Cash is King !!!

BADGER.BRAD

BADGER.BRAD

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Hello All,

I live in a small village today after spending 10 hours in my day job and another 2 doing some maintenance to one of my rental properties I arrived home and decided to go and get milk ,bread and a couple of beers. Quite normal you may think ! I walked in the front door to see a large queue and thought great ! After a couple of minutes collecting what I wanted I joined the queue with a total of eleven people in it, I thought great and there seemed to be some problem going on at the tills I waited a while and another few people joined the queue then there was an announcement at the tills sorry everyone the internet has gone down ( happens regularly as does the phone network and only one mobile network works) and it is cash only everyone bar one in front of me vanished with a hell of a lot of moaning how they had no milk,bread or what ever they wanted, the two of us left in the queue paid up and walked off. Fast forward an hour my lad walked in from work efing and a jeffing about the fact that the tills were down as well as the cash point and he had nothing to eat and nothing for tomorrow at work ( he had a tenner off me) all proof that technology rarely works as it does in the theoretical world. And having real money in your pocket is a bad idea as a £20 note is unaffected by the internet ! This is just today's woes but I've seen this happen to lots of people before such as Bank system going down , A lost bank card, Fraud leading to locked cards etc etc !
 
I agree BB. I laugh in the face of all the easily programmable 'sheep' out there that think cash is unnecessary. :ROFLMAO:

I use cards and electronic transfer of course, just like most people - it's hard not to nowadays. However, I will always carry cash and I will always deal in cash as much as possible - it's worked well for me over the sixty years plus I've been using it. Other than a counterfeit tenner on one occasion, the only money problems I've ever had (apart from there never being enough of it) have been down to banks and their regularly failing electronic systems. :headbang:
 
I tend to use a mixture of both really depending on the situation. I do always have some notes in the wallet though. I will admit, I do hate change and the wallet doesn't even carry it.....
 
Needed cash for a secondhand vinyl turntable yesterday so into local bank, 20 minutes it took to get money out of the tellers hands, first response was”I don’t have that much in my till”, me “well check the safe”, off she trundled and came back with funds, 20 questions about fraud and the reason I wanted cash, “coke and hookers” is not the correct response apparantly! The queue that had formed behind me looked unhappy as I left, and suggested to the “greeter? maybe have sandwiches and coffee for customers might be an idea, or just have two teller positions available for actual visiting customers, blank look back.
 
LeeRatters said:
I tend to use a mixture of both really depending on the situation. I do always have some notes in the wallet though. I will admit, I do hate change and the wallet doesn't even carry it.....
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Change goes in my pocket, and my wallet, it’s a money clip.
 
I put all my loose change in a bottle - at the end of each year, I'll count it and bag it. It always comes to a few hundred quid and on one occasion tallied up to over a grand. (y)

As the banks like to charge us for paying money in now, mostly I'll swap it for folding in the local pub - they always want 'shrapnel'.
 
There are people on this site who think that cashless is the future and claim not to have issues but the technical glitches do worry me. We're not exactly in the wilderness here in east Cleveland but hardly a week goes by without some sort of internet issue which may take hours or even days to resolve and we see this in shops too with "Sorry, the system's slow today" being a regular thing to hear.

I don't think we should go any further down the cashless route until the tech is stable and reliable (and I can't see that happening any time soon) and then of course there are the control / freedom issues. We've seen in Canada and possibly other places too how a computer based monetary system can be abused by governments to suppress what they see as descent and I've every confidence it could happen here too.
 
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We stayed in a cottage in Devon last year, arrived in the evening so decided to drive 4 miles to nearest town to get a take away. Found out all the take aways in town only took cash and as I only had my phone with me I couldn't even get cash from a machine. Ate late that night
 
I always keep some loose change in my pockets as a 'just in case', I've lost count though of the amount of holes in jeans pockets that's caused [along with keys] over the years - But generally I use my bank card, almost always bar paying for the lotto at work or to get a trolley at Tesco ir Aldi or for that very rare shop that doesn't have card machines [they still exist!] I rarely ever need to have paper cash in the wallet. And on the very rare occasion [I can think of one time in the past few months] where card payment machines were down in a shop and they had a 'cash only' sign up most shops that do take card also have their own cash machine in store.
 
Thing that annoys me is when checking out at a supermarket with your phone it then asks you to insert a card to verify the transaction.

That's at home of course so you have to put your (almost) purchased items by customer services, go get the card and then pay. I have tried the switching off and on phone cure but that rarely works.
 
Cagey75 said:
I use my bank card, almost always bar paying for the lotto at work or to get a trolley at Tesco ir Aldi
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How long till some idiot reinvents the wheel and starts making electronic trolleys ?
 
Cagey75 said:
or for that very rare shop that doesn't have card machines [they still exist!]
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A friend of mine has a Pet shop and took the card machine out because if he sold a cheap item such as a dog chew/treat or the like the cost of the card transaction to him meant he was left with two options make a loss on the product or make the price unrealistic to gain the card charge back and then not sell the item as it was too expensive. We some times forget we are all charged for using a card one way or the other !
 
BADGER.BRAD said:
A friend of mine has a Pet shop and took the card machine out because if he sold a cheap item such as a dog chew/treat or the like the cost of the card transaction to him meant he was left with two options make a loss on the product or make the price unrealistic to gain the card charge back and then not sell the item as it was too expensive. We some times forget we are all charged for using a card one way or the other !
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Now that you mention it, a while back I went into a local chippy to ask for a garlic sauce - that is all I wanted as I had dinner already sorted but her good self wanted 'chippy garlic sauce' specifically - the owner was on till and said it would cost them to sell it to me by card, so they just let me have it for free - couple days later I dropped them in €2, they thought it was hilarious that I'd bothered to but fair's fair :)
 
Harriers9 said:
Thing that annoys me is when checking out at a supermarket with your phone it then asks you to insert a card to verify the transaction.

That's at home of course so you have to put your (almost) purchased items by customer services, go get the card and then pay. I have tried the switching off and on phone cure but that rarely works.
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Never had that and very rarely have my card, which supermarket does that
 
Sky said:
I put all my loose change in a bottle - at the end of each year, I'll count it and bag it. It always comes to a few hundred quid and on one occasion tallied up to over a grand. (y)

As the banks like to charge us for paying money in now, mostly I'll swap it for folding in the local pub - they always want 'shrapnel'.
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Yep, pockets emptied every night in various piggy banks-makes the twice annual count easier.
 
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Harriers9 said:
Thing that annoys me is when checking out at a supermarket with your phone it then asks you to insert a card to verify the transaction.

That's at home of course so you have to put your (almost) purchased items by customer services, go get the card and then pay. I have tried the switching off and on phone cure but that rarely works.
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Easy way to get over that is to clear the transaction and and do it again. Most of the card machines have a red cancel button, then just press pay by card again that normally clears it and it works the second time. That's what we do when it happens in .
the shop I volunteer for.
It's the bank randomly checking that it is you using the card and not someone that has stolen it
 
nog said:
We stayed in a cottage in Devon last year, arrived in the evening so decided to drive 4 miles to nearest town to get a take away. Found out all the take aways in town only took cash and as I only had my phone with me I couldn't even get cash from a machine. Ate late that night
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We went to Vienna in 2019, Brittany in 2022, so many places didn't take cards including many markets, small shops, patisseries, restaurants. In our large village here in England, neither the Chinese takeaway or the kebab house take cards. The best fish and chip shop within ten miles only takes cash.
Cash is alive and kicking and if you haven't got it - you could starve.
 
I must live in a parallel universe because cash is still king for me.
For a start, there's the farming side, most farmers still prefer to deal in cash, if we sell someone a few bales of hay for example, or a machine, it's nearly always cash, although most farmers still use cheques.
And my hobby/sport is clay pigeon shooting, and nearly all of the shooting grounds only accept cash (probably because there's no internet signal, so they can't take card payments).

But, things are changing quickly. We operate a small shop for our horse rescue charity, and even our charity shop takings are now about 50/50 cash and card payment, and we prefer card because it's easier for us, and much more secure than cash. Cash can, in theory, be paid in at the local post office, but the limit is too low, which means that we have to go to the bank, and bank branches are becoming rare, and it's impossible to park near the branch, increasing the robbery risk.

I've been told that in China, cash has almost disappeared, this will be largely due to government controls, because obviously they don't want people evading tax, but there may also be an element of "Big brother is watching what you're spending your money on".
 
The two £10 notes in my wallet has been there for quite a few years, definitely before COVID.
In fact, the slim wallet rarely gets opened these days, only being carried as backup. All my card details are saved in my password manager for online shopping and I use Apple pay most of the time.

Cash is king for some people, it's understandable. The builder and plumber I'm talking to wants cash.... for reasons ;)


For me, everyday spending is much easier without dealing with the coins. In our cars, we have a coins purse. But nowadays I try see more and more contactless equipped ticket machines if not I don't mind pay a bit extra to pay via apps. Those purses only get raided for £1 coin for trolley/locker these days.

I've yet to ever experience payment technology fail in my area (London and around home counties). But I expect need to prepare some cash for my road trip to Isle of Skye next month.
 
My opinion is shops that only accept cash also don't ring money in the till , I have 2 near me they just open the till , Reason ? no accountability . One shop is a local cafe the other is a hair dressers , A classic one is hand car washes , No till no receipt .
 
Horses for courses I guess, but having been a long-time advocate of card over cash since Covid, I'm now reverting to having and using cash more, partly for easier spending control, and partly because I see what those Russkies are aiming at (undersea Internet cables) and don't want my life to be hostage to internet fortune, so I'm planning to have a secure place for a bit of hard cash rainy day fund, and revert to carrying a decent amount topped up each week. I may be joining the tin-hat brigade slightly here, but it's a legitimate worry I think.
 
I pay my cleaner in cash. Everything else is card or bank transfer.

It's all funny money, i.e. no intrinsic value.
 
lindsay said:
...so I'm planning to have a secure place for a bit of hard cash rainy day fund...
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I carry a few hundred in tenners, secreted in my money belt.

That's purely for emergencies and I've only had to get the loot out once in twenty years or so, Apart from that, I seldom have more than £15 in my wallet. Most places seem to prefer transfers these days, because the bank charges are generally lower, from what I understand.

Money Ixus 70 0877.JPG
 
I heard an amusing story today regarding this subject a friend at work had his card stolen ( or he dropped it and someone picked it up) once he realized he didn't have it they had already used £120 on the contactless system so last week whilst waiting for his new card to arrive ( and using borrowed cash) he realized there was still money going out of his account so he rang the Bank they said the money had been spent on the new card that had never arrived ! No one seems to understand how this could be happening as it must have been half inched in transit and it should have had to been initialize by first using chip and pin ? I'm not anti card at all and use mine quite a lot but there has been so many people at work ripped off through the electronic money system that it makes you wonder who's paying for all this and I'm sure it's not the banks !
 
A dodgy postie could have pinched the new card and the letter containing the new PIN.
 
Now that the ice cream van, chip shop and kebab van take contactless, I don't carry cash at all. Think I've spent less than £100 in cash since the start of the pandemic. 12 years since I wrote a cheque. I've also got multiple contactless cards so if one throws a wobbler for any reason, I have more than one backup available.
mj4456 said:
Needed cash for a secondhand vinyl turntable yesterday so into local bank, 20 minutes it took to get money out of the tellers hands, first response was”I don’t have that much in my till”, me “well check the safe”, off she trundled and came back with funds, 20 questions about fraud and the reason I wanted cash, “coke and hookers” is not the correct response apparantly! The queue that had formed behind me looked unhappy as I left, and suggested to the “greeter? maybe have sandwiches and coffee for customers might be an idea, or just have two teller positions available for actual visiting customers, blank look back.
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My response would be "paying the plasterer, he looked at me like I'd arrived from another planet when I suggested a bank transfer".
 
Cash is important for the local coffee shops. Not that they don't take plastic, but my coffee & cake doesn't show up on the statement when I use cash. What the Mrs doesn't know won't hurt her :ROFLMAO:
 
Jelster said:
Cash is important for the local coffee shops. Not that they don't take plastic, but my coffee & cake doesn't show up on the statement when I use cash. What the Mrs doesn't know won't hurt her :ROFLMAO:
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That does bring one aspect to mind - tips! Paying by card at a cafe or restaurant , though you can choose to add a tip - does not ensure your personal waiter/ess receives it [highly unlikely, sadly] - whereas you pay in cash they are guaranteed it.
 
Some chains pool all the card tips and (allegedly...) share it out through the whole chain. I much prefer to leave some cash (when deserved) for the local staff.
 
Rick Waldroup said:
There is an old baseball stadium here in Texas that has been converted to an American football stadium. The old stadium is now completely cash free. They do not accept cash for anything- card only. What could possibly go wrong? ;)
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Collapse of society resulting in loss of the electricity grid to power the card terminals. I think we'll have more to worry about than being unable to buy hot dogs during an NFL game at that point though.
 
wyx087 said:
The two £10 notes in my wallet has been there for quite a few years, definitely before COVID.
In fact, the slim wallet rarely gets opened these days, only being carried as backup. All my card details are saved in my password manager for online shopping and I use Apple pay most of the time.

Cash is king for some people, it's understandable. The builder and plumber I'm talking to wants cash.... for reasons ;)


For me, everyday spending is much easier without dealing with the coins. In our cars, we have a coins purse. But nowadays I try see more and more contactless equipped ticket machines if not I don't mind pay a bit extra to pay via apps. Those purses only get raided for £1 coin for trolley/locker these days.

I've yet to ever experience payment technology fail in my area (London and around home counties). But I expect need to prepare some cash for my road trip to Isle of Skye next month.
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My bold. Yes, that happens a lot.I do wonder if they really are doing the job VAT-free and you'd pay that rate anyway. They just keep what would have gone to the exchequer. I don't suppose you got a receipt,either. We do a transfer..£16..to our window cleaner once a month. We had the carpets throughout cleaned a few weeks ago and that was also paid by transfer as was the gutter cleaning but I find that any building work that costs up to £400/500 they want cash.
 
There’s still some need for cash, although I don’t use it regularly nowadays.

Our neighbour comes round every year collecting for Poppy Day. He was complaning last year that nobody had any cash to put in the tin and that he might have to invest in a card reader.

Similarly, my wife and me distribute the parish magazine every month and then have to collect the subscription once a year. Nobody’s ever got the cash to hand to pay the subs, so we end up having to go back to most houses two or three times. (And no, I don’t know why the parish council can’t just request it directly by bank transfer).

Our local Chinese takeaway won’t take cards below £30 as they say it’s not worth their while. £30 buys an awful lot of food, certainly more than two of us can manage at one sitting, so I have to get some cash out before I collect it.
 
boogie man said:
Our local Chinese takeaway won’t take cards below £30 as they say it’s not worth their while. £30 buys an awful lot of food, certainly more than two of us can manage at one sitting, so I have to get some cash out before I collect it.
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Ours has a £10 minimum. I used to add prawn crackers to my order to reach £10 but in the last couple of years now comfortably exceed it without them.
 
I saw a teenager busking the other day. Guitar and amp. On the floor was the traditional guitar case for coins. Zip tied to a mic stand was a iZettle.

It's the future.
 
I don’t agree with the argument that some smaller shops use regarding card fees I.e a reason for only accepting cash. Having to queue up every day in your bank to deposit cash costs far more (in time alone). Internet signal aside I do see cash only signs as one thing and that’s tax evasion.
 
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