I can attest that they are not cheap to purchase and operate! And they are not profit centers, either.
Zero. I use credit or debit for everything, and even things that used to be “cash only" like buying band merch can all be done with NFT or Square or interac e-transfer that literally everyone in Canada has via their banks.
One club I go to for shows is cash only for drinks during the shows, so I’ll pull cash out of the ATM for that, but rarely more than needed to cover what I intend to consume. I usually give whatever’s left ($5 more or less) to a homeless person or two on the way home.
We don’t have an emergency stash at home, but my husband tends to leave coins on the dresser and there’s often at least $10-20 there. That covers things like kid’s fundraising at the door, but even they often have a website you can pay directly nowadays. My son also has cash in his room from birthday gifts, but it would have to be a hell of an emergency for me to feel I should use it.
Usually between $200 and $500. I have a weekly side gig that pays about that much in cash. I’ll carry that money with me during the week for groceries, lunches, etc. Whatever is left at the end of the week goes into the bank. Rinse and repeat. Pay from work is direct deposited. That covers rent and bills.
You reminded me. Mrs. Bullitt usually has $100-$200 cash in her wallet. That’s usually for emergency use but occasionally something comes up and cash is the best option. I usually replenish her stash. The other day when I went to the ATM I gave her $200 to replenish her stash.
Usually around $100 in my wallet, plus another $80-100 stashed in my apartment in case of emergencies. I don’t ordinarily NEED that much, but I don’t want to be going to the ATM constantly either, and the one nearest my house sometimes goes down for a few days at a time, or has long lines around payday.
Using a card for a purchase under $10 or so just … feels wrong to me. I will do it if it’s the only way to pay, or if the business seems to be genuinely encouraging it, but, I dunno, it just seems wasteful? Plus, a lot of smaller businesses around here give you discounts for paying in cash.
This is often caused by credit card processing fees, that depending on the issuer may begin to eat significantly into the margin below a certain point.
Biggest advantage of cash, as long as businesses are willing to take it, is that you can’t remotely brick the $20 note in my pocket and it is still legal tender even if I’m out of the cel network.
Indeed. In the last 20 to 30 years I haven’t encountered any “emergency” where cash would have been important. But lots of people carry “emergency cash.” I pay for my coffee with cash, as the owner seems to prefer it. I keep $10 to $40 in my car for that purpose. Other than that, I try to have cash for tips when traveling.
I typically have a miscellaneous bills in my pocket but not always. I do pay for some big expenses with cash, but I go to the bank specifically for that purpose and don’t “carry” it day to day. ($800 to $1000 for the landscapers, for example).
I don’t buy gas anymore, but when I did, it was always on the card. (I hate going into the building).
Typically, zero in my pocket and 25 cents in each car. Those quarters are for the Aldi cart.
I truly don’t understand this. Wasteful of what? It’s quicker and easier. If the merchant is giving a cash discount for small purchases, that makes sense to use cash, but if not, what is wrong about it?
I’m with you too. CCs are extremely convenient, and they speed up the purchase process. Think of the last time you stood behind someone paying cash and having their change counted back. Or worse, paying by check.
Honestly, it’s more gutfeel than anything very logical, but if the business isn’t giving a cash discount, some part of what I’m paying is going to a big corporation if I pay with a credit card, when it would otherwise stay in the community. Plus, I assume any electronic translation carries some of the same concerns about electricity and water usage that people cite as reasons why crypto and AI are bad for society, if on a smaller scale. (It’s possible that all of these concerns are way overblown and we’re just big ol’ Luddites. I know I am. Like I said, it’s more feeling than logic.)
When I pay with cash, which is admittedly rare nowadays, I generally don’t want any change back. Last time I paid with cash was for a taxi a couple of weeks ago. I gave the driver $30 and told him to keep the change. That was faster than if I had paid with a credit card; I just stuck two bills in his hand and left.
Similarly, it seems most of the times I pay with cash is for tips, and I never need change for that.
That’s pretty much me. Cash tips for valets, for bellmen, for musicians, … it adds up. But no change results. Hand them some bill(s) and walk away.
That and Powerball tickets; in this state they can only be paid for by cash.
Everything else is card. $1.27 for a small coffee at 7-11? Card. Of course card. Who’d want to fuss with $1 bills or worthless hunks of metal. Tap & go. I’ll be in my car before the cashier could have counted out the change from the fiver I’d have given them.
I carry around about $40-50 but I don’t try to keep it at any level. I also have a “secret” $20 bill folded up and hidden in my wallet somewhere (though if I ever really needed it, I’m afraid I will have forgotten about it!).
When I go to ATM I get $60-80 extra and keep it in a drawer in my apartment.
One to two million. Okay, this was when I lived in Italy back 1996-2001 before the transition to Euro. Italy was slow to adopt electronic banking, payments, billing… The exchange rate was huge in my favor. Big bills and wallet. My second tour in 2007-2009, mostly changed to electronic methods though the rural country store/restaurants still liked euros as payment.
Now, just a few bills for valet parking and paying golf debts (or gathering winnings).
These are great- I’ve read every post in here. I live in New York City and even when I did not, I worked in and around NYC and have since 1981. This engagement in a large, anonymous and somewhat dangerous city has deeply informed my choices and behaviors regarding cash and cc use.
Without quoting in and out on every reference,
I use a hip pouch/ fanny pouch. Have on and off for decades. I’m glad I’ve returned to it. I never have kept cash IN my wallet. Ever. Just felt safer keeping it in a clip somewhere else, etc. Easy to access and kept the wallet HIDDEN whenever possible. That said, I use the cc for many transactions. If it’s a mom n pop, I will take out cash. That turns out to be pretty frequent here in the city. Especially post-COVID, the margins on small bodegas, food&drink and other businesses is wicked tight. I’m gonna take out my Amex card to pay for the finest pizza in the NYC area? ( go on, fight me on it. :D) No. It’s a 3% hit if not slightly higher. I pay cash and tip the person standing all day in front of a 140º blast furnace, making my pie. Ditto when I walk into the Essen Korean market/ salad bar place near work. It feels big and “corporate” but I know these places operate on the same slim margins. I pay cash when I can.
The supermarkets around here have cc only lanes and I go for them for time efficiency.
This may be an outlier approach, but I have one credit card. It’s a Delta Skymiles Amex card. I also have, of course, an ATM card from my bank. We don’t fly much but when we do, it feels very nice to burn miles and not money. The yearly fee is manageable to us. It works. My kids urge me to dump it and go with the Sapphire card. Meh. It’s all about the incredibly high cost of flying to me, so we stick with it.
I don’t use my ATM card for ANYTHING other than cash withdrawls. There are places that do not take Amex, though that’s kind of rare in NYC - especially in Manhattan- and that’s what the cash is for. I’ve not encountered a nexus. If I owe that much, the place always takes Amex. ( Pricey dinner and drinks out, etc etc. ) If I owe that little and Amex is not taken, I have the cash.
When traveling, I will have more than $ 200 in cash but most of that is kept buried in the backpack. Nobody needs to see me flash a Jersey Roll™.
Re: Coins. I won’t miss the penny. I do carry whatever change is handed to me in the hip pouch where the paper money clip resides. I try not to be “that guy” and stand at a cashier counting out coins with people behind me. My work hours are bizarre and I find myself alone and can pay cash with exact coin change enough that I don’t sweat the coinage piling up at home. Additionally, our bank- last I checked- still accepts coins in rolls. A fun thing to do while watching college football !!
Also, the quarters and dollar coins thing. I will be at the bank and effort to buy dollar coins and rolled quarters. I keep a lovely black velvet jewelry bag tucked out of sight in the car. The MuniParking kiosks take quarters and dollar coins as well as cc. And in some cases, the cc dip slide is vandalized or dead and coins are THE only way to park. So, viva coins for me.
Weirdly, in addition to the money clip, I think I still have a $20 folded into my wallet somewhere amongst the drivers’ license and AAAAAARP card. No clue why at this point…
Not old enough to claim “Depression-Era Child” mentality, but we also do keep a few thousand in the house for emergencies. Like at least one poster up there somewhere, we’re not hardcore Preppers or anything.
But…we both lived through a blackout that lasted more than 24 hours in NYC. The idea of a cyberattack on banking is not really unbelievable any more. Various power companies in the USA have already been hacked and disabled by way of “warning shots”. So, some ready cash isn’t such a bad idea.
Re: Carrying 50s or 100s for ease of use. I cannot possibly count the number of POS situations where there is a hand-written or properly printed and mounted signs that read We do not accept anything larger than a twenty.
Legal? No clue. But the person at the cash register ain’t interested in a spirited debate on currency legalities. They’ll send me packing if I want to use a 50. So, those coupla hundred I carry? Always twenties and lower. The notable exception is in Las Vegas. ATMs are programmed to dispense 100 bills and that’s NOT just inside of casinos. I remember walking to the closest drug store to my hotel on a job around…hmmm…2007? I believe it was a CVS. The ATMs defaulted to 100 but I was allowed options. That said, it’s Vegas. I suspect the burrito food truck lady would take a $ 100 and not blink twice. Guessing this vibe is the same in the other larger “gambling” towns in Nevada. ( Reno? Tahoe? Where else? )
I’m currently at a pick-your-own apple orchard which we stopped at just passing by. They only take cash. No venmo, no Zelle, no cards. My wife Venmo-ed another customer $10.
This is the first time that she can remember in years when not having cash on her could have been a real problem. For very small values of “real” obviously.
Just an FYI - I’m pretty sure every NYC public parking kiosk can be paid via the ParkNYC app. Which I actually got after one too many kiosks wouldn’t take either a credit card or coins.
There are places out there. Infrequent, but they do exist. Not too long ago we had dinner in Manhattan at a nice restaurant and, SURPRISE!, they were cash only. I couldn’t believe it. I had to scrounge together some $300 cash to pay that bill.
Usually $0 or $80. When I need money I withdraw $100 from the ATM, then spend $20. Then my wife or kids will take the entire $80 whenever they need it, leaving me at $0.