Cashless Society

[jazzy_dave]

Good morning folks. Another wet day in the south east here but not working again until tomorrow. So it is another day of just relaxing having vacuumed around the house. Currently listening to Radio 3 of course. It is about electronic payments esp. contactless payments which i do not agree with since in the end the fraudsters will get a way around it. For the marginalized cash is still king esp. if you are on a tight budget.

I really hate the idea of a cashless society. It will disenfranchise many people who still do not use banks etc.

Cash in my terms is still legal tender.

What do you think?

Comments

[ravena-kade.livejournal.com]

I work for a bank and I know that the Fraud folks will get around it.

Using plastic to pay for things ends up getting average and lower incomed people into trouble as they are forced to pay for medical problems with cards and then cant pay them off. Young people want to keep up with their peers and end up spending too much. To many credit problems since the 1980s.

Cash is still king for me too.

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

Cash is good.
Unless of course diamonds is that alternatives. :p
Hugs, Jon

[grondfic.livejournal.com]

Totally agree - and we are not alone -

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/01/cash-money-freedom-marlon-james

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

I understand all those fears but...

From a cashier perspective, there's a lot less you can do wrong with a card. Generally, it's going to be either user error or on the money side when things go wrong.

As opposed to cash when...

You gave them too much change.
You didn't give them enough change.
Something went wrong when you changed funds between register and main money source.
You counted the money wrong for pickup.
You didn't fill out the check correctly for the customer or company.
You missed a fake bill.

And depending on the company, you could be sharing a register so even if you did everything right when the person after you didn't, you're BOTH written up!

I'll miss catching the odd coins: foreign, old but there are a lot of benefits.

They just need to make banking more normal which should start with getting rid of the legislation that bans the post office from banking.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

P.s.

I've also had a disturbing trend with customers where they proudly tell me they're using cash as though they're better than everyone else. They'll even mention how "I'll never be falling for THAT" or other things as though people who use cards must be idiots or deficient in some way.

If a person tells me proudly how they paid off all their debt and now only use cash, that's one thing but I don't want the cards to turn into class warfare because cards or check advance places are all some people to have to keep afloat.

As for me, I always think of one customer I had...he told me how he and a neighbor were buying gas for the winter off another person. He paid him with his credit card each month. The neighbor used cash that he paid in advance.
One day, the gas supplier just took off with no forwarding address.
The credit card payer was able to call his company and cancel all future payments.
The cash payer had paid in advance and was simply out that money, no recourse.

Now I always make sure I put big purchases on a credit card so I have a partner if I need recourse for it.
I also make sure it's paid off each month with no money carrying over to the next month but I want the paper trail for any future reference...most paper receipts are on special paper where the ink disappears after six months or so.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Something that really surprised me on our trip to Germany last year was the number of merchants who were cash-only. I don't know if their credit card processing fees are pretty ruinous for small margin businesses or what. On the last day of our tour I had to go to a grocery store ATM to get a fistful of Euros to tide us over.

I find it especially odd given how many small businesses here can get a Square account (or similar) to accept cards. I guess the different banking laws makes it hard to do something like that over in Europe.

(and Happy Birthday, Erica (belated)! We share the same date: it's also Beethoven's birthday and the date of the Boston Tea Party)

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

And apparently from the same radio programme Sweden has almost gone totally cashless where you cannot even pay in cash in many shops.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I read an article on that. Yeah, far rural areas and areas that don't have good telcoms will be totally screwed. I can't see a totally cashless society, but that seems to be the push. I wonder if it's an attempt at exerting more control over poor people.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

It's definitely an attempt at making more profits for banks, no doubt about it.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

I can't stand cash. Everything in the states is priced oddly, like 7.62, and they give you a handful of coins which are then in the laundry, all over my truck, on the floor. We have buckets of change we have to then haul to the bank only to be told they're keeping 10% of it for the burden of taking it off our hands. I use two cards and most of the year pay them off at the end of the month. December is the exception because--between the holidays and our annual Florida trip--it gets pricey.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I also have a big tin of coins, it's worth $300-400 when full and it's almost there. It's interesting when you look at countries like Vietnam or Japan where something costs 5 million whatevers because they don't use a decimal system when pricing items. Canada got rid of the penny a few years back and they talk about doing it here since they can't make a penny that costs less than $0.01 to make. When we were in Prague last year they have a non-decimal price system but they still use coins, part of the reason is that their public rest rooms are not free. It's a nominal fee, something like $0.25-0.50: you are paying for a bathroom attendant and they are CLEAN with no graphitti. Germany also has pay toilets with attendants, in one of the malls that we went to the bathroom turnstile machine also gave a coupon for a small discount in the shops there.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Don't possess a credit card (choice) so cash is still an option.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I have a debit card but that is it.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Me too.

I'll only spend what I've got.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Cash is still the best currency to me. Currency you cannot physically hold can get you into trouble and often does for a lot of people. then there are those who depend on us becoming a cashless society, as it is easier to rob the vulnerable that way...

*HUGS*

[inamac.livejournal.com]

Mobile phones terrify me - I can't even send a text on mine, the idea of using it to access my bank account turns me into a gibbering wreck with a desire to put all my money in cash under the nearest mattress where it is unlikely that one ill-advised keypress would leave me destitute.

I am delighted to learn that the Royal Mint is about to redesign our coins into something that actually looks like Real Money and not arcade tokens. They obviously have no more truck with e-money than I do.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

the people who cant afford a bank account get dinged with more fees than ever, one to open the account, another monthly to keep it open, minimum balance, a transaction fee, in some places they even had a fee for you to talk to a teller... sigh.

each advance in paying by card comes up fraught with chances of fraud or theft, I have gone to paying in cash in the places that have the terminals on the table, and will probably go to straight cash at all eateries soon.

[evilzerg-r.livejournal.com]

Don't like it. Those banks already have too much freedom around peoples money.

[kabuldur.livejournal.com]

I prefer cash. Yes, it can be stolen, but so can digital money. And all the bank fees make me angry.