What are your thoughts on cash?

[MikeJ]

No he's not. It's much more likely that he's paying tax on many many times the amount he takes in via haircuts.

So not paying tax on some of the haircuts? Is that what you're saying?

 

[Picture Bute]

So not paying tax on some of the haircuts? Is that what you're saying?

People who sell things should need some special dispensation, like a certificate of tax compliance, to receive cash ? Is that what you're saying ? People falling for these kind of narratives is what's ruined the UK over the last 50 or 60 years. Privatization improves competition and lowers prices for consumers, leaving the EU allows you to control your own borders because you're not allowed to now and invading Iraq is the only way to stop them attacking the UK within 45 mins. Did you fall for these as well ?

 

[MikeJ]

Hang on, I need to update my list of (absurd and incorrect) insults that are being thrown around.

 

[MikeJ]

Not unreasonable if it happens regularly.

However, a barber operating in the middle of Nottingham is probably evading tax.

I should clarify I meant a barber that only took cash, rather than had that as an option.

 

[Clinton]

BBC today: "Shops could be forced to accept cash in future"

Bonus: It'll p*ss off many in this thread.

 

[WaveJumper]

If the shops on our high streets don't do something radical they really are going to be dead and buried soon for good. However faced with crippling rents, business rates, energy costs I don't hold out a lot of hope

I wonder (at my last count) if the 26 barbers in Colchester are all paying their share of tax. oh and all those "strange people" hanging out sitting on the wall around a certain large builders merchant hoping into builders vans I am pretty sure is not legit

 

[Dork Lard]

A game I have played with various tradesmen quoting for or working on my house over the years is to initially let them think that my 'job' is a senior manager in the investigations dept' with HMRC. If you can 'read' people then this is the most fun you can possibly have.

My barber is strictly cash only & there are signs clearly pointing this out to anyone passing by who may call in for a quick trim. His premises are owned but modest (not High St) & during opening hours I don't think his chair has ever been empty, but based on the fact he can only serve 1 customer at a time then his earnings are very limited. I don't blame him for insisting on strictly cash only, & if he ever did "fiddle" his tax then IMO that is down to HMRC & their ability to covertly monitor his revenue.

I like how he can find a common interest with anyone who sits in his chair. A visit to the barbers is much more than just a haircut, not that us men gossip, but my barber's is considered to be one of the community hubs. If he does 'fiddle' his tax it will be in the £100's of £££'s range, not in the £100's of £1000's range of any of the 5+ Turkish barbers (Albanian PKK) who you would fall into if you tripped up outside his shop & who are putting £100's of £1000's through their books despite their seats almost always being empty.

 

[DontAsk]

I wonder (at my last count) if the 26 barbers in Colchester

They are almost certainly fronts for illegal vapes shops, etc. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3677xzk56no

 

[Ozzy]

BTW, in the last two days those thinking we can generally live without cash have been called religious bigots, stupid and incapable of thought.

Indeed, you can tell a lot about someone by the way they choose to argue their case.

I choose not to carry cash because I like convenience. I accept the risks that comes with, and I own the consequences of my choices. If to means I find one day I cannot pay for something or my phone battery goes flat, more fool me. So be it, I won't lose any sleep over it.
My barber is a cash only but he makes an exception and allows to pay by a bank transfer. So I use my phone to do a bank transfer to pay for my haircut rather than pay cash. Despite all his signs up saying cash only.
As a thank you, I chose to pay and continue to give him an extra £20-£30 tip in the bank transfer when I get my hair cut. My hourly rate is less than that for me to drive via a cash dispenser to get cash out, I value my time and I put a price on convenience.

Having said all that;

Bonus: It'll p*ss off many in this thread.

Personally, that doesn't upset me at all. As I wrote here, I don't believe shops should be cashless and I believe it better that they allow more methods of accepting payment, and that goes for any business. As I said in that article - it ultimately depends on the individual business.
I don't think anyone deserves to be insulted for how they choose to pay for things, or how they choose to accept payments. But then perhaps I'm more understanding than some.

 

[Kerwin]

As I've already said in this thread I'm not a big fan of cash but it does have some advantages. The first is it makes tipping easier. Also if I get change from paying with cash I just stick it in a charity thing because carrying coins is a pain in the arse. But given the choice I'd avoid it completely.

 

[DontAsk]

As a thank you, I chose to pay and continue to give him an extra £20-£30 tip in the bank transfer when I get my hair cut.

Jeez, how much is a hair cut these days? SWMBO does mine for free, no tips.

 

[Ozzy]

Jeez, how much is a hair cut these days?

I know right!
Depending if I want the beard shaped, have the old man ear and nose hair dealt with, or just a haircut - the cut itself ranges between around £20 and £35 at my local Turkish.

 

[MikeJ]

BBC today: "Shops could be forced to accept cash in future"

Bonus: It'll p*ss off many in this thread.

Number of people in this thread arguing for giving up cash completely? 1.

I still carry cash. The cafe I go to once per week for lunch is cash only, but they give my dog some sausage* so I keep going there. I'd rather they take cards, but it's their choice.


* Not a euphemism. I don't eat meat, so it's a bit of a treat for her.

 

[MikeJ]

Jeez, how much is a hair cut these days? SWMBO does mine for free, no tips.

Likewise (my wife, obviously. Not yours). Trust me though, it's not free

 

[Ozzy]

Likewise (my wife, obviously. Not yours). Trust me though, it's not free

My wife trained as a hairdresser and used to do my hair when we were younger, but since the beard came along she can't be doing with that

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

A few Christmases ago, my and a fiends family went out for lunch in a pop-up restaurant (literally - they we bubbles!) in Covent Garden and when it came to pay, their card machines (maybe epos) had gone down. They didn't have a backup provision (always keep a Sumup etc just in case). Whilst they would take cash, we didn't have enough for the bill and they wanted all or nothing (VERY STRANGE), so the waitress got a really good tip!

I have moved my main event business from cash only to mainly card and really need to take payments in either due to demographics. Whilst there is a cost to cards, people forget there is also a cost to cash and possible security risk.

BTW,

As a thank you, I chose to pay and continue to give him an extra £20-£30 tip

That tip is several times what I pay for my cut (we've seen each others hair, so no snyde comments!!!)

 

[Newchodge]

Whilst they would take cash, we didn't have enough for the bill and they wanted all or nothing (VERY STRANGE), so the waitress got a really good tip!

I've read that 3 times and I don't understand. You couldn't use cards and you didn't have enough cash for the whole bill, so how did the waitress get ANY tip?

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

We had some cash, enough to give the waitress a tip, but not enough to pay for the whole bill!

 

[Clinton]

I don't think anyone deserves to be insulted for how they choose to pay for things, or how they choose to accept payments.

I'm not understanding of those who advocate for a cashless society. They are idiots. Also, I'm not a fan of those who think (or act) superior because they don't use cash. Posturing jackasses.

As I've stated before, businesses (and individuals) should be free to use / accept cash and not be criticised for it. I prefer to spend my money with those businesses as I do not trust governments and their intentions behind cashless and I prefer my money stays local and doesn't get skimmed off by payment services.

 

[Kerwin]

I'm not understanding of those who advocate for a cashless society. They are idiots. Also, I'm not a fan of those who think (or act) superior because they don't use cash. Posturing jackasses.

I don't think anyone has been postering. Expressing an opinion perhaps. Also calling someone an idiot simply because you disagree with them and without a clear counter argument is stupid as well.

 

[Clinton]

Okay!

Your OP itself comes across as posturing. "Look at me, how cool I am".

But this thread is getting silly now so enjoy the rest of your discussion!

 

[Newchodge]

Okay!

Your OP itself comes across as posturing. "Look at me, how cool I am".

But this thread is getting silly now so enjoy the rest of your discussion!

Pot, please meet the kettle.

 

[Gecko001]

With the M&S problems and the electricity outages in Span and Portugal, perhaps the move towards cash again will accelerate?

 

[Ozzy]

@Gecko001 Cash isn't a solution to the cyber attacks against M&S and Harrods, nor the effects of the power outages in Spain and Portugal. The issues behind all of these are more fundamentally linked to the world's progressive move towards digital and electrical tools to function as a society. Cash won't fix all that, and the human race isn't going to abandon technology either, it's just the world we live in now.

 

[John Martin]

What are your thoughts?

I was in Cyprus in 2012 when the banks collapsed and the financial crisis followed.

Literally, overnight NOBODY was accepting electronic payments because no-one trusted the banks anymore, it was cash transactions only. Even supermarkets were cash only, and even heard a report of a petrol tanker that delivered fuel to a petrol station and insisted on cash payment from the owners.

The collapse started on a Friday (I think it might have even been a long bank holiday weekend), which was rather 'convenient' for the banks, as they were all closed and people couldn't complain or pull all their money out.

As you can imagine, it was chaos as bank ATM's quickly ran out of money. In the days that followed the banks issued a "Bail in". Essentially a euphemism for theft, in which they set a cut off point and basically stole the money of everyone who had money above the cut off mark.

More recently, we've also seen massive power outages in Spain, and even in this country, at times we've seen electronic payment systems fail and cash payments have been the only way to go.

Electronic payments are ok, but we still need to keep cash as well. Some people who think otherwise may come to regret it once it's gone for good.

 

[numbersrule]

When my car was in the service garage for a new coil spring yesterday and I needed to get to a Client site I ordered a taxi for the first time in ages. It was a normal local taxi service and the driver and I quickly got onto the subject of payment method and he confirmed that I could pay by card via my phone. There followed a lengthy conversation about how convenient card payments were and where would we be without cards these days. But he did say that a lot of the older generation still pay for taxis by cash.

When it came to pay at the end of the journey his system needed him to read the taxi bill off his journey log and enter it on another device which then was supposed to communicate with his sum up type card reader. He seemed to be struggling with this process because the devices weren't linking or syncing properly. As he seemed a bit stressed I offered to pay by cash and he gladly accepted.

The cash payment and change took 5 seconds.

The linking and syncing ( or lack of ) took quite a bit longer.

 

[Kerwin]

When my car was in the service garage for a new coil spring yesterday and I needed to get to a Client site I ordered a taxi for the first time in ages. It was a normal local taxi service and the driver and I quickly got onto the subject of payment method and he confirmed that I could pay by card via my phone. There followed a lengthy conversation about how convenient card payments were and where would we be without cards these days. But he did say that a lot of the older generation still pay for taxis by cash.

When it came to pay at the end of the journey his system needed him to read the taxi bill off his journey log and enter it on another device which then was supposed to communicate with his sum up type card reader. He seemed to be struggling with this process because the devices weren't linking or syncing properly. As he seemed a bit stressed I offered to pay by cash and he gladly accepted.

The cash payment and change took 5 seconds.

The linking and syncing ( or lack of ) took quite a bit longer.

That is a fair point. Having said that I get taxis quite often and always pay using Apple Pay on my watch (or phone if battery dead on watch).

 

[Gecko001]

The one area where cash still reigns supreme is in microtransactions. I have a service which is charged by the hour and there is no minimum usage so potentially a customer could use 1 hour of resources and be charged a couple of pennies at the end of the month. It is pretty much not worth bothering with when it comes to cards (although I do know there are services for exactly this situation).

My local hardware shop has a policy of only accepting cards for amounts of £5 or over. A bit old fashioned, but B&Q closed down in my town a few years ago, leaving only the traditional hardware shops so I guess they can call the shots now.

 

[Ozzy]

I just saw this poll by Martin Lewis on Twitter, which reminded me of this thread. It seems like a reasonable measure of how half of the population now leaves the house cashless.

 

[fisicx]

Was at a charity car show yesterday. All the stalls, the raffle, beer tent and food all had sumup machines. They preferred cards as it meant no floats or bank runs and less opportunity for the odd £10 to be slipped into a pocket.

 

[tony84]

I've just had to nip to the local shop to get some milk and eggs for the morning.

I started to panic as I dont think we have money in the house... I started looking for my daughters piggy bank haha then my Mrs told me you can pay by card if your spending £2 or more (it used to be a fiver)... which funnily enough used to mean I actually drove to the local sainsbos because I know they will take card. So by being more flexible with card payments, they will get more money from me.

 

[Ozzy]

my Mrs told me you can pay by card if your spending £2 or more (it used to be a fiver)..

I don’t think I’ve ever come up against that minimum spend in a very long time. So long I don’t recall the last time I saw it being imposed.

 

[tony84]

I suppose for a small corner shop, with a maybe 10-15p charge on each transaction, they probably dont want people buying a mars bar and paying on card.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

I just saw this poll by Martin Lewis on Twitter, which reminded me of this thread. It seems like a reasonable measure of how half of the population now leaves the house cashless.

View attachment 2232

Another 4 rows are needed before I get to answer

 

[WaveJumper]

Loose cash and give control over online transactions ultimately to "someone" who can turn them off be careful what you wish for

 

[Nathanto]

I don’t think I’ve ever come up against that minimum spend in a very long time. So long I don’t recall the last time I saw it being imposed.

Everyday goods are so expensive these days that I can't imagine there's all that much need any more to specify a minimum spend. Case in point, a 2L carton of milk and half a dozen eggs are probably over a fiver anyway at the typical corner shop.

 

[bovine]

Some time ago, it would cost a fixed amount to process debit cards (30p comes to mind). Now everything is on a percentage generally. Some of the merchant accounts for lower end accounts will be 10p + %, but anyone with a business level turnover should be on a sub 1% for normal domestic card schemes so theres no need to have minimum spends anymore really.