Cashless society......problem for many.

[Adam4868]

Get paid by card on a Friday afternoon and it's two business days before it reaches your account.Odd how most just presume that cash is for avoiding paying your tax
I never , actually I'll change that to hardly ever use a self service checkout.Id prefer to be served by someone,same in the bank I pay cash in at the counter.The way I look at it is it's keeping someone in a job.Why should I do supermarkets,banks work for them.

 

[Gillstay]

Yep. The grey economy. One reason governments wants to reduce cash. It's estimated to be around 10% of the UK economy. From small independent shops to builders - cash in hand.

As the renowned economist Del Boy once wrote....No income tax, not VAT, no money back.....

Yep, you would not want small people dodging would you when the banks are washing drug money, assisting property deals for dodgy Russian and dreaming up tax evasion schemes.

 

[captain nemo1701]

One of the Star Trek movies I think. Can't remember which.

Its Star Trek: The Search for Spock. Scotty sabotages the new bigger, faster USS Excelsior by taking a tiny few microchips out of its warp drive so that when they give chase to our heroes nicking the Enterprise, it grinds to a halt. Its a great comment on complex systems and their relatively simple Achilles Heels. In the future when everyone 100% relies on phones...power cuts...hacking. And if anyone builds an EM pulse satellite a la Goldeneye, it'll be fun.

 

[captain nemo1701]

Get paid by card on a Friday afternoon and it's two business days before it reaches your account.Odd how most just presume that cash is for avoiding paying your tax
I never , actually I'll change that to hardly ever use a self service checkout.Id prefer to be served by someone,same in the bank I pay cash in at the counter.The way I look at it is it's keeping someone in a job.Why should I do supermarkets,banks work for them.

Our local Asda has only about six cash manned tills now out of about 20. They always man the one furthest from the entrance I noted. I always make a point of paying in cash, often counting my loose change in front of them. I'm a customer, I don't want to do anyone else's job dressed up as 'convenience' which is utter dingo's kidneys because there's always something goes wrong with the self-serve leaving you pawing the screen like a cat on a goldfish bowl. Its not about convenience for shoppers, its about saving cash for shareholders.

 

[Adam4868]

Only good thing about supermarket self service tills is the free Birthday,Xmas cards they give out for my partner 😁
One of the few occasions I actually use them.....

 

[Mike_P]

Local Aldi has replaced two tills with six self service. Doesn't seem to have had an effect on staff numbers as the other tills were rarely all in use but it has meant its quicker to do a small shop. In the evenings they have one or more normal tills in use and have the self service ones all closed.

Got caught out this morning being cashless with a hot drink machine declaring cards could not currently be accepted.

 

[Rezillo]

Lots of tiny unmanned roadside stalls round here, selling fruit, veg and eggs. Most on not any kind of commercial scale, just seasonal stuff from their gardens to bring in some pocket money and to not have it going to waste.

I once made thirty quid from plum sales but that won't have me getting a card reader any time soon.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

Lots of tiny unmanned roadside stalls round here, selling fruit, veg and eggs. Most on not any kind of commercial scale, just seasonal stuff from their gardens to bring in some pocket money and to not have it going to waste.

I once made thirty quid from plum sales but that won't have me getting a card reader any time soon.

I’ve seen some with a QR code set up so it takes you to their PayPal page to make a payment. No card readers required. The
poppy sellers had something similar last year too.

 

[Moon bunny]

This very evening, a young guy boarded the bus home, flourished his phone to pay, it wasn't accepted, young guy turns very dejectedly and leaves the bus, computer said "Walk". it wouldn't have happened with coins.

 

[DRHysted]

This very evening, a young guy boarded the bus home, flourished his phone to pay, it wasn't accepted, young guy turns very dejectedly and leaves the bus, computer said "Walk". it wouldn't have happened with coins.

It would have if he hadn’t enough coins.

 

[Mike Ayling]

This very evening, a young guy boarded the bus home, flourished his phone to pay, it wasn't accepted, young guy turns very dejectedly and leaves the bus, computer said "Walk". it wouldn't have happened with coins.

Here in Melbourne DownUnda the whole public transport system requires a card for payment similar to London Transport. There is an app for Android phones but they have not got around Apple phones yet. Here a young bloke on a bus would present his phone but if he did not have enough credit the bus driver would not do anything about it.

 

[captain nemo1701]

This very evening, a young guy boarded the bus home, flourished his phone to pay, it wasn't accepted, young guy turns very dejectedly and leaves the bus, computer said "Walk". it wouldn't have happened with coins.

On visits to 'the smoke' or Laaaandaaaan as some call it (small urban place at the end of the M4 east), I often witness the fun of commuters who leap gazelle like at the barriers in the Underground thinking they can read your Oyster card in half a microsecond, only to crash into the barrier. Always seem to see some techno-addict with the latest iphone trying to get the ticket machine to scan it whilst Captain Luddite (me) behind has bits of metal and paper to pay with .

 

[Adam4868]

Oh and another thing.....hardly anyone tips using their cards 🙄

 

[derrick]

I love the no cash, card or phone so easy, Now if only they could do away with food and feed me a pill instead.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

In Innsbruck we got to the bus stop just as bus pulling in. We leap on it intending to pay in cash, which is what we did pre pandemic. You need to pay with the app the bus driver says. Of course there’s no QR code on bus to find and download app. Eventually find a link only for my phone to say it’s not available in the UK App Store. We then take a free bus ride to the railway station, because we can’t download the app, and they won’t take cash.

(On returning a week later we did find machines which could issue tickets, but they weren’t signed in an obvious way, and if you’d arrived just as bus pulling in you had choice of catching bus or getting ticket and waiting for next one).

We called this year’s European trip, the year of the app as buses trains etc all wanted you to use one in preference.