The most common emergency I could imagine is needing gas and their readers are down or your card won't work etc. Even at today's prices $20 worth of gas is still typically plenty enough to get you home.
There are a surprising number of businesses that (still) don't accept anything above a $20. They'd really rather you pay with a card - and if you aren't going to do that, they want you using bills that are too small to be worth counterfeiting.
That doesn't sound like a healthy relationship. I would suggest you consider either finding a way to either make it healthy or ending it. Counseling can help.
That's exactly my case. Since "Never" was an option, I assumed "No" actually meant "Rarely" and voted accordingly. Unfortunately, many others will likely think like you did, skewing the results toward "Sometimes." A well-intended poll with very poorly chosen options.
Awful poll. Cowboy Neal Vanity Collector Cryptobucks is the crucial missing answer.
No option for my situation, which is strongly prefer cash though sometimes sucked into the convenience of my debit card or forced not to use cash. However these days it isn't even clear how much anonymity you have with cash. Consider cash with a "loyalty" card. If you're expecting any reciprocal loyalty from the company that gave you the card, then I have a lovely bridge you need to buy. But you'll have to pay with cash and t
Well yeah, if you're scanning your cattle tag for the discount, using cash for "anonymity" is is like leaving your wallet at a crime scene.
That's one of the somewhat-rare moments where you actually can trivially put a price on your privacy, or at least know what someone else wants to pay for that data. How you choose is up to you.
Privacy is dead. In life, it's important to distinguish between things that you can change, and things you cannot. Considering that our privacy has been eroding for at least the last 50 years, I place it firmly in the category of things that we can't change.
Cash doesn't protect privacy, there are a hundred other ways you can be identified, despite not using a trackable payment method. For one thing, so few people use cash these days, that if you do, you stand out in the data like a bright light.
Privacy was always an illusion. In the mid 1990â(TM)s my boss paid for not 1 but 4 books every other year. A couple of copies of the white pages. But then also two different reverse lookup books. Sorted by phone number and address.
It is kind of like the people who live off the grid but still get Amazon deliveries every week. From their mobile and sat computer links.
Once I have paid cash: it is gone, forgotten, I do not need to do anything other than check that I have enough cash in my wallet for future purchases.
Paying by card is more effort than it is worth for a small sum: I need to get the card receipt, take it home, enter into my cheque book balancer and reconcile when the monthly statement comes in.
Yes: I know that some will want to know why I bother but I have had fraudulent payments go through - if I did not reconcile I would not have known.
Exporting those transactions is meaningless if you can't remember what exactly each one was for. Tracking your receipts is so you know when unexplained transactions appear in that account export. I've had that happen to me multiple times too. Once was an Amazon subscription that I hadn't signed up for but would have easily been overlooked if I was simply skimming my statement.
Amazon confirmed my account didn't have any active subscriptions, meaning someone stole my identity to sign up for Prime. I had t
There just simply is no reason for me to have any cash, paying by card has been a thing here forever. I don't even want to deal with cash, it's just so much more convenient to whip out a card or a smartwatch and be done with the payment in a matter of seconds. Even for buying second-hand directly from an individual person we nowadays have multiple different options right on our phones.
We live in a forested rural area and take our trash to a local transfer station. They don't have any electronic methods of being paid so it's $2 or $4 depending on how big the garbage bag is.
I also own a tabletop game store and many events, the players give us cash. The bank charges a fee when we deposit more than $5,000 in cash in a month and we hit that most months so a bit of cash is being spread around.
I figure the transaction fees are excessive so I use cash for small transactions at small business. One place actually requires cash for less than $20. Farmers markets especially are kind of a mess if you won't use cash.
Large corps can eat it. Especially when they understaff the checkout lines to force self-checkout.
Gas prices are noticeably higher for cards so I use cash there too.
I work for money. This is something I want to possess if I require it. This is why there are gold reserves and runs on the bank.
I use contactless for some transactions, but carrying some cash is a good way to budget yourself, so you don't end up overspending.
My Mum used to have an envelope system where she would allocate out all things that needed to be paid in their own envelope, along with allowances for the variable stuff, and then a savings one which you woul
Aren't "Yes" and "Sometimes" the same? And "No" and "Never" the same? What's the difference between "No, I don't use cash" and "I never use cash"? There are still a handful of places near me that use cash only or prefer cash. So I guess I'm in the "yes/sometimes" camp.
Aren't "Yes" and "Sometimes" the same? And "No" and "Never" the same? What's the difference between "No, I don't use cash" and "I never use cash"? There are still a handful of places near me that use cash only or prefer cash. So I guess I'm in the "yes/sometimes" camp.
I interpret "sometimes" as "rarely". If you use cash routinely even for a minority of in person transactions then I think that qualifies as a "yes" rather than a "sometimes"
You might need it to bribe some slippery government officials!
Also, I pay all the blue-collar workers who come to my house when it is feasible. I've been paying my handyman $50/hour for the last 9 years, and he never asks for a raise because he can avoid reporting it on his taxes.
I suspect there's a strong correlation between location and choices.
I live in Norway and I almost never see anyone pay cash. Cards are becoming a rarity as well, everybody taps their phone, backed by a debit account. People are less paranoid about privacy here, I think. Probably because we have more laws protecting privacy (we hope).
I was traveling the past week and forgot my wallet. No problems whatsoever. (Ponder your definition of freedom)
A world without cash is a world where you pay tax on items that you buy at a yard sale, and an informal gift/loan given to you by a family member ends up counted as income on your taxes. Sounds great, right?
I do a fair amount of traveling by car up and down the Interstate because the only other option is by bus, which is far less convenient. This way, I can stop when I want or need to, usually at a truck stop to stock up on caffeine after a pit stop. It's just easier to make sure I have some cash with me for the small purchases and don't have to worry about which card to use. And, I can register the bills ahead of time with WheresGeorge.com, and occasionally have one hit and find out where it's gotten to.
I support it as a payment of last resort (in true emergencies like another crowdstrike taking down the payment networks), but for general day to day transactions its getting more awkward, and cash machines are getting rarerer and their fees are getting higher. There's only two businesses I use that only accept cash, a barber and a takeaway not on a delivery app. With all the inflation as well note denominations are too small to be practical and the public don't trust higher denominations so having cash mean
Here is the UK, children don't get to have a bank card until they are 10 years old. When my daughter was 9 she was very upset that a shop in the high street refused to let her buy something using her cash. I spoke to the manager who was a complete arsehole, and since then neither she nor I have been in that shop. Whether you like to use cash or not, as an adult you have a choice. As a child you don't and my opinion is that any business that a child could use should be required to accept cash.
There was nothing said of a 9 year old going to a tobacconist shop. To translate if there is any confusion: A high street shop in the U.K. would in the U.S.A. be a main street shop in a downtown area (typically).
In the UK, tobacconists aren't really a thing, and the majority of shops either don't take cash, or have only till that takes cash. In European countries that do have tobacconists, they don't just sell tobacco, they also sell things like bus tickets which it would be entirely appropriate for a 9 year-old to buy.
I pay cash for local producers when I am able to find someone willing to sell directly to me. Eggs, vegies, meat, poultry. It's cheaper than the grocery stores. I know the chain-of-custody from farm to my fridge. And the quality is usually better than I can get through the grocery stores too. Cash is king is these transactions, and I don't really see that changing anytime soon.
People still use it? Really? The last time I cashed out something out of an ATM was in 2018! Everybody in my country is able to do transactions digitally without using any real money. It works and it works well.
When I travel to US I always get admired at people still using physical currency or asking others to "sign" credit card purchases.
First, "Yes" and "Sometimes" should be combined since if cash were to be eliminated or drastically curtailed, both of these groups would be affected.
I generally use cash for trivial transactions (anything less then a few bucks feels wasteful to use a credit card) or when I'm shopping somewhere that doesn't take credit cards or gives a discount for using cash or debit.
WinCo probably makes up 80% of my cash spend since they don't accept credit cards. I really wish more companies would either charge a fee to
For any small purchases, and lots of larger ones. I mean, why *wouldn't* you use cash?
Ok,/. seems to mostly be US folk, and y'all are addicted to credit cards. I have credit cards too, but they basically only get used for online ordering.
As a general matter, I'm not a big fan of cash. It can be misplaced, change is a pain to deal with, and carrying large amounts makes you a theft target. On the other hand, in a world where our every movement can be tracked there is something important about retaining an anonymous payment method for small purchases. It's also an important backstop for emergency situations where electronic payments may not be possible.
I don't personally transact in cash more than a handful of times a year, but I would hate to
Honestly, I get direct deposit and haven't set foot in a bank in... well, at least 6 months. So where would I get cash? Okay, I could use a debit card at a store and request cash that way, but it isn't worth the trouble.
Work expands to fill the time available.
-- Cyril Northcote Parkinson, "The Economist", 1955
My wife will use whatever I have (Score:2)
Re:My wife will use whatever I have (Score:4, Insightful)
my wife can somehow sense it and will have it spent
Look on the bright side though. Once you've finally run out, she'll leave.
Re: My wife will use whatever I have (Score:3)
$20? In case you need an emergency pack of gum?
Re: My wife will use whatever I have (Score:4, Informative)
As someone who grew up watching the original MacGyver, sometimes all you need is an emergency pack of gum.
Re: (Score:2)
The most common emergency I could imagine is needing gas and their readers are down or your card won't work etc. Even at today's prices $20 worth of gas is still typically plenty enough to get you home.
Re: (Score:2)
There are a surprising number of businesses that (still) don't accept anything above a $20. They'd really rather you pay with a card - and if you aren't going to do that, they want you using bills that are too small to be worth counterfeiting.
Re: My wife will use whatever I have (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That doesn't sound like a healthy relationship. I would suggest you consider either finding a way to either make it healthy or ending it. Counseling can help.
Yes (Score:1)
Re: Yes (Score:2)
Strip clubs. So the charges don't show up on your CC statement.
(Shame about the glitter.)
I'd say "Rarely" since it's maybe once per year. (Score:2)
I'd say "Rarely" since it's maybe once per year. Maybe I should have stated "Never", but I selected "Sometimes".
Re: (Score:2)
That's exactly my case. Since "Never" was an option, I assumed "No" actually meant "Rarely" and voted accordingly. Unfortunately, many others will likely think like you did, skewing the results toward "Sometimes." A well-intended poll with very poorly chosen options.
If you don't use cash, your credit will use you? (Score:2)
Awful poll. Cowboy Neal Vanity Collector Cryptobucks is the crucial missing answer.
No option for my situation, which is strongly prefer cash though sometimes sucked into the convenience of my debit card or forced not to use cash. However these days it isn't even clear how much anonymity you have with cash. Consider cash with a "loyalty" card. If you're expecting any reciprocal loyalty from the company that gave you the card, then I have a lovely bridge you need to buy. But you'll have to pay with cash and t
Re: (Score:3)
That's one of the somewhat-rare moments where you actually can trivially put a price on your privacy, or at least know what someone else wants to pay for that data. How you choose is up to you.
Re: (Score:2)
Privacy is dead. In life, it's important to distinguish between things that you can change, and things you cannot. Considering that our privacy has been eroding for at least the last 50 years, I place it firmly in the category of things that we can't change.
Cash doesn't protect privacy, there are a hundred other ways you can be identified, despite not using a trackable payment method. For one thing, so few people use cash these days, that if you do, you stand out in the data like a bright light.
If your prim
Re: If you don't use cash, your credit will use yo (Score:2)
Privacy was always an illusion. In the mid 1990â(TM)s my boss paid for not 1 but 4 books every other year. A couple of copies of the white pages. But then also two different reverse lookup books. Sorted by phone number and address.
It is kind of like the people who live off the grid but still get Amazon deliveries every week. From their mobile and sat computer links.
Re: (Score:2)
However these days it isn't even clear how much anonymity you have with cash. Consider cash with a "loyalty" card.
Use a phone number. (local area code)-867-5309. No matter where you are, someone has registered that number. Works every time.
I rarely pay less than £10 by card (Score:2)
Once I have paid cash: it is gone, forgotten, I do not need to do anything other than check that I have enough cash in my wallet for future purchases.
Paying by card is more effort than it is worth for a small sum: I need to get the card receipt, take it home, enter into my cheque book balancer and reconcile when the monthly statement comes in.
Yes: I know that some will want to know why I bother but I have had fraudulent payments go through - if I did not reconcile I would not have known.
Re: (Score:2)
My credit card app can export all transactions as either PDF or CSV.
I can't remember the last time I've asked for the receipt.
Re: (Score:2)
Exporting those transactions is meaningless if you can't remember what exactly each one was for. Tracking your receipts is so you know when unexplained transactions appear in that account export. I've had that happen to me multiple times too. Once was an Amazon subscription that I hadn't signed up for but would have easily been overlooked if I was simply skimming my statement.
Amazon confirmed my account didn't have any active subscriptions, meaning someone stole my identity to sign up for Prime. I had t
Re: Of course I use cash (Score:2)
Bitcoin works better though. And you can use multiple wallets and hide the money from yourself too.
I have zero reason to use cash (Score:2)
Tap to pay (Score:2)
I only use cash for things I buy on Marketplace and even then, in Canada we do interac transfer it's instantaneous and free.
Missing option (Score:2)
I use whatever Cowboy Neal uses.
Have to (Score:2)
Bowling league doesn't take cards.
that's pretty much the only place.
Weekly (Score:2)
We live in a forested rural area and take our trash to a local transfer station. They don't have any electronic methods of being paid so it's $2 or $4 depending on how big the garbage bag is.
I also own a tabletop game store and many events, the players give us cash. The bank charges a fee when we deposit more than $5,000 in cash in a month and we hit that most months so a bit of cash is being spread around.
[John]
Cash for less than $10 at small businesses and gas (Score:2)
Cash should be king (Score:2)
I work for money. This is something I want to possess if I require it. This is why there are gold reserves and runs on the bank. I use contactless for some transactions, but carrying some cash is a good way to budget yourself, so you don't end up overspending.
My Mum used to have an envelope system where she would allocate out all things that needed to be paid in their own envelope, along with allowances for the variable stuff, and then a savings one which you woul
Duplicate entries (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Aren't "Yes" and "Sometimes" the same? And "No" and "Never" the same? What's the difference between "No, I don't use cash" and "I never use cash"? There are still a handful of places near me that use cash only or prefer cash. So I guess I'm in the "yes/sometimes" camp.
I interpret "sometimes" as "rarely". If you use cash routinely even for a minority of in person transactions then I think that qualifies as a "yes" rather than a "sometimes"
Cash - never leave home without it (Score:2)
Geographical differences (Score:2, Interesting)
A world without cash (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But if the transaction is on a blockchain you can shame your relatives into giving you larger birthday gifts!
Mostly when travelling by car (Score:2)
Awful poll (Score:2)
o Regularly, but only for strippers.
Cash is a back up (Score:2)
My plug (Score:1)
Think of the children..! (Score:3)
Here is the UK, children don't get to have a bank card until they are 10 years old.
When my daughter was 9 she was very upset that a shop in the high street refused to let her buy something using her cash.
I spoke to the manager who was a complete arsehole, and since then neither she nor I have been in that shop.
Whether you like to use cash or not, as an adult you have a choice. As a child you don't and my opinion is that any business that a child could use should be required to accept cash.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't typically comment on someone else's parenting, but - you really shouldn't let your 9-year-old daughter visit the tobacconist.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
In the UK, tobacconists aren't really a thing, and the majority of shops either don't take cash, or have only till that takes cash.
In European countries that do have tobacconists, they don't just sell tobacco, they also sell things like bus tickets which it would be entirely appropriate for a 9 year-old to buy.
Options for both "No" and "Never"? (Score:4, Insightful)
How exactly are those different? Come on, it's not like you put polls up more than 2-3 times a year... you could put more than 10 seconds into it.
Cost, risk, reward... (Score:2)
I use cash as a payment tool when it suits me. Each payment method has its cost, risks, and rewards. I use cash:
I use cash with local producers (Score:3)
I pay cash for local producers when I am able to find someone willing to sell directly to me. Eggs, vegies, meat, poultry. It's cheaper than the grocery stores. I know the chain-of-custody from farm to my fridge. And the quality is usually better than I can get through the grocery stores too. Cash is king is these transactions, and I don't really see that changing anytime soon.
ORLY? (Score:1)
Hidden price of credit (Score:2)
First, "Yes" and "Sometimes" should be combined since if cash were to be eliminated or drastically curtailed, both of these groups would be affected.
I generally use cash for trivial transactions (anything less then a few bucks feels wasteful to use a credit card) or when I'm shopping somewhere that doesn't take credit cards or gives a discount for using cash or debit.
WinCo probably makes up 80% of my cash spend since they don't accept credit cards. I really wish more companies would either charge a fee to
All the time... (Score:2)
Dislike cash but... (Score:2)
As a general matter, I'm not a big fan of cash. It can be misplaced, change is a pain to deal with, and carrying large amounts makes you a theft target. On the other hand, in a world where our every movement can be tracked there is something important about retaining an anonymous payment method for small purchases. It's also an important backstop for emergency situations where electronic payments may not be possible.
I don't personally transact in cash more than a handful of times a year, but I would hate to
Where is it? (Score:2)
Honestly, I get direct deposit and haven't set foot in a bank in ... well, at least 6 months. So where would I get cash? Okay, I could use a debit card at a store and request cash that way, but it isn't worth the trouble.