cash as by using cards their profits are reduced and a couple of pubs where food is served will only take cash ( guess their avoiding tax !) The thing I find with cash is if I have £100 in my pocket and spend £30 I can see that I only have £70 left with card transactions being so slow to turn up in my banking in the past I have looked found I have a certain amount in my account spent it only to find a previous purchase gets taken out late and I have been fined by the bank for going over drawn.
 
hardly ever nowadays also, especially with covid-19 , to be fair I do think cash needs to pretty much go away in the UK
 
Mr Bump said:
hardly ever nowadays also, especially with covid-19 , to be fair I do think cash needs to pretty much go away in the UK
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Give over - it'll be a boost to the rubber glove industry. :whistle:
 
Paul W. H said:
And how will the Black Economy work without cash ?
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give over, my widow cleaner has an app and one of those pocket contactless devices, for me people that only take cash are going backwards and just don't get my business as I am not going to a machine to withdraw cash to hand it to them, nope.....
 
To do away with cash would be a crime against the people. :banghead:

The only reason politicians and banks are pushing the 'easily brainwashed' into using it less, is because there is less profit in cash.

The same reasons apply to cryptocurrency.
 
Sky said:
To do away with cash would be a crime against the people. :banghead:

The only reason politicians and banks are pushing the 'easily brainwashed' into using it less, is because there is less profit in cash.

The same reasons apply to cryptocurrency.
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No, I don't think that's the only reason. Abolishing cash removes one of the remaining areas where individuals can maintain a degree of anonymity, which is anathema to some people in government and the public services. Surveillance creep should be a cause for concern.
 
There's also the elderly to consider, some of who may not be very tech savvy nor trusting.

Also, what happens when systems go down? Cash is a good backup.
 
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