Cash

With contactless it's faster than cash, so I've changed my behaviour over the last few years. I used to get grumpy at people in pubs paying by card when they had to go through the whole PIN rigmarole, but not any more.

Maybe if you know that (for example) a programme is £5, and you have a £5 note, that will be just as fast, but buy a selection of small items in a supermarket that comes to, say, £3.86, you're almost certainly slower either finding the right money or waiting for change than just tapping the card.

Exactly. Sometimes (as a random example) I'm buying my lunch, and supplies for work in the local supermarket. Work is cash from the petty cash and take a fair bit of faffing with collecting change, getting receipt etc. So then my £3 meal deal being one 'beep' with a card is far far quicker. 

And anyway, while as above I do use cash for small amounts fairly often, actually 'under £5' isn't stupid or a waste of time, it's actually also a handy tracker of spending because it's already itemised in your account (or if you're super fancy an app you use). 

Being a true Millenial I also, shock horror use my phone to pay as well. Which is as handy a back up as cash should one forget a wallet or be out of cash (obviously yes phones run out of battery etc but it's still a handy back up!) 

I find it easier to budget with cash - that's what I have and I can't overspend, far too easy to forget a contactless transaction. Don't get me started on the idiots getting on the bus to pay with their phone but then the phone isn't fully connected to wifi (but it was at home, they say) and the bus just sits there while I'm trying to get to work.

Fully agree, a real annoyance when someone pulls out a card to pay for a couple of small items but contactless payments have made this quicker.

I'm a young person (20) and pay for literally everything on card, however I don't have contactless. If I'm going somewhere on a bus I usually have to add 5 minutes onto my walk to the bus stop to get cash out, I don't like having cash on me, having more than £10 cash makes me feel very vulnerable. I use cash for buses, nights out and very little else. While I don't have contactless I do have Google pay set up on my phone for those tiny payments (I used to use this for the bus until I got a new phone which currently doesn't work)

I like the idea of a cashless system, however I know it's unrealistic for many years to come. As it stands my bank don't even issue contactless cards as standard.

It's interesting to see the many places that are phasing out cash. London buses won't accept it, the tram system stopped last July and given that most tube and rail ticket offices at non major stations are a wasteland for staff I wouldn't be surprised if it comes to all transport methods across London before long. Vodafone shops also refuse to take cash. Maybe that's linked to their refusal to pay tax but I digress....

Many small businesses do not accept credit card payments due to the charges from the company, am not sure if debit cards have a similar charge? Does anyone know? People with bad credit can also sometimes have problems getting new accounts so cash is their only alternative

A definite drawback for me is that use of a card, is also a way of tracking you and your purchases, I know that for a generation raised on smart phones and posting everything on social media this perhaps is fine but something doesn't quite feel right about it to me. And before anybody says, if you're not doing anything to be ashamed of etc etc, that is really not the point.

The magic word of course is convenience, so easy to tap on a contactless machine, so easy to forget I've done that, so easy to get into debt. People aren't even fighting against being led by the nose anymore as it's 'convenient'. It works very much in financial institutions favour if we get less observant with our spending. I've also noticed a trend against receipts too, under the guise presumably of saving trees but it seems an affrontery now to ask for a record of your spending in some places.

Anyway I shall now pop on a tin foil hat and work up a different conspiracy theory for tomorrow

Wow, imagine having to get your 8 year old a debit card so you can start letting them make their own financial decisions with their pocket money. I mean, if we did go completely 100% cashless, it wouldn't *matter* that children don't understand coins, because they'll be as meaningless to future 8 year olds as shillings are to the post-decimalisation generation, the society will adapt and kids will learn the value of non-physical money some other way, but I stand by my statement that cash will always have a place, around the edges of society if not directly in the mainstream. Look at the 200 million rural Chinese who are still using cash, 14 million of whom don't even have the internet.

Yes I agree but I’ve had a huge increase in friends using PayPal friends and family to do this. I find it quite convenient because that cash fuels my eBay addiction.

One thing I definitely don't miss about cash is the weight. My debit card weighs 5g. A 2p piece weighs 7g. It's so nice not to have that weight wearing holes in my pockets.

Oh my goodness, if a cashless society means we'll never again have to tolerate gentlemen of a certain age rattling their change in their pockets while they speak to you, then I'll be first to sign the petition against coins.

Not loose change — I always kept it in a bag of some sort so it didn't rattle and so I could get to it more easily — but the weight still caused friction.

In Edinburgh you have to have the exact change for the bus, such a pain. Having a card does make it easier but I always wonder how many visitors to London are caught out by this.



Omg have you ever used the ones in Poundland? They have an Elvis impersonator talking to you with random phrases like "Elvis has left the building, please take your shopping". The staff in there must be losing their minds.