refusing to accept cash

December 19th, 2018 at 4:45:48 PM permalink
Pacomartin
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Recent research in Sweden says 7% is the magic percentage. Once cash transactions go below 7% the business owner finds it more profitable to shut down the cash infrastructure (cash registers, security, reconciliation of accounts, etc.) than to continue to accept cash.

As there become fewer and fewer businesses that accept cash, the number of people who don't use cash increases. The effect is cyclical as the number of people who don't use cash means that fewer businesses accept cash.

One researcher suggests that "cashless society" should be defined as one in which cash is not a meaningful way to conduct transactions. Sweden may not actually void it's banknotes like they did with personal checks three decades ago. But they will not issue a new banknote series since there is no meaningful danger from counterfeiting. Since Sweden purchases their banknotes from the corporation in Britain that produces British banknotes, they may simply end the contract to produce banknotes or the company will drop Sweden if they refuse to migrate to polymer banknotes like Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
December 19th, 2018 at 6:54:06 PM permalink
Wizard
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I went to a coffee shop on Monday in Summerlin and was rather shocked that they refused my cash and said they were "cashless."
Knowledge is Good -- Emil Faber
December 19th, 2018 at 7:13:21 PM permalink
Pacomartin
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Quote: Wizard
I went to a coffee shop on Monday ...


https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/26/starbucks-tests-cashless-store-as-more-customers-buy-coffee-with-their-phones.html
Even Starbucks is experimenting with cashless location

The article says for one owner in Manhattan the magic number was 15%.

By the beginning of this year, that number had fallen to just 15 percent. At that point, the various hassles of dealing with cash—employee training, banking fees, armored-truck pickups, and the occasional robbery—outweighed the cost of credit card fees on those transactions.

As crime-prevention is an often cited goal of a cashless society, one perverse effect has now developed. There is something called "emotional detachment from money" that makes you more likely to commit a crime. Someone might not be tempted to grab a $20 sticking out of the pocket of a little old lady, but they would have no trouble putting an extra $20 on an expense account. In Sweden certain kinds of crime are actually increasing.

As money becomes more often bits and bytes, people are more and more likely to skim a little if possible.


===============================
Some observations: the total value of banknotes and coins converted to dollars at the end of 2017 are:

United States $1,618B - largest banknote $100
Euro area $1,440B - largest banknote $599.52
China $1,184B - largest banknote $15.37 at end of 2017
Japan $991B - largest banknote $88.83 at end of 2017
So China has just as large a total value in circulating banknotes and coins but all the banknotes and coins are worth less than $15.40 apiece.

Japan circulates roughly 15 billion banknotes. They have a coin worth roughly $5 and about two-thirds of their banknotes are of the largest denomination.

Because the Euro Zone has €1 and €2 coins and very large denomination banknotes like €200 and €500 and ATMs usually dispense the €50 instead of the €20, the Euro Area only circulates about 22 billion banknotes.

The USA has roughly a third of banknotes worth $1 and $2 but it is also customary to stock ATMs with $20 instead of the $50 as they do in Europe. As a result, they circulate 42 billion banknotes.

China does not publicize how many banknotes they are circulating, but we can easily imagine as many as 200 billion banknotes given their small value.

Banknotes require a lot of time and money to remove old and worn bills from circulation and to update them to prevent counterfeiting. In the USA the $1 and $2 banknotes have not been updated since 1963 when the silver certificates were ended. It is relatively easy to counterfeit a $1 bill, but it is difficult to circulate a large number of $1 bills or to make a profit considering the setup costs to produce professional counterfeiting operation.

China may be the first major currency to go all digital.
December 19th, 2018 at 8:02:22 PM permalink
terapined
Member since: Aug 6, 2014
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MJ dispensary FL, cash only
Sometimes we live no particular way but our own - Grateful Dead "Eyes of the World"
December 19th, 2018 at 8:15:28 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
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Quote: Wizard
I went to a coffee shop on Monday in Summerlin and was rather shocked that they refused my cash and said they were "cashless."


It's been years since I used cash
anywhere but in a casino. It would
never even occur to me. And for
most of my life, cash was all I used.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
December 19th, 2018 at 9:52:29 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
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Quote: Evenbob
It's been years since I used cash anywhere but in a casino.


Judging by your comments you don't make petty purchases either. By that I mean that instead of going to a coffee shop to buy soup and a drink, you buy food at a grocery store for the week and cook at home.

This article by an Australian woman keeps talking about "tap-and-go" which only seems to have entered the USA last year, but is still relatively rare. I have yet to see it.

In the USA it is relatively easy to operate without cash if you make about 7 purchases a week on average. But without the tap-and-go infrastructure, you still need cash for small purchases.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/19/im-living-a-cash-only-life-in-a-tap-and-go-world

Brigid Delaney
When I recently lost my ATM card, I decided not to replace it
Many years ago I rented the ballroom of a grand old Victorian mansion in a picturesque seaside town.

The ballroom had been converted into a flat. In the mansion above lived my landlord – a very rich man, who was said to be one of the inventors of Eftpos, the first electronic card payment system.

Eftpos may have been one of the greatest things ever invented, but it’s also been a gateway drug for other products, such as “tap-and-go” technology which has put a whole generation of people in debt because they were tapping for three coffees a day, in transactions that are too quick and easy to feel tangible.

Before ATMs and electronic payments, people had to walk into a bank to get money out. I remember my mother with her passbook, the teller entering amounts in a small column, his script neat, and the rush to get to the branch before it shut at 5pm.

The way we do currency has changed so much in a relatively short amount of time. Who uses cheques or even traveller’s cheques anymore? Who goes into a bank? Who carries cash? Only the very poor and stateless.

At a major food festival last year held in Sydney, it was card only. You couldn’t buy a four-pack of dumplings if you didn’t have paywave. Vendors claim that paywave streamlines service and makes the outlet less of a target for robberies or employee theft.

Now it’s expected, particularly in busy bars, restaurants and service stations, that you’ll tap and go. The arm holding the machine juts out before you even have the chance to pull out your wallet. China is leading the world in the cashless revolution – there are some millennials who haven’t been to the ATM in a year.

The other night a barman told me that most customers tap their cards when they buy drinks. “On weekends we used to get $180 cash in tips per worker,” he said. “It covered my rent. We don’t get tips anymore because no one carries cash.”

Twenty years ago I got a credit card for my first overseas trip and put big things on it – like a plane ticket. Lately I’ve been looking at my credit card statements and it’s all small tap-and-go stuff: coffees, lunches, top-ups for my travel card. All little sums, and they add up. Over the last couple of years I’ve rarely carried cash, but my spending has gone up.

Does the way we pay for things change the way we spend?

With tap and go, my credit card was hitting the ceiling with increasingly regularity (no matter, my bank would always generously offer to extend my limit). The technology – and laziness (who can be bothered pulling out the correct change?) – made it even easier to mindlessly spend.

Then three weeks ago I lost my ATM card and decided not to replace it (it would be my fourth lost or stolen card in a year). I decided to live a cash-only life in a tap-and-go world.

Now, once a week I race into a bank branch before it shuts at 4pm and get out a sum of money to last me all week. It’s annoying, but so is going into the weekend with no money.

So wherever I am on a Friday, there is a scramble to find a branch, and get there before 4pm. Then I have to queue up for my wad of cash that’s going to last me all week.

With an allocated amount of cash to spend each week, I find I’m spending less because I am not just mindlessly tapping my card every time I want to buy something.

A finite amount of cash in your wallet changes how you spend – it makes you less reckless and more deliberate. My friends throw their cards down at brunch, scarcely looking at the bill. I look and carefully count out my cash.

While I’m saving money by using a strict cash allocation as a budgeting tool, I’m finding that I am excluded from some things due to my cash-only lifestyle: flying on a budget airline last week (ticket bought before I lost my card), I wanted to increase my luggage limit – something I couldn’t do online without a credit or debit card. Instead I had to queue up (people who are cash-only find they spend a lot of time in queues) and I had to pay a premium with cash at the airport.

There are also fewer self-service grocery aisles or transport card top-up centres available for people without cards. In order to keep using ride-sharing services, Spotify and Netflix, I have set up direct debit via PayPal.

The move to a cashless economy is happening now without much questioning of whether or not it’s a good thing (it’s certainly good for banks).
But there is a subtle psychological benefit to using cash.

One of the problems of modern capital is its increased alienation from the fruits of labour. The modern knowledge worker that traffics in ideas or strategies doesn’t actually produce anything tangible to account for the hours at their desk. For many workers, it is only the numbers in the bank account that is proof of their labour.

Cash was only ever a token, but by handing it over the counter there was a clear trade: here is a percentage of my day’s labour in return for the labour you have undertaken to make, say, my sandwich.

That transaction has now been squeezed into a split second of time – the time it takes to “tap”. And in doing this, something is being devalued.

• Brigid Delaney is a Guardian Australia writer and columnist
© 2018 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.


Would you say you make more than 463 cashless payments in a year?

Average number of cashless payments per inhabitant 2017
782 Singapore
500 Korea
497 Australia
495 Sweden
463 United States
455 Netherlands
411 United Kingdom
367 Canada
339 Belgium
338 France
270 Switzerland
254 Germany
177 Spain
176 Russia
150 Brazil
100 Italy
96 China
81 South Africa
66 Turkey
47 Argentina
37 Mexico
34 Indonesia
29 Saudi Arabia
12 India
December 19th, 2018 at 10:25:33 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: Pacomartin
Judging by your comments you don't make petty purchases either. By that I mean that instead of going to a coffee shop to buy soup and a drink, you buy food at a grocery store for the week and cook at home.
a


I have two fridges and a freezer, I buy three
weeks worth. Also have a well stocked
pantry and every cooking gadget known
to man. Lately I've been making bread
with zucchini and summer squash and
a waffle maker. Carb free.

I eat out 3 times a year and dread it. My
bday, the wifes bday (which was Tue)
and Tgiving. I went to cooking school
in 1984, I'm the best cook I know. I
hate restaurant food.

If I had to guess, I haven't paid cash for
anything in over 10 years. Never carry
then the same $100 I buy in with at the
casino.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
December 20th, 2018 at 5:10:37 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
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Posts: 12569
Quote: Evenbob
If I had to guess, I haven't paid cash for anything in over 10 years.


But how many things do you charge in an average month? I am not talking about a bill that you might add to your credit card (like Netflix), but actual purchases where you go to a store or a gas station and use your credit card.
December 20th, 2018 at 10:09:57 AM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: Pacomartin
But how many things do you charge in an average month?


I use a debit card, I never charge anything.
I can't remember the last time I saw
somebody use cash. I was in Goodwill
yesterday and paid with the card. Walmart,
gas, dollar store, cash is so inconvenient.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:27:19 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Evenbob
I use a debit card, I never charge anything.


What do you think of Korea's plan?
They currently are circulating 428 coins per inhabitant of values roughly 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, and 50¢
They currently are circulating 101 banknotes per inhabitant of values roughly $1, $5, $10, and $50 (34 $50; 31 $10; 5 $5; and 31 $1)

In three years you won't be able to use coins in Korea. You must use a phone app or a card. Although all the banknotes will be legal, the use of the $1, $5, and $10 will simply drop in usage as most people will be making transactions electronically.

The $50 banknote was only introduced on June 23, 2009 (South Koreans are very afraid of North Korean counterfeiting), but has jumped in circulation by between14% and 28% for each of the last four years. Expectations are that the circulation of this banknote will continue to increase as people use them to make large private purchases, for gambling, for storing in home safes, etc.




Do you think it would make sense to eliminate coins in America?