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The Demise Of Cash...

Bob McC said:
Should help end the black economy, unless plumbers/brickies/Electricians start bartering.

A rewire for a sheep and a firkin of ale guv...
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Actually that is exactly what my dad and his mates did between themselves in retirement. Small stuff, but it is there. No reason why a cashless economy will do anything other than result in more dodging. Bitcoins could be the payment of choice for your plumber soon.
 
The demise of cash is being partly blamed for the spate of ATM robberies in the midlands (explode them out with propane, or remove with a big yellow bit of stolen plant). Apparently, the lack of cash in shops/Post Offices/betting shops makes them not worth the risk for the ill gotten gains available.
 
This place being a rather lefty one, I am very surprised to see how tolerant you all are towards the prospect that, one day, every single money operation will leave traces somewhere. To me this is a serious restriction of our civil liberties, I hope this day never comes.

When you give £100 to one of your godchildren at Christmas but only £50 to the other one - because you have your reasons to do so - why should that be written ins stone anywhere?

Lurdes, my portuguese cleaning lady, always gets paid in cash. She is insured, but taxwise it is her problem whether she declares the money or not. And frankly, I wouln't be that shocked if she kept all if it for herself, as she is not on a bed of roses, unlike the mi-bi-zillionaires who will always find a way to hide their money.
 
I am waiting for the first large scale phone wallet hack. I personally don't trust Android phones at all with money
 
I haven't routinely carried cash with me since the mid 90s. In New Zealand, most shops accept EFT-POS payments. Even mobile market stalls these days have mobile SIM-based EFT-POS devices to enable direct debits. The only time I've needed cash is at the very occasional metered carpark. But even those have mostly given way to smart parks that take contactless or credit card payments.
 
Also are you helping you kid with cash for uni? After £3k HMRC will have a slice of that, so you will have to give more.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I suspect that as long as we have poor people, we'll have cash. So cash will be with us for a long time yet.
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What about all those people who, while not exactly poor, are just not very good at managing money, especially when they can't see it. Paying for everything by waving a 'phone or credit card at the till will seem to them like having their very own pocket sized magic money tree. Not to us of course
 
matthewr said:
Of course this has already been tried in India where it's been a mixed bag.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/arti...-world-can-learn-from-india-s-cash-experiment
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indeed but the implementation for partly for the wrong reasons. If you look at for example, m-pesa in Africa it is enabling and empowering poorer people.

MikeMA said:
What about all those people who, while not exactly poor, are just not very good at managing money, especially when they can't see it. Paying for everything by waving a 'phone or credit card at the till will seem to them like having their very own pocket sized magic money tree. Not to us of course
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there is an argument that these people should be helped to manage their money, and the personal debt problem this country has may not be quite as bad if interventions were earlier. I recall a programme where citizens advice helped people manage their money and debts when they were in deep trouble. Whilst e-money makes this look a bit like big brother, managed and earlier interventions may prevent (or lessen) personal financial meltdown. Interestingly, all the people on the programme, when asked "would they have been comfortable if their bank had (from their spending patterns) intervened earlier?" All replied a strong "yes"....
 
m-pesa looks like a brilliant solution that is simple in execution.

I forgot a major use of pound coinage from my list. That is unlocking shopping trollies.
 
gintonic said:
indeed but the implementation for partly for the wrong reasons. If you look at for example, m-pesa in Africa it is enabling and empowering poorer people.
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Yes the whole objective is completely different...in Africa, empower people. In developed countries, empower corporations and the state.

Long live cash!
 
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