I had two reasons, the first is because i found it way too easy to spend on my card without thinking, and the second because I wanted to regain a bit of privacy alongside everything else I’m doing. Ive set it up in my bank that on payday, an amount of my salary automatically goes to the bills account, some goes to long term savings, some to short term savings, then the rest I take out in cash.

It really does change my perception of spending I think: Ive found myself not buying things because I didnt want to break a note and carry change. I can physically see how much I have left. I can take £20 to the pub and leave when its finished. Plus it feels really good knowing every single transaction isnt stored forever. I have a small amount of money on a contactless ring for emergencies like a bus fare or somewhere that unexpectedly only takes card.

Is anyone else still predominantly using cash day to day?

  •  Sem   ( @sem@lemmy.ml ) 
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    174 months ago

    I’m starting to use more cash for daily spendings. The rise of surveillance pricing is terrible, better to hide qt least some of information from my bank.

    • I’m finding supermarkets locking their regular prices behind an app or loyalty card is getting out of control. Out of all the major supermarkets, ONLY Aldi has nothing of the sort currently.

      Tesco and Sainsbury’s will often have a £3 item that costs £6 without their loyalty card. Of course it’s £3 in every other shop: it’s not a special offer for members, it’s a punishment price for those who don’t give away their data.

      • Wow, I’ve never seen pricing that bad without a loyalty card in the US. Not saying it doesn’t happen, quite often it’s a 20-30% discount for the loyalty card, and occasionally more if you use the app (which I refuse, since I use Jenny’s number for the loyalty card).

        You’re right to call it a punishment. Wonder if we can aggregate the loyalty app program somehow, like host the app in an Android VM on a VPS that anyone can then access, so the data they get is muddied.

      • I usually ask other people in line for their loyalty cards. Or, in case there are none (which is rare) - I have found usable photos of random cards’ barcodes. It was mostly from the respective loyalty programs’ reviews, but I believe I saw a group that specifically shared theirs to get extra points.

  • Apparently there has been an uptick in people using cash in the UK because it helps with budgeting. Which has become more necessary since 60% of inflation started coming from corporate profiteering and four people became able to outcompete twenty million others in the market.

  • Some credit cards offer 2% cash back… (Not points) So it’s hard to give that up when you get 2% off for just about every dollar you spend. Why wouldn’t you put every dollar on card you would normally spend.

    This doesn’t work well if you are paying interest…

    If you’re fiscally savvy and don’t overspend and can pay your balance in full every month and are not paying interest, this is a strong vote for choosing over cash.

    However, without that…I see no benefit and would use more cash for all reasons in this thread.

    •  kevincox   ( @kevincox@lemmy.ml ) 
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      4 months ago

      This is sort of a scam though. Credit cards give rewards, but then charge the business for the processing fees. So the business needs to raise prices to cover the fees. So really no one is getting that 2% except for the card network. And if you don’t use a card you lose 2%.

      It is basically a protection racket. “It would be a shame if you didn’t use our credit card and had to pay 2% more everywhere”

      Yes, I know it is complicated. Handling cash also costs non-trivial amounts. I know that the EU has limits on fees (and that is why basically no credit cards have rewards there). I also know that some businesses see the fee as more of a marketing costs because higher spenders tend to use cards and people tend to spend more on cards.

      • Out in NYC, the bodegas all have a little plaquard saying that either 1: listed prices include a 2% credit card fee and you can save by using cash, or 2: listed prices may not match your final charge because they add a 2% fee on top for credit cards.

        Which is the same thing effectively but it can be sometimes confusing if you’re trying to watch for the fee.

        Anecdotally, I have sometimes noticed the cashier will say a price, and then say a slightly different price when I pull out the card. So it’s not like they always apply the fee regardless. At least some of the time anyway.

        Not universal of course. I don’t remember if that’s also true for grocery stores, and it’s probably not the case for big chains but honestly I don’t know.

    • Well that’s the way it should be. If they’re selling your data, they should compensate you for that in some way. Then it becomes a personal decision as to how much it matters to you.

      • As an aside, this is why I recently degoogled, having been all in on Google products for 10 years. 10 years ago you got amazing value for your data from Google but now every single useful product has been enshittified or shut down and they collect more data than ever. The sums just don’t add up any more.

  • Been thinking of trying this. Thing is nobody uses cash anymore around here (Nordics). In supermarkets I know for sure I can use cash, but restaurants, bars or small business it’s going to be hit and miss. I guess I’d have to endure the awkwardness of asking in every single place if they take cash or not

  • This is all perfect when you live in a responsible country where people pay their taxes. Instead, when you live in a place where paying your taxes is seen as something stupid, the less cash, the less space for tax evaders.

    I loved it when COVID came and the government started giving all these businesses owners (bars, hairdressers, etc) a subside based on the profits they declared the year before COVID and they all went mad because they were getting 600€/month (which, ironically is the amount they declared to have earned monthly the year before COVID).

  • The cash I have on hand comes exclusively from playing pub gigs in a band. That is still very much a cash-driven economy where I am. When I accumulate enough, I usually wind up spending it on music gear, so I don’t think this hobby of mine is major wealth-builder. But while many businesses are moving away from cash, it seems music stores are used to people like me and still allow fairly hefty cash transactions.

    The other day I was settling my tab at the pub and the guy hands me a machine. I say, I’ll pay by cash thanks. He says really?!? Dude, you literally just handed me cash for the gig tonight. Oh yeah…

  •  Dark Arc   ( @Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg ) 
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    4 months ago

    I would consider paying with cash again IF $100 bills weren’t so much trouble.

    It’s hard to get a $100 bill. ATMs just don’t spit them out. Many places refuse to take them. It’s just hard to carry over $100 in cash without quickly having your wallet explode in size.

    Back in the day $100 was like caring $1,000 now. You could get a lot done with $20 bills… You can burn through the majority of $100 just going to dinner and I also have no desire to manage all that cash at my house or hit up an ATM every other day.

    • Interesting, we have £50 notes in the UK but they essentially don’t exist for most people. No cash machines will give you one, and shopkeepers mistrust them, although generally accept. 20s are the highest people deal with here usually.

      • We also have 50s, they have the same problem as 100s.

        There are definitely places that will take the 50s and 100s but the number of times you can get burned by it is too high for my liking. I once was on vacation and a state park (I think it was) wouldn’t take anything bigger than 20s for their admission fee.

        I think I only had 50s so I think I ended up having a stranger help me out.

      • 50€ notes are really common in Germany (and probably the rest of the euro zone), mistrust only starts at 100€ and above, most shops don’t accept 500€ anymore and 200€ also became quite rare

    • Yeah I do agree that American cash doesn’t stretch as far. I’m definitely having to hit the ATM or cash back option way more than before for how much things cost. 50s are good for restaurants and the like but 100s are so weirdly distrusted and a pain. But I rarely get back 5s and 10s cause seriously inflation is just so good damn high.

      I keep thinking I’m gonna pull out a bunch of cash to have but then… Yeah I am not one to stuff it under my mattress and it being available electronically is so useful… Sigh…

      Trying. It’s all we can do until things change for real.

  • I actually started with it this week. It is partially due to privacy but also because I lost a sense for value. It is really easy to press a button online and pay say 20 euro. Not that I am irresponsible with money but the numbers on your bank account feel so meaningless.

  • I visited the UK back in 2022 and I was pretty baffled at how you can universally “tap to pay”. We visited a pub on the coast of Dorset where they wouldn’t even accept cash as a mean of payment. All in all it was nice, because it meant not having to deal with a foreign currency at all, we spent 10 days just using electronic payment, so as a tourist I think it was a good experience.

    In Germany, where I live, you’re basically getting nowhere without cash, it’s still very difficult to eat out or buy small food items like bread or a sandwich. There’s also a culture of paying cash for many things, including pricier items like a second hand car! Shop cashiers usually don’t even blink if you try to pay with a 100€ bill (except if you’re coming super early and they don’t have change available yet). It’s not unusual for me to end up drawing a quarter to half my monthly salary in cash.

    I first disliked it when I moved from France, but now I think it’s actually good for the society. You always have some change to tip a waiter or give to a beggar, a coin for the cart at the supermarket, get something from a vending machine… Also I live in a very quiet area so getting mugged is very unlikely, making it not so scary to carry cash around.

    •  clb92   ( @clb92@feddit.dk ) 
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      4 months ago

      I find it interesting that Germany is so far behind when it comes to IT and modernization. It’s like you’re stuck in 1990, even though you’re surrounded by countries that have used chip payment cards since the early 2000s and contactless payments since the early to mid 2010s. Nobody here in Denmark has touched a fax machine in the last 15-20 years, and apparently Germans still fax things sometimes to this day??

    • Yes, even the buses and vending machines and car park meters and public toilets have tap to pay. It is certainly very convenient but I think it does encourage spending more, and of course it means literally everything you do is tracked. Luckily I’ve found that most places still do accept cash but there are definitely a few who don’t.

    • Canada has universal tap to pay also, but what surprised me about the UK—at least in the London area—was how quick it was? The payment processing was near-instantaneous. In Canada, I think the machines make a phone call behind the scenes to a bank or something? There’s a significant delay before it goes through.

        • Ah that makes sense.

          I think another thing that might be uniquely Canadian is when you’re paying at a drivethru and you see the machine emerge from the pickup window taped to the end of a hockey stick. That was a big thing during the pandemic for social distancing. I guess more recently, they’ve been moving to less improvised solutions, which is a shame. I really liked the hockey stick!

    • I agree, cash is fun in Germany. I think it really helps that the 1 and 2 euro coins are available and used in circulation. It was so nice going into the Späti and buying a beer with a single coin.

      Change feels unnecessary in the States since the highest denomination that’s widely circulated is the quarter dollar. There are dollar coins, but they are hardly ever used.

      • Haha don’t get me started with US coins, I also have a fun story there: we arrived fresh off JFK Airport in NYC and headed to our rental apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn. It was pretty far from the a subway station so we got a connecting bus to get us closer.

        The next day, we thought of taking the same bus line to head to Manhattan, except our party of four ended up being expected to pay 4x $2.75 in a machine inside the bus… in coins. That’s 44 quarters. Yup, don’t have that on day 2 of my stay. So we walked 6 blocks.

  • I also want to pay more in cash to reward businesses for still allowing you to pay in cash as I’m noticing more are going cashless. I’m occasionally reliant on cash so I don’t want to end up stranded on those occasions where I can only pay cash, so definitely want to ensure the option remains open. The privacy is a benefit too of course.

    I think at the moment I mostly buy “important” stuff in cash and everyday stuff with card. Important like a new computer or something, because I’d plan to have that computer for a while and don’t want it easily traced to me. Everyday stuff like food because, while I completely understand not wanting the state/banks/etc to know anything about you, I personally don’t care too much if the state knows what I eat. Would be nice to eventually become one of those people with no footprint at all though.

    • Anyone in a 14 eyes country is essentially impossible to achieve zero footprint, but assuming they’re not actively looking into your network packets or searching for you on CCTV its feasible to have a relatively low footprint. I’m essentially trying to eliminate as far as practical, any data points I’m just giving away for free for no reason, especially to corporations and advertisers.

      • Afraid they almost definitely are actively monitoring all my above-ground activities lol, I’m in a country getting quite a bit of international flak for cracking down on political dissidents. Won’t say any more than that, tbh that doesn’t narrow down my location much with the current state of things anyway. But yeah I agree, I want to minimise the amount of data accessible about me.

  • My bank recently got rid of their own contactless payment app and now I am forced to use Google pay. You have to accept Google’s privacy terms and they’ll have access to all your transactions. No thanks.

    Beyond that I quite like using tech. Still waiting for bitcoin to take off after more than a decade. For budgeting you can use programs and it’ll notify you real time on your expenditures.

    • This decision was helped by moving to GrapheneOS and losing Google Pay, definitely. (And Degoogling for other reasons at the same time). If I have to carry a card I may as well carry cash, a few folded notes are the same footprint as a card and as I mentioned, I try not to break notes if I don’t have to, so I’m not carrying change often.

      • I’ve lived in Germany and cards are just not really a thing there. The only real thing I hated about it was that everyone was somehow incapable of just prepping their cash, so I’ve wasted countless hours waiting in line at banks.

        The other thing I hated was during corona. I worked in a store and we had to handle all that cash 🤢

        Other than that, the coins are quite annoying. They’re bulky and heavy. My trick was to just empty them out every time I came home into a bowl. Then once a year or so I’d get it turned into paper money.

        • I have a leather coin bag full of change that I swear I could bludgeon a person to death with because it just so rarely gets used.
          It pulls down my pants if I bring it with me anywhere.

          I recently had it with me out recently and ended up paying the restaurant bill in exact change because of it and we were all amazed. They say it doesn’t happen really anymore.

          I just can’t justify the like 8 bucks of paper money it would make me either.

          • 😂 The way you wrote it I imagined your pants dropping during a fight.

            When I exchanged it I’d always end up with well over 100 euros, even 200.

            It was also useful when I was low on money. Just yesterday my account was in the negative because… apparently it is possible for companies to get money from me when I have none? Well at least the coins were always safely there in my drawer so I could you know… eat?

  • In the US, I’ve started paying in cash to combat the aggressive tip buttons (your options are: 20%, 30%, 40%, or Other). With cash, I feel free to provide a reasonable tip for whatever service and they see it and appear appreciative, even if it’s not the 20% the little tip screen attempts to strong arm you into.