Who still uses cash?

[Mactech]

I've not used cash for a number of years now, in fact I can't remember my last cash transaction. Bank transfer, PayPal and cards seem to cover all of my payment needs.
However, our elderly next-door neighbour died last year and my wife has been helping his widow. She said her former husband had left a cash 'emergency fund' in the house.
It was obviously quite an old fund as it was all in old paper banknotes which are no longer legal tender.
She asked my wife what she could do with it, so I was asked in turn to find out how to convert this 'fund' into cleared funds. It seems you can take it to the Bank of England in London, but I figured there must be an easier way! She had an account with Nationwide, so I phoned their local branch (about the only place left to bank in our local market town) and was told it would not be a problem and there would be immediate access to cleared funds! I was surprised, but the account holder had to present the cash and no more than £5k per day would be accepted.
So we have taken her in to the Nationwide Branch where she was greeted personally by name ' Hello Mrs Xxxxx, we haven't seen you for a while!'
She maybe a bit doddery now, but her ex-husband was more Doddy.....We have taken her in on six occasions now....

So I have now been educated as to the meaning of 'cash transfer', but still haven't touched it for years

 

[chic0821]

Like yourself, I never use cash, except in the pub. Don't know why, but for some reason I won't use my card there. When going out I have to stop at a cash point first. Illogical, yes

 

[KennyN]

Payments for dining out paid via contactless , tips paid in cash so at least the employees may have a chance of getting something in their pocket at the end of the week.

Everything else is contactless.

Cash used to be king , not any more.

K

 

[BTB 500]

I haven't carried or used cash for many years.

Mrs BTB is different - she does a bit of 1-2-1 dog training and some of her clients insist on paying cash rather than by bank transfer. It's a 10+ mile round trip to pay it in (no bank branches anywhere near us - this is to the nearest Post Office) so we do use her cash on shopping etc. sometimes just to get rid of it

 

[ALFAitalia]

I've not used cash for a number of years now, in fact I can't remember my last cash transaction. Bank transfer, PayPal and cards seem to cover all of my payment needs.
However, our elderly next-door neighbour died last year and my wife has been helping his widow. She said her former husband had left a cash 'emergency fund' in the house.
It was obviously quite an old fund as it was all in old paper banknotes which are no longer legal tender.
She asked my wife what she could do with it, so I was asked in turn to find out how to convert this 'fund' into cleared funds. It seems you can take it to the Bank of England in London, but I figured there must be an easier way! She had an account with Nationwide, so I phoned their local branch (about the only place left to bank in our local market town) and was told it would not be a problem and there would be immediate access to cleared funds! I was surprised, but the account holder had to present the cash and no more than £5k per day would be accepted.
So we have taken her in to the Nationwide Branch where she was greeted personally by name ' Hello Mrs Xxxxx, we haven't seen you for a while!'
She maybe a bit doddery now, but her ex-husband was more Doddy.....We have taken her in on six occasions now....

So I have now been educated as to the meaning of 'cash transfer', but still haven't touched it for years

All banks legally have to accept out of date notes that shops etc can no longer except and always have been....as long as they are UK notes....no matter how old they are...even the old white ones.....mind you they are worth rather more than face value now so you would be stupid to do that!!

 

[BTB 500]

All banks legally have to accept out of date notes that shops etc can no longer except and always have been....as long as they are UK notes....no matter how old they are

I don't think that's true?

From 1 March, most shops and other businesses will only accept the new polymer or ‘plastic’ £10 notes, featuring Jane Austen. But, you’ll still be able to exchange any old paper tenners for free at the Bank of England, either by post or in person.

Some retailers, banks and building societies may choose to accept the old notes after this deadline. But, they don’t have to.

Businesses take note: the old £10 expires 1 March

All old paper £10 notes must be spent by 1 March 2018.

www.gov.uk

 

[ALFAitalia]

I use my card much more than I used to.....but still feel stupid using it for stuff under a fiver....so if I fancy a Mars bar it will be cash. Im the work shop is was about 50/50 cash card until COVID.....now it more liker 90% card. The conspiracy lot will be along shortly saying that "they" always know where you are, what you are spending on, the evils of the cashless society, big brother, spending control etc etc......well who cares unless you are doing something bad!!

 

[MCFastybloke]

I use it, as much as possible, the tech is not infallible. Recently in Portugal when the power went off and cash allowed our day to carry on regard less.

 

[ALFAitalia]

I don't think that's true?

Businesses take note: the old £10 expires 1 March

All old paper £10 notes must be spent by 1 March 2018.

www.gov.uk

Well these ones do....according to the BOE website.

Exchanging old notes at your UK bank​

If you have a UK bank account, the easiest and quickest way to exchange old banknotes is to pay them into your bank account.

Banks and building societies that accept old paper notes as deposits include:

• Barclays
• Halifax
• Lloyds
• Nationwide
• NatWest
• Santander

 

[Petrol Pete]

Me , not exclusively , but I have around £100 in my wallet right now , but it wouldn't really worry me if that £100 was Just £8.00 in cash, or less , but I do think a cashless society would not be a good thing in the long run.

Lets face it , there is about £8 Billion in cash floating about in the UK today . That, IMHO is keeping the government and financial institutes just this side of 'honest' . Once ALL money is just numbers (as opposed to most of it ) 'they' will have total control .

Now , where is my tin foil hat ?

 

[DesireeE]

I've not used cash for a number of years now, in fact I can't remember my last cash transaction. Bank transfer, PayPal and cards seem to cover all of my payment needs.
However, our elderly next-door neighbour died last year and my wife has been helping his widow. She said her former husband had left a cash 'emergency fund' in the house.
It was obviously quite an old fund as it was all in old paper banknotes which are no longer legal tender.
She asked my wife what she could do with it, so I was asked in turn to find out how to convert this 'fund' into cleared funds. It seems you can take it to the Bank of England in London, but I figured there must be an easier way! She had an account with Nationwide, so I phoned their local branch (about the only place left to bank in our local market town) and was told it would not be a problem and there would be immediate access to cleared funds! I was surprised, but the account holder had to present the cash and no more than £5k per day would be accepted.
So we have taken her in to the Nationwide Branch where she was greeted personally by name ' Hello Mrs Xxxxx, we haven't seen you for a while!'
She maybe a bit doddery now, but her ex-husband was more Doddy.....We have taken her in on six occasions now....

So I have now been educated as to the meaning of 'cash transfer', but still haven't touched it for years

That was really lovely of you both to help out your neighbour in such a way, she must have been going through a lot of stress with the loss of her husband, let alone all the business about the 'emergency fund'. Now that's what real good neighbours used to be like when I was a child growing up and folks would always lend a helping hand if they could, these days I guess it tends to be more of a case of rush inside your front door before anyone sees you or heaven forbid - speaks.

I / we much prefer paying for things in cash when we can, although I'm not adverse to purchasing online and I do buy a heck of lot of things that way as it is very convenient to do so. When it comes to having things done to the bungalow, garden, cars detailed and so on, it's always sorted by cash though.

We did chuckle to ourselves earlier this year after we had collected our new puppy and paid for her in cash, as we had paid the £250 deposit and handed over the remainder owing on the day we collected her. The poor fella took and counted the £1750 in notes twice and before the third time, my mukka suggested he might like to put it into smaller piles to make things easier for him to check. I think he was a tad nervous and she asked us more than once at different visits if we were sure about and quite happy to be paying cash, so obviously not something they were used to dealing with.

Used to breed Great Danes and Bulldogs many years ago, had a couple of cheques (remember them?) bounce, so only ever accepted cash for pups after those rather unpleasant episodes.

 

[st13phil]

I rarely use cash and most times use Apple Pay on my phone, both for credit card and debit card transactions.

That said, the recent extensive power outage in Spain shows that cash still has its advantages.

 

[st13phil]

The conspiracy lot will be along shortly saying that "they" always know where you are, what you are spending on, the evils of the cashless society, big brother, spending control etc etc......well who cares unless you are doing something bad!!

It all depends who gets to decide what constitutes "doing something bad" is.

One only needs to look to China to see why control freaks in positions of power love the idea of a cashless society and programmable digital currency.

 

[DesireeE]

Me , not exclusively , but I have around £100 in my wallet right now , but it wouldn't really worry me if that £100 was Just £8.00 in cash, or less , but I do think a cashless society would not be a good thing in the long run.

Lets face it , there is about £8 Billion in cash floating about in the UK today . That, IMHO is keeping the government and financial institutes just this side of 'honest' . Once ALL money is just numbers (as opposed to most of it ) 'they' will have total control .

Now , where is my tin foil hat ?

I'm the same Pete, always go out with 5 x 20s neatly folded into the side of my phone case and a least a couple of tenners tucked in behind. We were out with family and friends to dinner in a pub once and I handed my phone over to Annie to show her a funny video clip, but she got a bigger laugh out of my lined up dosh than the clip ... some folks eh?

 

[ALFAitalia]

When it comes to having things done to the bungalow, garden, cars detailed and so on, it's always sorted by cash though.

We used to....did with the bathroom a year or so ago.....but I don't want to be part of most builders etc "tax avoidance schemes" anymore....and pay by bank transfer. Also if anything goes wrong you have a proper money trail and evidence. No cash in hand, no "do you really need an invoice?" for me anymore!

 

[BIGDOG]

I don't think that's true?

Businesses take note: the old £10 expires 1 March

All old paper £10 notes must be spent by 1 March 2018.

www.gov.uk

Some banks and all building societies do not hold a banking licence and actually bank with one of the big institutions themselves.

 

[Mactech]

The last time I was caught out by not carrying cash was in 2014. I just landed at 'Frisco, grabbed a rental car at set off north to the Sonoma race circuit.
I had to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and to my surprise they didn't take credit cards and, as I would only be at the circuit or hotel, I had no dollars.
Having explained the situation on the bridge, they shrugged and just waved me through.
So it turned out to be a saving.
I did go the 'hole in the wall' and get a few dollars for my return trip though

Can you imagine the queues at the Dartford crossing if they still took cash?

 

[BTB 500]

Well these ones do....according to the BOE website.

Exchanging old notes at your UK bank​

If you have a UK bank account, the easiest and quickest way to exchange old banknotes is to pay them into your bank account.

Banks and building societies that accept old paper notes as deposits include:

• Barclays
• Halifax
• Lloyds
• Nationwide
• NatWest
• Santander

Sure, but they are voluntarily doing this as a service to their existing customers (nobody else). That's a bit different to what was being suggested:

All banks legally have to accept out of date notes

Per the gov.uk link I posted that's not the case.:

Some retailers, banks and building societies may choose to accept the old notes after this deadline. But, they don’t have to.

 

[Chrishazle]

Like most people these days, I always carry a contactless credit card plus a backup bank credit card that I usually only use fro the ATM, but I will always have a good supply of cash in my wallet - like a couple of folk above, almost always pay cash in the pub, need coin rather than notes buying eggs at the farm gate, I'm for sure one of the "use it or loose it" brigade, been caught out before with power cuts or restaurant having their card machine go TU!

 

[Petrol Pete]

The blokes in the trades that I hang out with are happy to accept some cash but all have conceded that the days of all jobs being cash in hand are a thing of the past . Most say that they have to show the 'tax man' at least some of their earnings . Add to that their clientele are often younger and have probably never seen a £50 note and would possibly faint at the thought of having to handle £2K in cash .

Different times. And rightly so.