[Finance] A Cashless Society.

[drew]

I certainly hope not. Not unless they provide a free electronic alternative.

More to the point, unlikely. There will still be a lot of people who really don't want to have to pay their 6 year old's spending money by transfer to a smartphone. There may even be people who don't want their 6 year old to have a smartphone!

Do you get charged for using your contactless payment?

 

[southstandandy]

Do you get charged for using your contactless payment?

My local newsagent incurs a 5p charge for each card transaction. He only makes 5p profit on the sale of a newspaper, so if somebody pops in to buy a paper only and uses their card he makes nothing. He is giving up his lease at the end of the year because of the costs.

 

[drew]

My local newsagent incurs a 5p charge for each card transaction. He only makes 5p profit on the sale of a newspaper, so if somebody pops in to buy a paper only and uses their card he makes nothing. He is giving up his lease at the end of the year because of the costs.

Interesting article, albeit from the point of view from a cashless service provider, but gives an insight into hidden costs of cash.

Cash vs. Credit: Which Should You Accept for Your Small Business

What is the true cost of cash when it comes to accepting payment methods for your business?

squareup.com

 

[Rogero]

Visa went down a few years back and it was chaos getting out of Gatwick car park .

 

[Springal]

My local newsagent incurs a 5p charge for each card transaction. He only makes 5p profit on the sale of a newspaper, so if somebody pops in to buy a paper only and uses their card he makes nothing. He is giving up his lease at the end of the year because of the costs.

Sounds like they need to find a cheaper card processor - 1.5% ish is the norm

 

[beorhthelm]

Interesting article, albeit from the point of view from a cashless service provider, but gives an insight into hidden costs of cash.

Cash vs. Credit: Which Should You Accept for Your Small Business

What is the true cost of cash when it comes to accepting payment methods for your business?

squareup.com

company selling card services shockingly finds they are cheaper than cash

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

My local newsagent incurs a 5p charge for each card transaction. He only makes 5p profit on the sale of a newspaper, so if somebody pops in to buy a paper only and uses their card he makes nothing. He is giving up his lease at the end of the year because of the costs.

I imagine newspaper sales have tailed off significantly as well.

 

[beorhthelm]

Visa went down a few years back and it was chaos getting out of Gatwick car park .

this is the major concern to going cashless. we are building a fragile society that will lock up at best when there's any sort of system failure. i've seen two outages of card network, i'm sure there's been others. infrequent but an insight to what happens, nothing works.

 

[Blues Guitarist]

Best long-term argument I've heard for "against" is that £10 isn't worth £10 after just one transaction. Leaving Shops to one side (the major places where one has always tended use card payments), the chiropractor you go to, or the local bike repair shop, or the little pub on the corner, it's always best to pay in cash if you can.

The really interesting science programme Secret Genius of Modern Life (iPlayer) looks at how credit cards came to be; fascinating on its own, but the technology behind 'tapping' is astounding, what the card people (usually Visa) do in a fraction of a second is amazing - my point being that it has to be paid for. So why pay for it if you don't have to?

You also have to pay for cash, for businesses managing cash and for fraud associated with cash.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

How about when you lose your card (as I did 18 months ago, just before Christmas)? I managed to get to the bank and got a wad of cash out for my shopping. I'd have been stuffed in a cashless world.

Maybe in the cashless world a spare card to be kept at home will be the answer? Or maybe the bank can issue a temporary emergency card instead of a “wad of cash”?

 

[Marshy]

CBDC are coming, ( well they are already here ) they just need to be done correctly....

Cash will stay, but there will be a lot less of it imo.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Don't worry, that 'Champion of the People' Nigel Farage - along with his band of merry people at GB News - is on the case. I'm sure it won't be long before Sunak introduces a law that bans the banning of cash to keep ole Nige happy.

 

[Gwylan]

Maybe in the cashless world a spare card to be kept at home will be the answer?

I had a spare card: Mrs G and I have a joint account for household bills - that was lost at the same time

 

[Peteinblack]

The banks are determined to close all their branches and move everything online. Cheques now have a limited shelf life. Cash is our last bastion against Big Brother knowing every minute detail about your life. Not for me.

If you don't want Big Brother knowing every detail of your life, I trust you don't use the internet or a Smartphone!

 

[drew]

Best long-term argument I've heard for "against" is that £10 isn't worth £10 after just one transaction.

That's not strictly true though as you're just looking at it from the point of view of a bank note. If a business takes payment, whatever form, it will extract from that value the cost of running that business and then it is left with the profit and that is what they have to spend. Rather than looking at it from the point of view of one bank note think of it as a transaction of say £100 (10 x £10 notes). From that he has to pay tax, staff costs, rent, suppliers etc etc. For arguments sake, say 50% of his income goes in expenses. From his point of view he now only has 5x£10 notes to spend.

It's over 40 years since I studied economics but I'm sure there was a measurement for the decreasing value of money as it went through multiple transactions but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.

 

[Deleted member 37369]

As has been mentioned, and also from my personal experience, Denmark and Sweden are pretty much cashless......I wonder what happens over there in such events? Calling @danish seagull

I use Apple Pay rather than the physical card itself. I can load all my cards on and just select the one I want to use depending on what I'm paying for. I also think (hope) I'm less likely to loose my phone compared to taking a card out of a wallet to use.

I'm cashless apart from paying my barber - mainly because I give him a decent tip and I want him to have that in cash. Other than that it's only if we've run out of milk and I walk down to our local shop where I don't want to be using a card for a couple of squid.

 

[Lenny Rider]

I hope the resistance to the cashless society will gather momentum, part of society actually needs it to operate and abolishing it brings the Orwellian prophecy of total control ever nearer.

I‘m slightly miffed about the ongoing bank policies of asking where certain cash sums have come from when paying in.

 

[drew]

How about when you lose your card (as I did 18 months ago, just before Christmas)? I managed to get to the bank and got a wad of cash out for my shopping. I'd have been stuffed in a cashless world.

Well in the future, there might not be a bank to get to!

 

[drew]

I use Apple Pay rather than the physical card itself. I can load all my cards on and just select the one I want to use depending on what I'm paying for. I also think (hope) I'm less likely to loose my phone compared to taking a card out of a wallet to use.

I'm cashless apart from paying my barber - mainly because I give him a decent tip and I want him to have that in cash. Other than that it's only if we've run out of milk and I walk down to our local shop where I don't want to be using a card for a couple of squid.

So you're quite happy for your barber to dodge a bit of tax

 

[Daddies_Sauce]

If you don't want Big Brother knowing every detail of your life, I trust you don't use the internet or a Smartphone!

And stay indoors, how many times per day are you captured on CCTV or security cameras?