I've never much liked the idea of a cashless society and Friday was an excellent example of why. Theoretically, I don't particularly want to give banks, credit card companies, or whatever applications I use them through so much free information about my spending habits, though in truth I don't think about that as much as I should.
I try to avoid online shopping where possible partly to support local businesses - price matters but so does choice, a decent range of competitively paid jobs, the chance of some on hand expertise, human interaction, not having to negotiate around delivery times or drop boxes, not having packages stolen from your doorstep - and I don't believe Jeff Bezos got where he is by fair pricing and paying staff decently. The other reason is it lays you open to fraud from too many angles.
I'm not a fan of high contactless limits either - lose your card and someone could spend hundreds of pounds on it in minutes, lose your phone and you're high and dry. I couldn't count the number of people using apps to pay via phones or watches who can't quite comprehend when the machines say no, it's time to verify your pin. I assumed Britain's relentless march towards a cashless society was a universal thing until I was in Vienna a few years ago and saw how many cash-only businesses there were there (they weren't big on Sunday opening either which was refreshing, if a little awkward when you arrive on a Sunday with no idea it's going to be an issue).
After spending over a year and making at least 5 attempts with the Bank of Scotland to get a joint account I'm really not a fan of how banks have cut back on services either. You need to have a face-to-face appointment to open a joint account. In some branches, the waiting list was over 6 months, in others there simply wasn't anybody who was authorised to set one up, but this is surely something people still need? The extravagant length of the queues whenever I go near a bank (never more than 2 tellers available on the desk) suggest there's no shortage of demand for them either.
So with all this in mind, Friday was interesting. Our card machines were out for several hours with the Microsoft problems, and most of the day for some people depending on which systems their bank used. We've been seeing a bit more cash generally since the cost of living crisis hit - cash is easier to budget - which is my main reason for liking it. In the end a surprising number of people were ready with cash, they'd listened to the news and come prepared - there were also a fair few who hadn't and weren't. They were uniformly outraged that they couldn't pay as they wished and generally didn't have a bank card as a back up.
Are you, dear reader, cash or contactless people and if contactless have the recent outages made you think again about carrying at least some money around with you?
I refuse to do "pay by phone" and have stopped using businesses that require pay by app, and won't accept cash. I do do some things with cards, but try to limit this. The recent problems are only making me feel more firm in this.
ReplyDeleteSame here, I don't even have any banking or credit card apps on my phone. I prefer credit cards for convenience at large stores, but for local businesses I always carry cash. And I believe in being prepared for contingencies - ATM isn't working, or there's a power outage, or the business is unexpectly cash-only. I'm old enough to remember how we all prepared for Y2K, and a lot of that preparation is still a good strategy for daily life today.
ReplyDeleteI don't use my phone to pay for things. What if reception is poor, it's out of charge etc. I like to have some cash too as those commenters above.
ReplyDeleteI learnt my lesson over contactless cards a few years ago. I reported the theft of mine immediately & cancelled it, thinking that would be the end of it. Ha. The thieves were still merrily using it two weeks later. The bank reimbursed me without any problems but I still found it a bit upsetting.
ReplyDeleteEven without last Friday, the bookshop I volunteer (charity bookshop) at regularly has customers who don't have the card with them, when the phone app wants them to insert the card for a security check, when they use their pin. Some do have the card, but can't remember their pin, as it's so long since they've used it. So we've lost sales, or had hold books, while they go to find cash. This town has only got one bank and one building society left, as well as at least three cash machines and supermarkets that do cash back, but even so some people find it tricky to find somewhere they can withdraw cash. One occasion, we've had a power cut that took out the shops on our side of the High Street, so we kept going by noting in a book the cash sales and gift aid numbers. Then when the power was restored we had to enter each item. Another time, we were card only, because we'd been burgled and they'd nicked the floats, so we had no cash for change. The joys of till work. Fortunately, most people understand the issues and are polite, at least in charity book shops. I always carry a bit of cash, but use it much less than pre-Covid and go to the bank machine less often.
ReplyDelete