# Who still carries cash? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 4, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966 "2003-12-04T16:20:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/41 "2003-12-05T01:07:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rusty Scupper \* > \*\*I’ll be happy to give up cash when McDonald’s takes IOUs 😃 \*\* Australian Macca’s have debit card terminals. I think they even let you take extra cash out on top of your purchase. I use cash for most of my purchases. Four months ago, I didn’t even have a credit card. I pay all my bills online via BPay (an Australian electonic direct-debit system). **Cervaise** , you crack me up. 😃 You also make me wonder how one would input one’s PIN number into an ass-crack reader. ---
**Author:** ![nuthinboutnuthin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/96bed5/32.png) [@nuthinboutnuthin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nuthinboutnuthin)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/42 "2003-12-05T01:11:46Z")
Cash carrier here… I very seldom use my checkbook or CC… I even pay my bills with Money Orders… they are only .25 each… I have soooooooooooo much more money now and I KNOW where every penny is… no checkbook balancing, no fretting as to whether a check came through, no bank fees, generally no hassles, ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/43 "2003-12-05T01:18:16Z")
Despite being viewed as a technotopia by some, Japan is still a very cash-based society. Many shops and restaurants don’t take credit cards (although an increasing number of taxis do. Does this exist in the US?) and personal checks are non-existant. Most transactions are done either with cash or through bank transfers. -At my old teaching job, I didn’t have an account at the bank the school wanted me to use, so they simply gave me an enevelope of cash at the end of each month. -When we paid the initial down payment on our house last month, we plunked down $35,000 cash on the table. The realtor didn’t even blink at this, since the dozens of buyers around us were all doing the exact same thing. -When my company split up the annual profits a couple of weeks ago, the accountant (a very small woman who turns into a surprisingly skilled wrestler when plastered) walked into the meeting room carrying a shopping bag from the bank filled with hundred dollar (well, ten-thousand yen, about the same) bills, and handed out fat envelopes of cash to everyone in the company (lunchbags were used for those whose shares were too big to fit in an envelope), which we then took to our respective banks over lunch to deposit. The idea of using your cell phone as a debit card has slowly started to develop, though. There are a few coke machines around now that you can purchase from by using your phone to dial in an ID number that authorizes the debit. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/44 "2003-12-05T01:19:43Z")
I pull $100 out of my account every two weeks for running around money (gas, smokes, snacks, groceries) and use my checkbook for everything that isn’t covered by my cash. I don’t know of anyplace around here that doesn’t take checks. ---
**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:** [December 5, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/45 "2003-12-05T01:23:38Z")
I travel a lot and always leave home with around $150. I go through a lot of $5 here, $7 there items at hotels, airports, fast food, small shops, etc. Around home I use a CC for anything totalling $20+ and cash below that. Debit cards are tools of the devil. And bank-sponsored automatic bill-paying is even worse. Both are bank-industry plots to ensure the consumer gets stuck with all the fees and they get all the float. Exactly the opposite of CCs. Go back!!! it’s a trap!!! ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/46 "2003-12-05T01:33:53Z")
Heh. Different from what I’m used to, **Sublight**. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/47 "2003-12-05T01:46:19Z")
Cash man here. Generally like to have some US$50 on me or close at hand, for the everyday petty stuff. I’d feel ridiculous at the airport concession stand buying a pack of gum and a magazine with plastic. For large ticket items, or things for which I want to get hard documentation of the expense, I will use the cards. Matter of discipline, more than anything. Once or twice a week drawing an even fifty or hundred is easier to track and to remember to enter in the checkbook ledger – helps me keep conscious of my account balance. And I tend to avoid direct-transfer automatic bill-paying just because I’ve SEEN and held in my hands Water Authority bills where a bug in the system flipped the decimal two spaces to the right on a $83.45 bill. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/48 "2003-12-05T01:59:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ringo \* > \*\*Heh. Different from what I’m used to, **Sublight**. \*\* Surprised the heck out of me the time I saw it, too. I just have to say, $600,000 makes a very satisfying **thud** when set down on the table. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/49 "2003-12-05T02:45:28Z")
By **Sublight** : “The idea of using your cell phone as a debit card has slowly started to develop, though. There are a few coke machines around now that you can purchase from by using your phone to dial in an ID number that authorizes the debit.” Stop the world, just briefly. I think I want to get off now. Will I soon have to get a cell phone in order to operate a Coke machine? _GROAN!_ ---
**Author:** ![Quack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e99b99/32.png) [@Quack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quack)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/50 "2003-12-05T03:35:22Z")
Cash 100% of the time. The joys of being 17… ---
**Author:** ![Palewriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@Palewriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palewriter)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/51 "2003-12-05T03:55:23Z")
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a restaurant with about 15 co-workers. When the bill arrived, I was the only one to have greenbacks. Everyone else had plastic. I guess I’m just old-fashioned, but I was paid up and out of the restaurant a good 15 minutes before everyone else. 🙂 I like dead presidents. - PW ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/52 "2003-12-05T06:47:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by John Carter of Mars \* > \*\*By **Sublight** : “The idea of using your cell phone as a debit card has slowly started to develop, though. There are a few coke machines around now that you can purchase from by using your phone to dial in an ID number that authorizes the debit.” > > Stop the world, just briefly. I think I want to get off now. Will I soon have to get a cell phone in order to operate a Coke machine? _GROAN!_ \*\* Well, they also work with plain old coins, if you insist on being so unhip that you risk your bum falling off. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/53 "2003-12-05T07:45:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jervoise \* > \*\*You also make me wonder how one would input one’s PIN number into an ass-crack reader. \*\* Merely speak your code into the _special microphone._ ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/54 "2003-12-05T16:16:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LSLGuy \* > \*\* > Debit cards are tools of the devil. And bank-sponsored automatic bill-paying is even worse. Both are bank-industry plots to ensure the consumer gets stuck with all the fees and they get all the float. Exactly the opposite of CCs. Go back!!! it’s a trap!!! \*\* Yeah, I’m not getting the appeal of Debit Cards at all. Especially since at the grocery stores around here you have to pay a 25-50 cent surcharge to use them. Unless I’m at an ATM from my own bank I use my credit card (which earns me points toward other stuff) and pay it off monthly. Same exact money but I didn’t get jerked around to use it. > [@](#): > > Cervaise, you crack me up. You also make me wonder how one would input one’s PIN number into an ass-crack reader I’m guessing by then we’ll be using retina-scans. :eek: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/55 "2003-12-05T16:53:12Z")
We have a desk register for the checkbook. We don’t shop with it; it’s used for bills, food delivery (pizza, not groceries), therapy…that kind of thing. We have one (1) credit card. It is a secured Visa with a $500 limit. I use it when I buy things online (almost as rare as hen’s teeth) and **Tark** occasionally uses it to pay for gas. Everything else is cash, and we have no debit card and no ATM card. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/56 "2003-12-05T19:07:49Z")
I carry about $20-$25 cash on a regular basis, plus about $3.00 in coin change. I use a credit card for all other purchasing. Easier for me that way, anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/57 "2003-12-06T13:15:42Z")
My Grandad died yesterday. When the police went through his wallet he had over £300 in cash. I carry cash, but NEVER that much! ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/58 "2003-12-07T07:26:55Z")
Dang. A sizable proportion of the American populace carrying little or no cash. Yet another thing I had no inkling of before coming here. I always carry a lot of cash because…well, I make lots of relatively small purchases, many of them from low-budget operations (comic books, console video games, local fast food franchises, etc.). Frankly, I don’t see how a debit card would help me here. Digging coins out of my wallet doesn’t take _that_ long, and of course the place has to be capable of accepting the card, and I frankly don’t feel like doing that at every place I go to. I do make use of a check card, which has been an ENORMOUS boon. No more tedious writing, no risk of a mysterious bounce that you can’t explain (this happened to me _twice_, BTW). Just a swipe and a signature, and I’m good to go. Checks are really obsolete nowadays; about the only things I still use them for are personal payments to family members and mail order items. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/59 "2003-12-07T08:06:56Z")
People who carry no cash are the BANE of my existence. Then again, I’m typically one of those that manages to be able to pay for things in exact change… Anecdote: Once, I was at Carl’s Jr. for lunch with two buddies. Three registers, and I got up to mine last. I finished ordering and paying for my food before the first receipt for my buddies’ paid-by-plastic order was done printing… I hate it when people admit (almost proudly, it seems!) to never carrying cash. ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966/60 "2003-12-07T13:28:32Z")
Another cash carrier here. I generally keep enough on me to buy lunch at the company cafeteria (cash only) and a pack of cigarettes. I find that keeping only cash on me and limiting the places I get cash without a few (my bank’s ATM only) will keep my impulse purchases (pop, candy, gum) down to near zero. I use a debit card rarely (if I’m a little short at the grocery store or at a gas station that takes them after closing the booth down at night). Credit cards have done me in. I’ve finally finished paying the last one off after going into debt negotiation last year with 3 out-of-control debts. I’m not looking forward to having another one any time soon. Give me cash any day that I can see, taste, and stuff into g-strings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-still-carries-cash/216966.md?page=4)