No more having to spend a certain amount of money to use my credit/debit card or getting charged a fee by some stores to use my CC/debit card. So now when I go to the market to buy food I will only bring a certain amount of cash so I can spend less. I was spending more money in the market because I was using a bigger pot of money. Now I won’t be able to over spend because I can’t spend more what’s in my wallet.
So I am confident now I can increase my savings by paying cash for everything. Like last night when I was in the market my bill came to $17.57 and I just happen to have $18.00 in cash on me:D
Except for online purchases, I’ve used cash only for the past five years. My credit cards stay safely at home. The result has been that during that time I have not taken a single dollar out of savings. Before that I used to routinely take money out of savings to pay off my credit cards.
In talking to people about their finances, I’ve found that they fall into two categories:
People who see cash as real money, and credit cards as essentially play money. If they have $100 in their wallet, they’re going to carefully watch where it goes, but if they only have to click a button or hand over a card to pay, they don’t pay attention. (This is me. If I pay in cash, I know exactly how much I paid to the penny, but when I just handed over a card, I couldn’t even tell you the price, because it didn’t mean anything to me.)
People who see credit cards as real money, and cash as essentially play money. If they use a credit card, they see the amount listed on their app or bill, and it counts against their budget. But cash in their pocket just gets handed over without really thinking about it.
For people like me, the cash-only system works best to curb excess spending. For people in the second category, NOT carrying cash and using credit cards for everything works better.
Of course if you have no issues with overspending, you don’t need to use either system, and might want to maximize credit card use to get the rewards. But for some of us, the rewards only encourage us to spend more on our credit cards.
So far, cash is accepted everywhere (in the USA) except online. Although I do recall a FedEx counter in Burbank that didn’t take cash, due to the frequent robberies, they said.
I will echo SpoilerVirgin on this. Money in pocket is watched. Money on credit card is a nonentity. (It’s not quite that bad but I do indeed leave my [only] credit card at home so I cannot use it.)
That can’t be due to fear of robberies, but it gives them an excuse to raise the price of the items.
So they’ve perfected a way to accept payment from credit cards that’s faster than handing a server a bill? Whenever I’m in a checkout line, it’s slowed down by CC payments. Even if they go through without a hitch, it takes longer than a cash transaction.
I agree, it’s much easier keeping spending under control when using cash. I am another person who finds it much easier to spend too much when using a cc, or shopping online. I am much more accountable and responsible when i use cash and make in person purchases.
Another factor – going cashless transfers power to big financial institutions and government and organizations that track spending and profile people and target advertising. I find that repugnant.
Also, there is a vast population that uses and lives by a cash economy. Not just poor people in cities, or criminals, but people in rural areas, or people who do odd jobs, or have very small businesses. They make enough money to live on, but wouldn’t if they had to set up the systems to take cc’s or debit cards.
My credit card pays me 1% cash back, and has never charged me a cent in fees in more than ten years. I have gotten several hundred dollars back from its free trip-interruption insurance. and exercise rental car insurance waiver. Every month they mail me a nice concise accounting of everything I spent, PoS, online, and recurring utility bills. If I dispute a bill, they put the burden of proving the debt on the merchant. They phone me if there is a suspicious charge.
Foolish people who cannot exercise control over their finances pay them plenty in fees and penalties, thus the people who can least afford it subsidize my use of the magically free service. I feel a certain moral ambiguity about that, but I use it anyway.
Not quite. There is a post office branch on the college campus where I work that will not take cash. I presume that is to discourage dishonesty among the workers, but that’s just a guess.
Personally, I use cash for my day-to-day expenses, but I feel more and more like a dinosaur doing it, as everyone else seems to be using debit cards.
The cash back rewards I received from using my credit card will be the same amount of money i will save from using cash. For example, I had to earn 5000 points using my cc to receive a $25 gift card? U will be saving a lot more than that now
I don’t understand the idea of “saving money” by using cash.
I almost never use cash - I’ve had the same $20 in my wallet for the last 3 months. I charge everything, and pay my bill in full each month. This way, I’m using the bank’s money for a month, plus I get Amazon points, which amount to a hundred dollars or so every couple of months.
If I only take a certain amount of money to buy food from the market, I will spend less money than using my cc/debit card because I am spending what I have in my wallet
When I use the CC/debit card, I am using a bigger funding source so I will likely spend more money. Like when I was in the market on friday, my bill was $17.57 and I gave her $18.00 in cash. if I was using the CC I would have spend more money because In my mind I am using a bigger funding source vs a few bucks in my wallet
I use cash only where I can’t use my credit card that collects air miles or my debit card. If I can use someone else’s money for 30ish days I’ll do it. I’m Scottish, so excess spending foolishly isnt a significant problem. Heck, even in Vegas, I’ll burn gas in the rental car until I find a $5 blackjack table!
So, in a cashless society, how do kidnappers get their ransom, drug dealers get their payoffs and politicians like Brian Mulroney get their graft payments? Gift cards??:rolleyes:
