# How much cash do you typically carry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 1, 2025, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656 "2025-09-01T16:10:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/101 "2025-09-03T00:57:14Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > They couldn’t do that today as new-fangled credit cards don’t even have raised numbers any more. They really wouldn’t have any backup strategy. I believe you can still write down the numbers. Possibly. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/102 "2025-09-03T01:01:05Z")
Also, even if the store’s data connection is down, they should be able to use a cellular terminal for credit card transactions. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/103 "2025-09-03T01:35:33Z")
If they own one. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/104 "2025-09-03T02:50:47Z")
I keep an emergency $20 folded in my magnetic wallet on my phone but I use Apple Pay for everything. Except fucking Walmart which is ancient and doesn’t accept tap to pay. Then I have to use an actual physical credit card. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/105 "2025-09-03T03:28:17Z")
I take a hundred dollars out when I go to the ATM. Unless I’m going out of town and then I’ll take out two hundred. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/106 "2025-09-03T03:29:48Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Except fucking Walmart which is ancient and doesn’t accept tap to pay. I’ve noticed this. And seriously, if you’re so far behind the technological curve that I notice it, you’ve got a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/107 "2025-09-03T03:34:38Z")
My _guess_ is that Walmart decided there was too much fraud risk with tap to pay and that inserting the card was more secure? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/108 "2025-09-03T03:48:08Z")
I don’t think there’s any more fraud potential with tap to play. Possibly less. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/109 "2025-09-03T05:25:31Z")
Upgrading those millions of terminals would be expensive. Perhaps a subtle polling of their customers convinced management that the clients aren’t that sophisticated for tap to pay. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/110 "2025-09-03T13:45:17Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I keep an emergency $20 folded in my magnetic wallet on my phone but I use Apple Pay for everything. Except fucking Walmart which is ancient and doesn’t accept tap to pay. Then I have to use an actual physical credit card. Googling, the answer as to why Walmart doesn’t accept tap-to-pay is apparently that they would prefer you use their app, in which you can store a credit card number. That allows them greater tracking of who buys what. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/111 "2025-09-03T17:49:02Z")
Usually $40 - $80. More if I’m traveling. I pay the hair cutter in cash, and I get my bundtlets using cash, but not much else. In Washington and Oregon a lot of places were charging fees for credit. I tend to use cash if possible for small operators and small purchases so they don’t get hit with credit card fees. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/112 "2025-09-03T18:03:08Z")
I haven’t read all the posts but is there anyone else who finds that one of their primary uses for cash is buying gas? I do this because several local stations give you a discount if you pay with cash rather than a credit card. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/113 "2025-09-03T18:10:33Z")
Not me. Typically Arco stations here (SFBA CA) have the lowest prices and that’s for cash. But I don’t, only for the convenience, I use a card. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/114 "2025-09-03T18:11:59Z")
I buy gas almost exclusively at Costco. They’re usually among the cheapest around, and I get a kickback on my card. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/115 "2025-09-03T18:47:57Z")
Nope - but around here, debit cards usually get the cash price. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/116 "2025-09-03T19:55:47Z")
Slightly off-topic, but I just received an email from Uber, informing their clientele that they now accept cash, if a customer’s account is verified. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/117 "2025-09-04T00:13:37Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Googling, the answer as to why Walmart doesn’t accept tap-to-pay is apparently that they would prefer you use their app, in which you can store a credit card number. That allows them greater tracking of who buys what. Walmart Canada does accept tap, but they know that Canadians wouldn’t stand for their shenanigans if they didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/118 "2025-09-07T19:01:22Z")
We’ve started going to a new church. Wife and I are trying going back to a Roman Catholic Church, attending mass with her parents in the church she grew up in. Wife and I both were raised in the Catholic Church. Anyway I’m running out of cash because I drop a Ben Franklin in the collection plate each week. So I had to go to the ATM to replenish my wallet stash, and when I did that the other day I thought of you guys here and this thread. It’s nice to be able to withdraw $1,000 in $100s from the ATM. Well it’s either nice or a sad state of inflation rates in recent years. Yeah, probably the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2025, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/119 "2025-09-07T19:48:17Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Anyway I’m running out of cash because I drop a Ben Franklin in the collection plate each week. When I was working for the bank, for a time I supervised the ATM department. One aspect of the job was determining where to place new ATMs, and to deal with requests for an ATM placement. One such request came from a pastor of a prominent church in town, who wanted an ATM placed in the church so churchgoers could withdraw cash for the collection plate each Sunday. And he also asked that all fees be waived. I turned down his request. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2025, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656/120 "2025-09-07T19:58:10Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > I turned down his request. Good call. I would’ve, too. I’m amazed by ATMs. Those are machines that are built to tolerances where their error rate has GOT to be near zero! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-cash-do-you-typically-carry/1022656.md?page=7)