This seems to come up every so often. I only keep cash on hand specifically to give to beggars. Sometimes I even pay withdraw cash, then pay for something in said cash, just so that I have coins to give to beggars.
There are even fewer occasions now that I need cash than when it was asked before. The bloke who does random window cleaning is now paid via paypal, which is old school in itself.
I still keep emergency cash around, on me and at home, about ten-twenty quid, but I had to put one in a charity tin because it was no longer legal tender. That was how long I hadn’t needed cash.
(Everyone can send old banknotes to the Bank of England to get their face value back - charities get enough that it’s worth their while to do so. I don’t).
Pre Covid, this used to always come up on the travel related boards. I always suggested just using it as donations to museums or large cathedrals when people have some old pound notes. Much easier than exchanging the notes at the Bank of England, although the museum there is quite interesting, it doesn’t usually make the regular tourist agenda
I enjoy playing the horses at the local race book, and that’s pretty much the only place that I still use cash. I buy a program with cash, and place my wagers in cash, but my bar tab is paid for by my debit card.
When it comes to winnings, it’s quite normal for winning bets to be paid in dollars and cents, as in $12.80, $6.30, and $3.50. I find it easiest if I save up my winning tickets until the end of the day (i.e. not cashing each winning ticket after its race), when I can turn them all in at once, and hopefully, won’t end up with too many nickels, dimes, and quarters. Being in Canada, I’ll likely end up with some loonies and toonies also, but those are handy for buying next week’s program, as well as using in downtown parking meters.
We had an entire thread on this a few weeks ago. (Anybody here remember where to find it?)
Worse than dying and nobody notices, is almost dying and nobody notices. You could have a heart attack or a stroke or fall and break bones, and if you don’t quite die on the spot, you could lie on the floor for a week or a month until someone happens to find you, or you die.
Some Interesting posts here. I still carry change a few days of the week, but frankly it’s coming to dominate the top of my refrigerator, and that ain’t a small amount of space! Walking outdoors with a wallet devoid of bills is alien to me. It doesn’t have to be twenty or more, Five or ten will do.
For me, taking change with me is part nostalgic, a wistful sort of habit, it reminds me how life used to be. There are still many city neighborhoods like mine where the fruit and veg guy is still cash only (and a barbershop), plus the bakery, though they’ve started taking plastic, however their minimum is more than I care to pay for a loaf of bread. Good quality, not great.
This is a mixed emotionsthing with me issue due to the world moving in an alien direction. In other words, just as once upon a time one would be unwise to walk outdoors in a city, town, wherever, without money and I.D., now the I.D., plus credit stuff, medical and other necessary items are still there, in my wallet, but it’s a different drill. I know it well enough, but I still keep cash and coin on me, would feel naked without it.
I agree. Whenever I’ve come back from the US I’ve usually got a pocketful of useless coins (why on Earth are you guys still using 1c pieces???), but when I’ve been to pretty much anywhere else with useful coin denominations, I find most of them get spent - when you can pay for useful things like coffee, a sandwich, some sushi etc with a couple of coins, it makes a big difference.
As to the main question, I like to have $10-$20 in walking around money on me if I can, to cover things like the EFTPOS system not working, but the prevalence of tap-and-pay systems has made paying for small purchases a lot easier than even a few years ago, so it’s really more just a habit I’ve made a conscious decision to keep rather than a functional necessity nowadays.
Getting rid of pennies has been considered, and rejected. This article suggests several reasons why:
Tradition
Concerns about inflating prices
Possible negative impact on charity drives
My personal opinion is that it’s mostly that people are convinced that prices will always get rounded up to the nearest 5c (i.e., “I’m going to get ripped off”), as well as tradition.
I occasionally buy with currency, but never make a point to keep coins on me.
I’m 50 years old, and have essentially zero life experience where I could routinely buy something with a single coin. I could buy penny candy, a local phone call, time on a parking meter, and that’s about it. When I was a little kid, candy bars were 30 cents.
Coins have exited the public consciousness as objects to buy stuff with, that concept is at least two generations removed. Anyone who takes coins with them shopping isn’t doing so because they need the coins to buy stuff, they bring coins because they’re trying to avoid getting more coins.
Once you’ve decided that coins are virtually worthless currency used to balance out transactions, it doesn’t matter how worthless they are. Every year they get a little more worthless-er, but really it’s the same as last year, I buy something with cash, and get a little pile of worthless metal to put in a jar.
I suppose that, particularly if you have a low income, having most transactions be 1-4 cents more expensive might add up enough to have a real impact. That said, I get the sense, based on pro-penny arguments I’ve read over the years, that for people who want to keep the penny, it’s more about the principle of it than the actual net cost increase.
Ms. Mallard and I use nothing but plastic (debit/credit) for our purchases (paid off monthly to avoid the usury interest charges) so other than carrying loonies or quarters for grocery carts we seldom if ever have any change. My barber is “cash only” so only if I’m getting a haircut do I carry cash.
Having $1 and $2 coins is a really good way to avoid that issue, because you can still buy stuff with those coins. Get rid of 1c pieces, and tell everyone complaining about the rounding errors that result to just suck it up and get with the programme, and you’ve solved a lot of those issues.
When they got rid of 1c and 2c pieces in NZ in the 1990s, they used Swedish Rounding to deal with it and it was essentially swings and roundabouts in the end - sometimes you’d lose a few cents, sometimes you’d gain a few cents. Ultimately it made no difference from a financial position perspective except that you didn’t end up with a bunch of worthless copper coins to carry around.
It honestly doesn’t, and the rounding isn’t applied to electronic payments (eg debit/credit card, bank transfers etc). There’s honestly no notable downsides, IMO.
The topic of making changes in USA currency comes up often on the SDMB. I think that eliminating the penny would be the least controversial and thus the one that should be done first.
I just got back from the liquor store to pick up my medicine. I had grabbed a few coins from the bowl near my ‘valet’ (ok, a shelf where I toss my keys and overflowing with goofy ephemera). The total was $26.38 and I gave 27.13. The clerk was understandably confused and I said “See what happens!” The change came back to 75 cents, three quarters which are far superior to a dime and three pennies. See? Pocket change works: Valuable quarters for a laundry machine I haven’t needed in 12 years!
There is no reason to round prices at all if the U.S. cent coin is retired. They can remain right where they are- only the total purchase at checkout would have to be rounded to the nearest nickel.
Yes, occasionally someone does buy a single item in a store, but not too often. With so many things ending in .99 or .49 or .x9, it’s only likely to be a cent extra if someone does buy a single item.