Cashless Society on its Way?

[Doodoo]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... JsrvWaNnIs

If this is the start this is the time to stop it. With a society using cards all the time and eventually no cash, guess who can track your where abouts, your spending habits (They can now unless you use cash) Privacy will be knocked down another peg.

[dunroaming]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... JsrvWaNnIs

If this is the start this is the time to stop it. With a society using cards all the time and eventually no cash, guess who can track your where abouts, your spending habits (They can now unless you use cash) Privacy will be knocked down another peg.

Last time I was in London nearly all transactions I saw were by card even in the pub people were buying pint by pint and charging it, when I handed over a Scottish 20 pound note I was the odd one out lol

[Kenr6583]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... JsrvWaNnIs

If this is the start this is the time to stop it. With a society using cards all the time and eventually no cash, guess who can track your where abouts, your spending habits (They can now unless you use cash) Privacy will be knocked down another peg.

With the exception of spending habits, your cellphone use already does everything else.

[Doodoo]

My phone calls people and people can call me That's why its called a Phone

[glalt]

Several years ago during a trip to the US, I went into a JC Penney store and bought some clothes. When I went to the check out I was asked for a credit card. I had only cash. The cashier didn't know how to take cash. She called a manager and they tried to talk me into getting a credit card. I explained that if they gave me a credit card, they would have problems collecting from me when I went back home to Thailand. It took two managers and the cashier to figure out how to accept cash.

[papafarang]

My phone calls people and people can call me That's why its called a Phone

I don't use the phone for anything but calls or text messages . don't have or want a credit card , never use my debit card ,don't even know why I bother having it in the first place. Some people do pay their bills strait to my wife's account though .

[mally]

It's on it's way, make no mistake about it - and it's a trend that I personally do not like !
I'm stuck at home in the UK, and my local bar only accepts contactless card payments due to this pandemic.
Last night I was chatting to the manager and I asked if they would ever go back to cash, and got a definite NO.
Reasons given - No problem with wrong change being given / No cashing up at night / No problem with honesty of staff / No cash left in bar overnight = better security / No trips to the bank to hand in takings (another security issue) and collect small change / No charge from the bank - UK banks charge businesses for depositing cash !
He could not see one reason to return to cash.
I will continue to use cash as often as I can, as I don't particularly like the authorities knowing how I live my life, but I'm in a minority. Youngsters see cash as "old fashioned", and maybe it is, but I for one will miss it.

[jackspratt]

It's on it's way, make no mistake about it - and it's a trend that I personally do not like !

Me neither.

It (cashless society) seems to fit into the "if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about" narrative.

My thinking is if I have done nothing wrong, why do "they" need to keep an entire electronic record of me for the past 3/5/7 years?

And does the definition of "wrong" stay the same over that period of time?

[papafarang]

It's on it's way, make no mistake about it - and it's a trend that I personally do not like !
I'm stuck at home in the UK, and my local bar only accepts contactless card payments due to this pandemic.
Last night I was chatting to the manager and I asked if they would ever go back to cash, and got a definite NO.
Reasons given - No problem with wrong change being given / No cashing up at night / No problem with honesty of staff / No cash left in bar overnight = better security / No trips to the bank to hand in takings (another security issue) and collect small change / No charge from the bank - UK banks charge businesses for depositing cash !
He could not see one reason to return to cash.
I will continue to use cash as often as I can, as I don't particularly like the authorities knowing how I live my life, but I'm in a minority. Youngsters see cash as "old fashioned", and maybe it is, but I for one will miss it.

Unfortunately he does have a point running pubs is hard work and long hours, on the bright side you would get served faster and the landlords life would be bliss

[Laan Yaa Mo]

I try to use cash as much as possible, and have not used a cell phone for two and a half years. Save your pennies.

[Kenr6583]

It's on it's way, make no mistake about it - and it's a trend that I personally do not like !
I'm stuck at home in the UK, and my local bar only accepts contactless card payments due to this pandemic.
Last night I was chatting to the manager and I asked if they would ever go back to cash, and got a definite NO.
Reasons given - No problem with wrong change being given / No cashing up at night / No problem with honesty of staff / No cash left in bar overnight = better security / No trips to the bank to hand in takings (another security issue) and collect small change / No charge from the bank - UK banks charge businesses for depositing cash !
He could not see one reason to return to cash.
I will continue to use cash as often as I can, as I don't particularly like the authorities knowing how I live my life, but I'm in a minority. Youngsters see cash as "old fashioned", and maybe it is, but I for one will miss it.

Although I agree with his rationale of only accepting credit cards, those cards do charge the seller fees, percentage points vary. At least they do here in the States.

[papafarang]

It's on it's way, make no mistake about it - and it's a trend that I personally do not like !
I'm stuck at home in the UK, and my local bar only accepts contactless card payments due to this pandemic.
Last night I was chatting to the manager and I asked if they would ever go back to cash, and got a definite NO.
Reasons given - No problem with wrong change being given / No cashing up at night / No problem with honesty of staff / No cash left in bar overnight = better security / No trips to the bank to hand in takings (another security issue) and collect small change / No charge from the bank - UK banks charge businesses for depositing cash !
He could not see one reason to return to cash.
I will continue to use cash as often as I can, as I don't particularly like the authorities knowing how I live my life, but I'm in a minority. Youngsters see cash as "old fashioned", and maybe it is, but I for one will miss it.

Although I agree with his rationale of only accepting credit cards, those cards do charge the seller fees, percentage points vary. At least they do here in the States.

No ken unless they have changed the law in British pubs you can only buy drink when you buy a meal using credit cards . if using a card payment for just drink you would have to use a debit card. Alcoholics would simply drink themselves to death while getting in debt at the same time. Mind you they might have changed it by now . we never had food in my pub so credit cards were not accepted . had some people ask and we told them they have to go and get cash , and you don't want to get cash out on a credit card for sure . I think the same law applied in betting shops . But knowing the greed of banks that's probably changed too . years ago I had a pre paid american express travelers check card , it was brilliant as you could put a couple of thousand on it and use it anywhere world wide for anything ,no charges and you got travellers check rate . ran for about 3 years then they discontinued it ,guess not enough profit in it for them .

[Kenr6583]

It's on it's way, make no mistake about it - and it's a trend that I personally do not like !
I'm stuck at home in the UK, and my local bar only accepts contactless card payments due to this pandemic.
Last night I was chatting to the manager and I asked if they would ever go back to cash, and got a definite NO.
Reasons given - No problem with wrong change being given / No cashing up at night / No problem with honesty of staff / No cash left in bar overnight = better security / No trips to the bank to hand in takings (another security issue) and collect small change / No charge from the bank - UK banks charge businesses for depositing cash !
He could not see one reason to return to cash.
I will continue to use cash as often as I can, as I don't particularly like the authorities knowing how I live my life, but I'm in a minority. Youngsters see cash as "old fashioned", and maybe it is, but I for one will miss it.

Although I agree with his rationale of only accepting credit cards, those cards do charge the seller fees, percentage points vary. At least they do here in the States.

No ken unless they have changed the law in British pubs you can only buy drink when you buy a meal using credit cards . if using a card payment for just drink you would have to use a debit card. Alcoholics would simply drink themselves to death while getting in debt at the same time. Mind you they might have changed it by now . we never had food in my pub so credit cards were not accepted . had some people ask and we told them they have to go and get cash , and you don't want to get cash out on a credit card for sure . I think the same law applied in betting shops . But knowing the greed of banks that's probably changed too . years ago I had a pre paid american express travelers check card , it was brilliant as you could put a couple of thousand on it and use it anywhere world wide for anything ,no charges and you got travellers check rate . ran for about 3 years then they discontinued it ,guess not enough profit in it for them .

Maybe I misspoke on that. Here in the States, the merchant is charged a fee by the credit card company every time a customer uses a credit card at their establishment. No doubt it is convenient for them, but for me, I would not want the credit card company, be it Visa or MasterCard, to take any of my profit.

[the-monk]

Yes i know in the USA, major credit-card companies ( visa, Master, Amex etc ) charge fees that can be as hight as 5-6 % of the selling price. However outside the USA, the credit-card usage has begun to decline, more and more people use their phone to make transactions bypassing the major cards. Even the debit-card ( free transaction) solution has lost its advantage. Nowaday people prefer to use local apps to carry their daily purchases and payments. Apps like, Alipay, Truemoney, Grab, etc offer a fast , simple, friendly, way to do business at a lower cost. Here in Udon i see hundreds of mon and op shops using the QR code payment system.
Millions if not billions of people remain UNBANKED to this day, i would assume the vast majority of them would move to the FINTECH apps, instead of becoming bank customers.
An easy comparison is the lightening development of mobile phones. 25 years ago, not many Thai People had access to a land-line phone, today the mobile-phone penetration in Thailand hits records, no one would contemplate a scenario that would call for go back to landlines. The landlines are your card companies. I use my card exclusively as back-up ( security ) when travelling overseas. My friends it s time to join the parade and get your apps. Stay safe out there.

[mally]

"Maybe I misspoke on that. Here in the States, the merchant is charged a fee by the credit card company every time a customer uses a credit card at their establishment. No doubt it is convenient for them, but for me, I would not want the credit card company, be it Visa or MasterCard, to take any of my profit".

There is no difference Ken, in the UK the Credit Card Companies charge the seller 2.5%, (and it's illegal in UK for the bar to pass on this 2.5% charge to the customer), but if the bar deposits cash into their account then the UK Banks charge 2.5% also - so no difference.
However, if the customer uses Debit Card or a phone App then the bar gets the full 100%, so they are better off.
By the way, there is no problem paying by Credit Card to buy drinks now, I used it yesterday to be 100% certain and there were no questions asked, they took the card payment with no problem.

[papafarang]

"Maybe I misspoke on that. Here in the States, the merchant is charged a fee by the credit card company every time a customer uses a credit card at their establishment. No doubt it is convenient for them, but for me, I would not want the credit card company, be it Visa or MasterCard, to take any of my profit".

There is no difference Ken, in the UK the Credit Card Companies charge the seller 2.5%, (and it's illegal in UK for the bar to pass on this 2.5% charge to the customer), but if the bar deposits cash into their account then the UK Banks charge 2.5% also - so no difference.
However, if the customer uses Debit Card or a phone App then the bar gets the full 100%, so they are better off.
By the way, there is no problem paying by Credit Card to buy drinks now, I used it yesterday to be 100% certain and there were no questions asked, they took the card payment with no problem.

I thought that would happen eventually. That will end badly for some poor sods

[BillaRickaDickay]

Contactless payments with Debit and Credit cards is now the new normal in the UK.
Many businesses do not take cash any more. The Merchant pays approx 1% of the transaction cost, inevitably passed onto the consumer.
No matter how small the transaction cost, contactless has been forced upon us.
Just another scam, 1% of Billions, a nice little earner out of nothing and the virus has conveniently come along to exacerbate the trend.

[Stantheman]

Contactless payments with Debit and Credit cards is now the new normal in the UK.
Many businesses do not take cash any more. The Merchant pays approx 1% of the transaction cost, inevitably passed onto the consumer.
No matter how small the transaction cost, contactless has been forced upon us.
Just another scam, 1% of Billions, a nice little earner out of nothing and the virus has conveniently come along to exacerbate the trend.

Glad when I visited N. IRELAND for a few days last Oct they accepted cash everytime I shopped and ate out. No attempt by merchants to ask for card.

[papafarang]

A strange thought , as children can't have bank accounts how would you give them pocket money ? And what about charities collecting on the streets ,would they just carry a card reader , and going to the fun fair .... Would you trust the guy on the waltzer with your card . oh well that's the way the world is going

[pipoz4444]

A strange thought , as children can't have bank accounts how would you give them pocket money ?

The kids will probably end up getting credit cards, linked to Dad's, so when they go on a spending spree Dad pays. That will be another nightmare for the parents.

A 10 year old kid in Robins Ice cream shop racking up a Bill or even worse, the teenage daughter shopping for her new I Phone or Clothes, while Dad is having a nap, so he doesn't hear the pings on his phone, every 5 minutes.

pipoz4444