Is it the end of cash?

[Polar Bear]

Much better than those Coinstar machines that some supermarkets have, to exchange coins for notes, which charge about 7.5%.

I prefer the self checkouts which will exchange large quantities of small change for, well, shopping.

I hate to think how long £175.84 would take me to feed into the self service checkout!  I only do 1 big supermarket shop every 10 days or so.

They do take notes and give change.  Nine £20 notes won't take very long at all.

It's all about personal perceptions and preferences.

[Kim]

One implication of almost universal card use is how one handles tips. I don’t like adding a tip onto a card payment as I suspect that it won’t end up with the person I intend it for.
At the moment ( well, in normal times) I’ll pay by card but tip in cash. If cash virtually disappears that’s going to be more difficult.

You say that as if it's a bad thing.  People should be paid properly.

Not that we have much of a tipping culture in the UK, thankfully.

[Kim]

Much better than those Coinstar machines that some supermarkets have, to exchange coins for notes, which charge about 7.5%.

I prefer the self checkouts which will exchange large quantities of small change for, well, shopping.

I hate to think how long £175.84 would take me to feed into the self service checkout!  I only do 1 big supermarket shop every 10 days or so.

Usually the way it works is that I'd feed a couple of quid's worth of small change into the machine, and pay the remainder by card.

[citoyen]

I don’t like adding a tip onto a card payment as I suspect that it won’t end up with the person I intend it for.

Cash tips don't necessarily go direct to the person who served you either - many restaurants operate a tronc, with all tips gathered and distributed among the staff.

(Whether a waiter will put cash tips into the tronc rather than their own pocket is a matter of conscience.)

[Cudzoziemiec]

One implication of almost universal card use is how one handles tips. I don’t like adding a tip onto a card payment as I suspect that it won’t end up with the person I intend it for.
At the moment ( well, in normal times) I’ll pay by card but tip in cash. If cash virtually disappears that’s going to be more difficult.

You say that as if it's a bad thing.  People should be paid properly.

Not that we have much of a tipping culture in the UK, thankfully.

Not compared to some countries, most obviously the USA, but we do compared to others, such as IME Austria and NZ. But then the same could be said (not necessarily the same comparators) of our paying properly.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I also use cash on the bike. I’m sure that it’s just me being old , but I don’t like carrying cards or a posh phone as I’ve seen to many drop out of pockets whilst riders are looking for their gels, cape etc.

Whereas I try to use exclusively card on the bike. It fits easily in a jersey pocket, weighs virtually nothing, doesn't make holes in anything (physical), doesn't jangle.

[Kim]

I also use cash on the bike. I’m sure that it’s just me being old , but I don’t like carrying cards or a posh phone as I’ve seen to many drop out of pockets whilst riders are looking for their gels, cape etc.

Whereas I try to use exclusively card on the bike. It fits easily in a jersey pocket, weighs virtually nothing, doesn't make holes in anything (physical), doesn't jangle.

I use whatever's convenient.  They both live in my wallet, which goes in my rack bag or pannier, where some sort of secure closure stops it escaping.

[ian]

No wallet, just the watch or phone these days. I think my wallet is in the kitchen, but I don't think I've seen it since March.

[bobb]

I wonder if buskers* and street performers are going to have to start accepting card payments as nobody is going to have any coins to hand. Also what happens to low level drug dealers? Maybe they just get their clients to PayPal them the money. I imagine those higher up the chain use Bitcoin....

*Are buskers tax dodgers? 

[Polar Bear]

No wallet, just the watch or phone these days. I think my wallet is in the kitchen, but I don't think I've seen it since March.

OK.  So have I misunderstood the "thing" where occasionally you are required to use the physical card?  I'm sure that I have read that there is in effect a verification transaction from time to time to ensure that a device used for payments is legitimate.

[giropaul]

One implication of almost universal card use is how one handles tips. I don’t like adding a tip onto a card payment as I suspect that it won’t end up with the person I intend it for.
At the moment ( well, in normal times) I’ll pay by card but tip in cash. If cash virtually disappears that’s going to be more difficult.

You say that as if it's a bad thing.  People should be paid properly.




Not that we have much of a tipping culture in the UK, thankfully.

I don’t see it as subsidising poor pay. I would avoid places where staff rely on tips. However, I do see it as a tangible way of thanking someone for, maybe, going above and beyond. In cash, at Christmas I recognise the efforts of our postie, regular parcel delivery people, the man who battles through snow and floods with our paper. I usually phrase it h“ have a drink with me”. Maybe it’s a rural thing, but I’ll regularly “ give a drink” to someone who has given good service.

[ian]

No wallet, just the watch or phone these days. I think my wallet is in the kitchen, but I don't think I've seen it since March.

OK.  So have I misunderstood the "thing" where occasionally you are required to use the physical card?  I'm sure that I have read that there is in effect a verification transaction from time to time to ensure that a device used for payments is legitimate.

I don't think any of the virtual payment platforms do this, that's only for contactless card use. I've not used my physical debit card for several months (it's not even left the house), just the Apple Pay 'version.'

[MikeFromLFE]

We've got a mug of strange currency collected over the years - including huge amounts of Zambian Kwachas (probably worth 6p) - this has been played with by all the grandchildren, which means it's value in our world is almost certainly more than the value of stuffs we could nominally purchase with it.
They also play with the long out of date cards kept in the same place, which is a sure sign of the times.

[Adam]

Much better than those Coinstar machines that some supermarkets have, to exchange coins for notes, which charge about 7.5%.

I prefer the self checkouts which will exchange large quantities of small change for, well, shopping.

I hate to think how long £175.84 would take me to feed into the self service checkout!  I only do 1 big supermarket shop every 10 days or so.

They do take notes and give change.  Nine £20 notes won't take very long at all.

It's all about personal perceptions and preferences.

Agreed, but in this context I was specifically referring to that amount in coins which I'd previously paid into the bank.

[citoyen]

I still laugh about the time my friend got friend thrown off the bus for attempting to pay his fare in coppers. And that was over the matter of something like 45p (or whatever the fare was from Headingley to Leeds city centre in ~1993).

[Cudzoziemiec]

I think it was 1998 when I tried to pay a bus fare with a fiver. The driver sighed, said he couldn't possibly give change cos he'd only just come on shift and simply didn't have the change, so I'd have to take a credit note. So the next day, I tried to use the credit note. This time, the driver (different driver) didn't just sigh, he turned his engine off. This was not a good beginning... It took him about ten minutes to fill in various forms, take my credit note, give me a different one for the new amount and tell me I really ought to take it to the office in the bus station.

Nowadays ''it's cheaper on the app.''

[mark]

I think it was 1998 when I tried to pay a bus fare with a fiver. The driver sighed, said he couldn't possibly give change cos he'd only just come on shift and simply didn't have the change, so I'd have to take a credit note. So the next day, I tried to use the credit note. This time, the driver (different driver) didn't just sigh, he turned his engine off. This was not a good beginning... It took him about ten minutes to fill in various forms, take my credit note, give me a different one for the new amount and tell me I really ought to take it to the office in the bus station.

Nowadays ''it's cheaper on the app.''

Buses around here simply do not give change, and have not for many years.I'm a little surprised that any public bus does. And yes, there is an app and I'm told that it's cheaper.

[orienteer]

London buses don't take cash. Period.

[Kim]

London buses don't take cash. Period.

And haven't done since well before the pandemic.  Makes it much quicker to board.

[grams]

I think it was 1998 when I tried to pay a bus fare with a fiver. The driver sighed, said he couldn't possibly give change cos he'd only just come on shift and simply didn't have the change, so I'd have to take a credit note.

When I was a student in Manchester I got straight up turned away for trying to pay with a ten pound note. "Because we've had fake ones".

I was going to the cinema (remember those?) and the next bus wouldn't get me there in time. And for that and many other reasons, Manchester will always be a total (various expletives).

I sat in the bus shelter and waited a decade for apps to be invented.

[citoyen]

London buses don't take cash. Period.

And haven't done since well before the pandemic.  Makes it much quicker to board.

Way behind the times. Bordeaux buses weren’t taking cash when I lived there in the early 90s (and hadn't been for many years, I think). You had to buy tickets in advance from the newsagent and stamp them in the machine on board.

I worked out that it was actually more cost effective to take the risk of being caught occasionally by the rubbing handsroving hands [eta: bloody autocorrect!] of ticket inspectors and paying the fine. Though being a conscientious type, I did usually buy my weekly carnet. I would often use the spare ticket at weekends to go exploring the outer reaches of the local bus network - you could take up to four buses on a single ticket, as long as the fourth stamp was within an hour of the first.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've no idea if the buses here give change now. I think they still take cash so I presume they do. The last time I took a bus was maybe 2018 and I paid contactless.

Buses in Poland (which I used to use a fair amount) and also in Slovakia etc haven't taken cash since, ooh at a guess 1945. Buy a ticket from a nearby shop used to be the system, I've no idea what it is now.*

Dwell times are the reason.

*ETA: This applies to the 'corporation' buses. Private ones, mostly in rural areas, take cash only – or did when I last used one, I expect they've gone contactless etc now.

[quixoticgeek]

I wonder if buskers* and street performers are going to have to start accepting card payments as nobody is going to have any coins to hand. Also what happens to low level drug dealers? Maybe they just get their clients to PayPal them the money. I imagine those higher up the chain use Bitcoin....

*Are buskers tax dodgers? 

I've seen buskers in London where they had a contactless terminal on a stand in front of them. I think I saw one that had several for different amounts, so you could swipe the £2 or the £5 etc...

J

[Davef]

I wonder if buskers* and street performers are going to have to start accepting card payments as nobody is going to have any coins to hand. Also what happens to low level drug dealers? Maybe they just get their clients to PayPal them the money. I imagine those higher up the chain use Bitcoin....

*Are buskers tax dodgers? 

I've seen buskers in London where they had a contactless terminal on a stand in front of them. I think I saw one that had several for different amounts, so you could swipe the £2 or the £5 etc...

J

Big Issue sellers to accept contactless payments https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49632116

[Cudzoziemiec]

Boy was sent to stupourmarket for some things and decided to get himself a burger on the way home. Disappointment! They now only take cash. There is a cash machine directly across the road, in fact it's in the external wall of the Sainsbury's he'd just come out of, but he didn't have a card either - only phone. Besides, he says he wouldn't have considered it worth waiting for the lights to change, crossing the road, getting cash out, then waiting for the lights to change again, etc...

Cash is clearly not dead but there does seem to be an increasing gap between cash-only and card-only retailers, with no way of predicting where any particular place will be.  In this particular case, most of their business is now Deliveroo and similar - so they're obviously open to electronic payments on a larger scale. Perhaps it's the per transaction fees that make eftpos unviable for them on an individual level?