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Cash less society has it arrived?

I use cash regularly for small purchases. The places I frequent for drinks and snacks either don't take debit/credit, or they charge a fee for using it to pay for small amounts.

Plus, I need a steady supply of loonies and quarters for the laundromat, so this ensures that I always have lots to go around. :D
 
acidfast7 said:
I do like the fact that the various € bills are in different sizes and colors. I can't stand the uniformity of the $. It's makes paying with cash, twice as slow.
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Shame the old Dutch Gilder bank notes are gone. They were very pretty - colourful and plastic.

guilder.jpg
 
Usually about $85 - $100 in my pocket. I pay for groceries, pharmacy stuff, the occasional Subway sub, and other small incidentals with cash.

Pretty much anything less than $30 - $40 I pay cash. Everything else with plastic. Never debit card, only credit cards.
 
I can't recall the last time I had cash on me. Cash flies out of my wallet fairly quickly. With cards, I have better records of what I'm spending and where I'm spending it. While I could easily pull out cash and record what I spend, that never seems to happen for me.
 
I don't think we are there yet, also there are still quite a few places where they don't accept card or certain types of cards that I have so I go by the better be save than sorry by always having some cash on me.
 
firestarter said:
Shame the old Dutch Gilder bank notes are gone. They were very pretty - colourful and plastic.

Image
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I'm collecting an interesting currency basket at home with stuff left over from trips.

Currently it has:

US Dollars
Swiss Francs
Danish Crowns
Swedish Crowns
Estonian Crowns
Latvian Crowns
Lithuanian Crowns
Polish Zloty
Romanian ?
Hungarian Forints
Thai Baht
Cambodian ?
Vietnamese Dong
British Pounds
Mexican Pesos

and a tons of coins

interesting bits are:

the Romanian money feels like recycled plastic and you can see through it
the Danish coins have a hole in the middle
the Dong is the has the highest demarcation (I think I took out 4000000 VND at one time)
the Swiss Money is the coolest looking
the Cambodian is the dirtiest and most work out, actually followed the small American currency, whereas the Romanian stuff looks printed yesterday

the Swedish 1000 SEK bill is the largest and the 20 SEK bill is the smallest (close in size to the 5€ bill, maybe a little smaller)

PS - just checked and the 500€ bill is the same size as the 1000SEK bill, I don't hold 500€ bills so often. Also, the 5€ is a little shorter than the 20SEK bill

interesting.
 
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I still use cash. A few key times when cash is significantly better than plastic:

• Shopping local businesses – as others have pointed out, why dump unnecessary costs onto a small business when cash is better (less expensive) for them, assuming cash is easily available to you?

• Taxi and public transit systems – often, cash is easier (for me) than remembering how much is on my little prepaid card. And paying for a taxi with cash sorta follows the same idea as the point above...

• Bars and food establishments, typically when drinking – I don't like my card disappearing for periods of time in the back room of any business, so cash is just safer in these cases.

I carry between $50-$150 on my person at any given time. You never know when an electronic payment terminal might be down, and why risk the inconvenience of having to find an ATM/use one that will charge you the annoying $2 fee if it's not your bank?
 
I rarely spend cash. Use my credit card for everything I possibly can, even paying bills. Get great record keeping plus 1-5% cash back. I don't carry a balance.
 
When I'm in the U.S. I use a card for pretty much everything, in Europe not so much. The difference is that in the U.S. you usually don't need a signature for small purchases (under $20?), in Europe you do so for little things it's quicker to use cash here.
 
jessica. said:
I can't recall the last time I had cash on me. Cash flies out of my wallet fairly quickly. With cards, I have better records of what I'm spending and where I'm spending it. While I could easily pull out cash and record what I spend, that never seems to happen for me.
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Same here. The only time I'll have cash is if someone is paying me back money they owe me, or if I'm going somewhere that I know is cash only. But right now, my wallet is empty and it will probably stay that way for awhile. I prefer plastic, it gives me a better overview of where my money's going.
 
Issuer's fees is one thing, another is all the paperwork and renting/buying a mobile card payment terminal. And what do you do in the event of a network fault, Do you let the customer go? Or what do you do if the customer reverses the payment afterwards?
 
rasmusonline said:
Issuer's fees is one thing, another is all the paperwork and renting/buying a mobile card payment terminal. And what do you do in the event of a network fault, Do you let the customer go? Or what do you do if the customer reverses the payment afterwards?
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Personally, I find more charm/charisma in the out-of-the-way places that don't accept anything but cash (French/Italian countryside for example). If I'm buying cheese directly from a Italian farmer, which we do every trip to Tuscany, do they take card? Nope.
 
maflynn said:
I have found the opposite to be true. Using a debit card stream lines the process completely. I got to Panera Bread for lunch, and I can observe the line slow moving line is a result of someone paying cash, where as the debit/credit card transactions are done in a fraction of the time.

as for me and cash, I generally don't carry any with me, but there are places that are cash only so I need to be sure if I take the subway into work, that I have money to pay for parking (cash only).
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really? I find paying cash is much quicker. being someone who (unfortunately) works on a till, I can safely say I prefer cash payments, as theyre much quicker. with card, its - insert card, wait for pin entry, enter pin, wait another few seconds, remove card, print receipt.. whereas with cash, they hand me it, I key it in, give change, boom. Few seconds max. I find card payments are a much more time consuming method of payment. Then you have people who ALWAYS insert their card too early, mistype their pin, don't press enter on the keypad and stand around waiting for nothing, put their cards in the wrong way round.. the list goes on :p
 
acidfast7 said:
Personally, I find more charm/charisma in the out-of-the-way places that don't accept anything but cash (French/Italian countryside for example). If I'm buying cheese directly from a Italian farmer, which we do every trip to Tuscany, do they take card? Nope.
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I tend to think in the same direction.

If a seller accepts credit cards I get the feeling that it is all about the money instead of passion for the things he does.
 
I don't often use cash, but I do still use it from time to time. There are still places around here that don't take plastic, and some others where I wouldn't want to use it if they did.
 
rasmusonline said:
I tend to think in the same direction.

If a seller accepts credit cards I get the feeling that it is all about the money instead of passion for the thing he does.
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Actually, I've found the best coffee in Frankfurt is at a place run by the housewives in the neighborhood (Sachsenhausen). They have a tiny store font and sell coffee/tea, homemade pies and some handmade knitwear. I get the feeling that the husbands put their money together to give their wives a chance at a passionate hobby. They really care and have some very nice tasting stuff. However, their hours are like 11-3p and only Sunday afternoon. And, they're cash only which is nice.

There's also a pizza place by a 70-year old Italian with a 60-year old German wife. He always flirts with the girls that come in and complains about his wife working like a "Gastarbeiter." Only open the first two weeks every month because they travel the last two every month. Prices are really cheap, beer/wine at supermarket cost, and great pizza.

No card either, which is good, in my opinion.

And you better have correct change at both places!
 
Wow, in Düsseldorf / Bochum where I lived / live I have never seen any places like this. :(

Can you give me the address, if I hit up Frankfurt will try to pop into these places. :D
 
rasmusonline said:
I tend to think in the same direction.

If a seller accepts credit cards I get the feeling that it is all about the money instead of passion for the things he does.
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That is an interesting, and I believe wrong, assessment. Some customers demand the ability to pay with plastic. And, while it would be nice to be able to tell them that you don't because you are passionate - passion don't pay the rent.

When I had my gallery - heck even now - my credit card facilities consisted of one of those old mechanical CC imprint machines.

-----------

Others have talked about the the cost that accepting places on the merchant.... There is also a cost on accepting cash.

A business that deals with cash is more prone robbery. Having your day's cash taken more than makes up for the 1-2% loss to the CC companies.

There is more paperwork when you take cash.... If you deal with a lot of cash, bank deposit slips insist that you list how many bills of each denomination are in the deposit. I can tell you that at the end of a long hectic day, counting how many $5s, $2s, $10s, etc you are depositing and then adding them up is no fun.

If you have employees, then one bad employee can cost you way more than the CC fees.

If you are in a small town, and if it's common to take local cheques - one bad cheque can cost more than a weeks CC fees.

I am passionate about what I do, I take plastic, and I like that when someone does pay with plastic all I have to do is make sure that the amount deposited matches the amount in my sales record.
 
Credit cards aren't exactly 'money in the bank' though, are they snberk103?

What if you accept a stolen card? You're not going to receive the payment off the card company, are you?
 
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