Is A Cashless Society Feasible?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43645676
I see the Olivers are giving it a go but a lot of older people are struggling. Oddly enough I only use cash in places like bars and cafes etc but it would not be much of a leap to go cashless. I know that Gregorys are on the way out but do you think bangers and mash will follow?

[Jackdaw33]

Perhaps we should go back to bartering. I'll give you a tin of beans and an apple for a pint of milk.

[Garaman]

//Internet and mobile phone reception would both have to be vastly improved first. //

You wouldn't need either to pass cash on a phone app.

[Jackdaw33]

I do not have, nor need, a smartphone and would be very disgruntled if I had to buy one merely for the purpose of making cash transactions.

[Thursday]

And a phone with internet connectivity (which I haven't as there's no mobile reception here).

[jourdain2]

JD is right about returning to bartering. That or local currencies will develop. Also, why should I buy a smartphone and agonise over learning to use it? We don't get a mobile signal in the house and the internet is extremely slow and 'iffy'. Besides, I budget better with cash and how do you teach children the reality of money unless they have a certain amount and when they've spent it it's gone? Counting piles of pennies and other coins into pounds taught my toddlers addition and subtraction.



Impossible to do without cash. I've been to Scarborough today (6C, foggy and not nice) to get my hair cut. I paid for haircut by debit card as it was nearly £20.

Park & Ride bus £1.20 - cash. Stamp hinges for Mr J2 £1.75 - cash. Notebook for me £2 - cash. Newspaper - cash. Stopwatch for me £5.99 - cash. Stop at Morrison's on return; petrol £36 - debit card, ground coffee £3.17 cash.

Our local pub does not accept card - nor do many around. Other places have a minimum spend of £10 to cover their costs.

[Jackdaw33]

True. My pharmacy will only take cards for £5 or more.

[Garaman]

The BoS reckons that only about half the banknotes in circulation are used for legitimate purposes, and the rest linked to crime of various kinds. Interesting that a lot of people would rather accept that situation than have a change forced upon them which might cause some inconvenience.

Cash apps wouldn't cure that problem of course, but they would be a stepping-stone to a cash-free society.

[Garaman]

BoE

[Jackdaw33]

Cheques are definitely on the way out. I have had my current cheque book for three years and in that time I have written only three cheques, and then only because I needed to send them through the post. Time was when I could get through a chequebook in a month. The only way I could get cash was to queue up in the bank and cash a cheque. How times have changed.

I once got a letter from the bank manager telling me I was overdrawn. I replied that I couldn't possibly be as I had still six cheques left. Needless to say he was not impressed.

[andres]

I am intrigued by the posts about beggars having cash machines for contactless payments. Who actually owns the machines ? Can't be the homeless person can it because to have a bank account they would have to provide an address? Just wondering.

[Jackdaw33]

No problem about an address - Third skip on the left behind Tesco's.

[alavahalf]

At this point I believe I am more or less cashless.
Just checked my a/c and it seems I last used a cashpoint 5 weeks ago .. I drew out £100.

Have been out for meals, paid for taxis, takeaways, the odd visit too the pub, bought a car, bought shares, visits to shops, supermarkets and spending on everything else that most do.
Checking my wallet I still have the £100 in it. I dont possess any change. Checking my wallet I still have the £100 in it.

Funnily enough my daughter on seeing my wallet open has just had £20 cash away !

[Togo]

All those "homeless beggars" are included in the figures, in Krom's op.
Cashless can't happen. The "politicians" will stop it, how will they get their bribe dosh without detection? Particularly the new and vibrant additions to our "professional politicians".

[Jackdaw33]

Quite. How would Neil Hamilton have got by without brown envelopes stuffed with cash for questions?

[jourdain2]

I sign cheques at least twice a month and am half-way through my current book. Point of interest. Whilst I lived in France some high-up nitwit suggested that cheques should demise................the popular fury was horrendous! Perhaps you should understand that a debit card costs (or did cost)35 euros for 2 years - just to issue it. A heck of a lot of France has only just cottoned on to cheques.

I am reminded of my dear neighbour, Marcel (retired farmer who turned his land into a smallholding - to the fury of his other neighbour who was very 'propre'). His Son-in-Law arranged a few days at Lourdes in N. Spain on behalf of a family member. The French histrionics on the family's return were stratospheric!

Marcel, faced with the hotel bill for a couple of days in Spain, whipped-out his French cheque-book. He was nonplussed and totally outraged to find that it was not accepted! (S-i-L paid for everything by card and was reimbursed later.)

What I'm trying to get at is that most people don't have internet & don't do remote banking. Very seriously, I knew people in France who didn't have a cheque-book. The Mairies were trying to enforce 'rates' payment of over 300 euros by cheque instead of cash. They were failing. This is just one region.

[Jackdaw33]

I was always under the impression that Lourdes was in southern France and not Spain.

[woofgang]

Is a cashless society feasible? Yes of course it is. Is it feasible now? no not yet.