[Brighton] Cashless AMEX

[drew]

It's not simply about not affording something, it's about keeping track of spending, so you are aware of the moment you go from 'I can afford this' to 'I can't afford this'. If you've got a tenner in your pocket at the start of the day, you know when you've spent it. If you've got a card, you spend that ten pound, you still have the card. Did you get 6 of those £1 things, or 7? Do you still have enough left over for a pint?

And if you pay by phone, you should have an app that allows you to see how much you've spent, just like looking in your wallet!

 

[wellquickwoody]

Already trialling phone only transactions now. At least one Sainsbury’s in UK and 7/11 here.

 

[Beach Hut]

It has been mainly cashless for me from day 1 given the extortionate prices charged

 

[RyansTache]

Definitely.

Speed up queues, make the staff life easier, and, surely, give PB a chance to earn more money for TB at the next franchise talks.

 

[Acker79]

I don’t want to be insensitive, but is this really the case? If you are watching the pennies surely you’ll remember how much you’ve spent regardless of the medium?

And if you pay by phone, you should have an app that allows you to see how much you've spent, just like looking in your wallet!

I do not consider myself rich, but I able to live my life without a constant worry of how I'm going to pay for my next meal, I can afford luxuries and treats and am sure there are section of society that would say I am. Going cashless at the amex will not affect me. But I am aware that the move to cashless is causing issues around the world for poor people, students, pensioners, and the homeless, though perhaps am not the best person to fully explain the practicalities. I would also perhaps caution the dangers of the tendency to sit in a comfortable life with simplistic 'why not just...'. There's a lot of complexities that one can't necessarily appreciate unless you experience them. A lot of pensioners may struggle with smart phones, for example. These still require you to have a day-to-day bank account (some people might only have a savings account or building society account that doesn't allow easy access).

Here are a few articles

But cash remains an economic necessity for an estimated 25 million people in the UK, most notably the 1.3 million who don’t have bank accounts.
https://qz.com/1516563/cashless-societies-are-harmful-for-the-poor-elderly-and-homeless/

Credit and debit card payments cost traders on average three times as much as cash because they have to pay a service charge to the bank that processes the payment. Part of that, the interchange fee, is passed to the card issuer and most of the rest, the scheme fee, goes to Visa or Mastercard.

The EU capped interchange fees in 2015 and, this year, banned traders from recouping the cost through a surcharge on card transactions. However, Visa and Mastercard have diverted the savings into their coffers by quietly doubling their scheme fees. Businesses now pay nearly £1bn a year more in these charges than in 2015 and small businesses, such as cafes and corner shops, are disproportionately hit.
...
More than half of the 2.7 million people who rely mainly on cash have a household income of less than £15,000. They are being increasingly penalised as the best deals for utilities, telecoms and even train tickets are only available online to cardholders, while universal credit will only be transferred to a bank or building society account, without the previous option of cash cheques redeemable at post offices. And whereas before the ban on card surcharges only customers who chose to pay with plastic bore the cost of the transaction, now the poorest and the unbanked have to share the bill.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/oct/01/cashless-britain-banks-atms

It is easier to spend more than you intend when you are paying for your lunch with a credit card, to get the fizzy grapefruit drink when, really, you’d be fine with water. When cash is renounced you carry less of it, or maybe even none of it. And so you are not as prone to certain spontaneous acts of generosity — to put a few dollars in a tip jar where workers are underpaid or give money to a homeless person on a cold night on your way home from work.

Forcing people to use credit cards also forces them into compromising their privacy while paradoxically making everyday exchanges feel more impersonal. Businesses see this as efficiency, and efficiency is profit. And as the recent revelations from Facebook suggest, what else matters?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/nyregion/how-the-cashless-economy-shuts-out-the-poor.html

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a grand ambition to make his country into a cashless society. In 2014, he launched a scheme to provide bank accounts to the nearly 40 percent of the population with little or no access to financial services. In November 2016, he withdrew 500 and 1,000 rupee notes ($7.80 and $15.60), the country’s two most common banknotes, from circulation.

The aim was to clamp down on black-market money and get more people into the formal economy, but it had a negative effect on the poor, with micro and small-scale service businesses cutting 35 percent of staff in the first few months, and some families left unable to afford fruit and vegetables.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cashless-society-poor-exclusion_n_5a857082e4b0ab6daf463c4a

With cashlessness becoming a new economic frontier, the effects of such state-led policies on cash-dependent economies must be considered seriously before they are indiscriminately introduced. My work in India leads me to believe that cash plays an important role in our modern economy, particularly among the poor, and those urging a cashless future should do so with great caution.
http://theconversation.com/why-a-cashless-society-would-hurt-the-poor-a-lesson-from-india-79735

If history is any indication, the effects of these technological changes on society’s most vulnerable people won’t be considered until they’ve become a reality.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/cashless-amazon-walmart-workers/578377/

According to new research by customer advice website Which?, the nationwide trend towards cashless transactions will have a harmful effect on the most vulnerable demographics in UK society, including low-income households and pensioners who are the most likely to use cash on a day-to-day basis.
https://www.moneyexpert.com/news/mo...proportionately-affect-pensioners-poorest-uk/


And again, the advice for money saving:
https://www.savethestudent.org/save-money/lifestyle/14-ways-to-save-money-on-a-night-out.html

avoid buying rounds save money

However much you wanna be the good guy, don't get pulled into buying full rounds of drinks, especially if you're out in a large group. You can't afford to party like you're in Made in Chelsea, and if you can, what are you doing reading this guide?

Treating your mates to a round might seem like a nice thing to do, but it rarely works out fairly and often forces you into buying booze when you don't even want any more to drink.

If you do get roped into rounds, why not use this opportunity to save cash (and give your liver a break) by getting yourself a soft drink this time round (whatever it is, ask for a slice of lime in it and no one will even know the difference!).
Ditch the credit cards

don't take credit card on night out

Ever looked at your bank balance the morning after and had the shock of your life? Taking your debit or credit card out with you is never a good idea as it's so easy to lose track of how much you've spent (as mentioned above, this is where prepaids come in handy!).

Do yourself a favour and leave the credit cards at home – we promise they won't get lonely.




We also had a thread on here recently about spending abroad. We hope to appeal to football tourists, people who are visiting the country from overseas who maybe don't want to use their bank cards in a foreign country because of the exchange fees.

 

[DumLum]

Then if you can't afford something don't buy it? What's the difference today?

Babyboomer? Tory? You have missed the point.

 

[bluenitsuj]

No. Not an issue for me personally, but not everybody has a contactless card, however prevalent they have become.

I am sure their pin will work, so not an issue

 

[LamieRobertson]

I’d prefer bartering ..I have several bottle tops to offer in exchange

 

[DumLum]

Good idea until one day the wifi goes down and the cash only signs go up.

 

[Weststander]

Yes.

 

[SicilianHungary]

At least trial one cashless kiosk for each stand. I get paid in cash but put it all in the bank, much rather tap and go than wait around for change and have a heavy wallet in my pocket. I can keep track of my finances with the NatWest app.

 

[Seasidesage]

100% No. Whatever happened to personal choice?

 

[Lush]

I’d like contactless available at the Candy Wagons.

Mmmmm strawberry bonbons

 

[Stat Brother]

I’d like contactless available at the Candy Wagons.

Mmmmm strawberry bonbons

That could prove troublesome.

 

[drew]

I do not consider myself rich, but I able to live my life without a constant worry of how I'm going to pay for my next meal, I can afford luxuries and treats and am sure there are section of society that would say I am. Going cashless at the amex will not affect me. But I am aware that the move to cashless is causing issues around the world for poor people, students, pensioners, and the homeless, though perhaps am not the best person to fully explain the practicalities. I would also perhaps caution the dangers of the tendency to sit in a comfortable life with simplistic 'why not just...'. There's a lot of complexities that one can't necessarily appreciate unless you experience them. A lot of pensioners may struggle with smart phones, for example. These still require you to have a day-to-day bank account (some people might only have a savings account or building society account that doesn't allow easy access).

Here are a few articles

But cash remains an economic necessity for an estimated 25 million people in the UK, most notably the 1.3 million who don’t have bank accounts.
https://qz.com/1516563/cashless-societies-are-harmful-for-the-poor-elderly-and-homeless/

Credit and debit card payments cost traders on average three times as much as cash because they have to pay a service charge to the bank that processes the payment. Part of that, the interchange fee, is passed to the card issuer and most of the rest, the scheme fee, goes to Visa or Mastercard.

The EU capped interchange fees in 2015 and, this year, banned traders from recouping the cost through a surcharge on card transactions. However, Visa and Mastercard have diverted the savings into their coffers by quietly doubling their scheme fees. Businesses now pay nearly £1bn a year more in these charges than in 2015 and small businesses, such as cafes and corner shops, are disproportionately hit.
...
More than half of the 2.7 million people who rely mainly on cash have a household income of less than £15,000. They are being increasingly penalised as the best deals for utilities, telecoms and even train tickets are only available online to cardholders, while universal credit will only be transferred to a bank or building society account, without the previous option of cash cheques redeemable at post offices. And whereas before the ban on card surcharges only customers who chose to pay with plastic bore the cost of the transaction, now the poorest and the unbanked have to share the bill.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/oct/01/cashless-britain-banks-atms

It is easier to spend more than you intend when you are paying for your lunch with a credit card, to get the fizzy grapefruit drink when, really, you’d be fine with water. When cash is renounced you carry less of it, or maybe even none of it. And so you are not as prone to certain spontaneous acts of generosity — to put a few dollars in a tip jar where workers are underpaid or give money to a homeless person on a cold night on your way home from work.

Forcing people to use credit cards also forces them into compromising their privacy while paradoxically making everyday exchanges feel more impersonal. Businesses see this as efficiency, and efficiency is profit. And as the recent revelations from Facebook suggest, what else matters?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/nyregion/how-the-cashless-economy-shuts-out-the-poor.html

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a grand ambition to make his country into a cashless society. In 2014, he launched a scheme to provide bank accounts to the nearly 40 percent of the population with little or no access to financial services. In November 2016, he withdrew 500 and 1,000 rupee notes ($7.80 and $15.60), the country’s two most common banknotes, from circulation.

The aim was to clamp down on black-market money and get more people into the formal economy, but it had a negative effect on the poor, with micro and small-scale service businesses cutting 35 percent of staff in the first few months, and some families left unable to afford fruit and vegetables.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cashless-society-poor-exclusion_n_5a857082e4b0ab6daf463c4a

With cashlessness becoming a new economic frontier, the effects of such state-led policies on cash-dependent economies must be considered seriously before they are indiscriminately introduced. My work in India leads me to believe that cash plays an important role in our modern economy, particularly among the poor, and those urging a cashless future should do so with great caution.
http://theconversation.com/why-a-cashless-society-would-hurt-the-poor-a-lesson-from-india-79735

If history is any indication, the effects of these technological changes on society’s most vulnerable people won’t be considered until they’ve become a reality.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/cashless-amazon-walmart-workers/578377/

According to new research by customer advice website Which?, the nationwide trend towards cashless transactions will have a harmful effect on the most vulnerable demographics in UK society, including low-income households and pensioners who are the most likely to use cash on a day-to-day basis.
https://www.moneyexpert.com/news/mo...proportionately-affect-pensioners-poorest-uk/


And again, the advice for money saving:
https://www.savethestudent.org/save-money/lifestyle/14-ways-to-save-money-on-a-night-out.html

avoid buying rounds save money

However much you wanna be the good guy, don't get pulled into buying full rounds of drinks, especially if you're out in a large group. You can't afford to party like you're in Made in Chelsea, and if you can, what are you doing reading this guide?

Treating your mates to a round might seem like a nice thing to do, but it rarely works out fairly and often forces you into buying booze when you don't even want any more to drink.

If you do get roped into rounds, why not use this opportunity to save cash (and give your liver a break) by getting yourself a soft drink this time round (whatever it is, ask for a slice of lime in it and no one will even know the difference!).
Ditch the credit cards

don't take credit card on night out

Ever looked at your bank balance the morning after and had the shock of your life? Taking your debit or credit card out with you is never a good idea as it's so easy to lose track of how much you've spent (as mentioned above, this is where prepaids come in handy!).

Do yourself a favour and leave the credit cards at home – we promise they won't get lonely.




We also had a thread on here recently about spending abroad. We hope to appeal to football tourists, people who are visiting the country from overseas who maybe don't want to use their bank cards in a foreign country because of the exchange fees.

I didn't realize when Barber said about going cashless, he was talking about globally rather than just the Amex!!!

 

[drew]

100% No. Whatever happened to personal choice?

There could be but you'll have to have a longer queue at the concessions to exercise that right!

 

[albion534]

All ages and good until the machines stop working [emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Acker79]

I didn't realize when Barber said about going cashless, he was talking about globally rather than just the Amex!!!

I didn't realise the amex existed in isolation, unaffected by and not effecting the world in which it exists.

 

[melias shoes]

As an aside I use contactless at the AMEX already.

Same as. How thoroughly modern.

 

[The Kid Frankie]

I don’t want to be insensitive, but is this really the case? If you are watching the pennies surely you’ll remember how much you’ve spent regardless of the medium?

It is the case for those of us who enjoy a bevvy or ten.

I withdraw my Saturday beer tokens knowing that’s what I’m spending. If I’m let loose with my debit card it causes all kinds of problems.