[Travel] O/T Cashless Society

[GT49er]

What do you give to a homeless person in Sweden?

A kicking, same as many people give them over here?

 

[Notters]

What do you give to a homeless person in Sweden?

Bitcoin?

 

[happypig]

I'm happy enough using cards but I don't feel right going out with less than about £50 in my wallet. I also carry an emergency £20 in a capsule on my key ring.

I have a few hundred stashed away at home in case it's needed.

Brown coins and 5ps I get in change go in the charity tin, or left on the counter if there isn't one. Other coins from ten pee up go in a gallon whisky bottle which, when emptied, nets us about a grand.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

Cash for me ... Always go to cash machine when going anywhere. Feel uncomfortable paying with plastic card for anything less than approx £50.

Crikey, I only pay cash for less than £5!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Small cash is slowly going out of fashion though. When was the last time you saw or used a fiver for example? And I can’t be arsed with coins at all; much rather use contactless than faff around with money. I know others who do the same.

Yesterday. I got two fivers out of the cash machine.

 

[Hungry Joe]

Steyning Tea Rooms still doing a roaring cash-only trade.

 

[theboybilly]

Cash for me in the pub at least. I watch folk pay by card for every round of drinks so that if they are making a session of it there could well be 7,8,9 (and so on) transactions. I don't think I would want that. ( although it might come in handy remembering how much I had to drink next morning )

 

[Fungus]

Our Big Issue seller is getting a card reader. He's ahead of me - I should be using one to collect all the £3 subs at my football sessions. Eventually I end up taking £200 of £1 coins to the bank.

 

[Knocky's Nose]

What do you give to a homeless person in Sweden?

Go on... what do you give to a homeless person in Sweden?

A Strawberry Moose... Abba-g of crisps, or a poke in the Ikea.... ?

 

[beorhthelm]

I pretty much use cash only on my trips to the U.K. these days. I keep a few 20s on me for emergency but use contactless and chip-and-pin pretty much everywhere. What are the bank fees for, say, a 99p a bag of crisps? Whatever they are they have not stopped me purchasing them on contactless.

not sure what the fees are. many small shops wont accept payments under £5 and the reason i understand is the fee, swallows their profits.

 

[Notters]

Yesterday. I got two fivers out of the cash machine.

Same here.

 

[MattBackHome]

Steyning Tea Rooms still doing a roaring cash-only trade.

Best scones I've ever had. In fact, the best afternoon tea I've ever had.

 

[marcos3263]

On the last Saturday before Christmas I took my 5 year old into Brighton to get some presents. We ran to the station in the pissing rain only for me to discover I had left my wallet at home. I couldn't make my son run home again and we would also have missed the train so used the contactless on my phone to buy a ticket. I got into town, did all my shopping, had coffee and food with no worries. I did go to the bank and used contactless cashpoint to withdraw £30 but didn't actually need it. I bought something over £30 and just had to put in my PIN. was so easy.

As I am extremely old looking I dont need to worry about ID for pubs etc so I just need to get a Yale contactless door lock and I can do away with all excess baggage.

 

[timbha]

HMRC and the police will love a cashless society where every payment can be checked and monitored electronically. Also massive savings on security, eg banking of cash that usually involves one or two people framing an hour to lug a bag of cash to and from the bank.

Despite all that I feel I have greater control over my expenditure with cash.

No more throwing coins into a blanket being walked around the Goldstone pitch for charity!

 

[Seagull kimchi]

Once apon a time our money was worth it's weight in gold/silver/copper. Now the treasury maintains possession of the true value of our labour and doles out tokens. Try trading those tokens in for precious metals if the economy tanks.

 

[Knocky's Nose]

HMRC and the police will love a cashless society where every payment can be checked and monitored electronically....

That's it. Right there.

The extra tax revenue which would come from being cashless would be even greater. Plus, how would organised crime and drug dealers operate? They'd have to use money laundering services or set up businesses to do it themselves. Best way - you catch them, worst ways - you get a wad of tax out of them.

 

[Knocky's Nose]

Drugs already dealers use cryptocurrency. In a truly cashless society, they'd be dependent on it. The reason Bitcoin is so valuable is largely due to illicit trading.

Isn't every transaction via a crypto traceable?

Plus - many of the poorer drug users wouldn't have a Crypto account anyway, would they? For that, don't you need a bank account - then transfer to crypto - then that's traceable who they pay it to?

 

[darkwolf666]

What do you give to a homeless person in Sweden?

Didn't you know all homeless people now have PayPal accounts or contactless machines!

 

[beorhthelm]

Cryptocurrency is completely anonymous. There is no way of tracing it back to where or who it came from, or what the purchase was, which is why drug dealers can freely sell illegal goods on the dark web.

the blockchain contains a public record of all transactions. link someone to an address and you can trace all transactions they make. need to adopt specifical anonymous crypto like Monero, Dash, Zcash to hide.

 

[Knocky's Nose]

the blockchain contains a public record of all transactions...

Which was my understanding.