• surreptitiouswalk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    2 years ago

    I’ve actually gone back to using cash when most merchants are Charing a 1.5% card fee. Fuck that shit.

    • tfyoung
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yeah same. I’d be really interested to know what the cost of cash is, my guess is more than 1.5% with the extra effort needing to be put into banking, slower transactions, mistakes and fake notes. Seems like most businesses are just assuming laziness of their customers just wanting to tap.

      • Leyana
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 years ago

        It’s a tax dodge. You can skim off the top easier with cash.

        • Liz@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          2 years ago

          Well, that and the fact that every credit card transaction includes a transaction fee that the business ends up paying. When they add 1.5% (I’ve usually seen 2.5%) they’re just moving the expense from being hidden inside the list price of the things you’re buying to being added at the register.

          Think of it like a "bank tax” in addition to sales tax. Business could easily include tax in the price, but they don’t because customers are used to seeing the lower price and having tax added at the register.

          • Zagorath
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 years ago

            Right, but as @tfyoung said above, there are costs to the business associated with cash as well. Probably much higher, if a little harder to precisely calculate.

            The time and expense associated with handling, counting, and physically banking cash is not insignificant.

            • Liz@midwest.social
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              2 years ago

              It’s that harder to calculate part that makes some business favor cash. After all, the humans running the business are not perfect economic machines. Some people are going to favor a nebulous expense (that they honestly probably didn’t consider at all) over a clear and obvious expense.

    • Briongloid
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      I often opt-out of stores that add a bonus fee when the transaction is high enough that it should be their operating cost, but pretty much 100% of utility bills have are tacking their fees onto the next bill.

      It seems like a very anti-consumer practice that is going to become ubiquitous.

  • jimbo
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    2 years ago

    I don’t use cash often, but it would be a shame to see it go completely. Privacy concerns aside - It does come in handy for in-person marketplace type transactions to avoid the payid scams that are running rife at the moment.

    • Mistique
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      2 years ago

      It also doesn’t rely on having an internet connection which can be useful

  • DeltaTangoLima
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    2 years ago

    I hate where this is going, but accept that it is inevitable. As much as I value my privacy, I’ve well and truly fallen into the trap of using tap and pay with my phone. I don’t think I’ve carried cash in any meaningful quantity for years now.

    • palitu@lemmy.perthchat.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 years ago

      im in the same boat. it is so much easier.

      Maybe it could be nationalised though, in the same way that currency is nationalised. That way the costs of managing it could be part of our way of life, not by a specific bank, or that datra being sold to various thrid parties.

      • DeltaTangoLima
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 years ago

        That’s not a bad idea. At the very least, let’s take it back out of the hands of big tech. They can’t be trusted.

    • jaidyn999@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 years ago

      Its not the article is more garbage from the ABC.

      The amount of cash in the economy is higher than ever before.

  • repomonkey
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    2 years ago

    The central issue is control. I’m happy to use EFTPOS but would definitely not want to see cash disappear as it’s not something governments can easily track and/or move.

    • Briongloid
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      I stopped using cash nearly a decade ago and it feels extremely antiquated, but the future of money is scary to think about.

    • cuppaconcrete
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 years ago

      Still a few hairdressers and restaurants in my area that only take cash tho

      • Briongloid
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 years ago

        For whatever they save avoiding tax etc, they also lose business from people who don’t want to carry cash, go to atm & have change left.

  • techno_analyst
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    2 years ago

    Every month or two I make the trek to the local bank to get some $1 coins for the laundry in our apartment complex.

    Aside from that, I use Apple Pay for nearly all in-person transactions, PayID for sending money to friends and family, and my credit card online.

    I’m approaching 30 and haven’t actively carried cash in over a decade.

    • RandomRotator@lemmy.fmhy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 years ago

      Attended a “gold coin donation” event at a local school recently and it was a struggle to find actual coins! I dig some up from the couch cushions, but then they had a card reader at the door anyway, so I needn’t have bothered.

    • Briongloid
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      My local laundromat has replaced their machine payments with paypass.

  • No1
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    2 years ago

    Can’t they track via cash serial numbers yet?

    Lame…

  • TiredSpider@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 years ago

    I really wish there was a properly private digital currency that wasn’t crypto. I hate using physical money ever since covid hit, it’s just so dirty.

  • deadcat
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 years ago

    I very rarely use cash at this point. I’m not really surprised.

  • k_h@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    The point of the article is that cash has fees and costs per transaction and per day that are getting larger as cash is used less. We as customers just don’t see them. Transport, security, transactions all cost businesses and in places where cash is not much used, and for instance country towns, those costs can be prohibitive for merchants. Those card fees are right now probably less than cash costs.

  • No1
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 years ago

    deleted by creator

  • Knoll0114@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    I’m thinking of moving entirely to cash even though I’m more likely to lose it than my card. Sick of everyone getting rich off the data I provide.

  • landsharkkidd
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 years ago

    I don’t know… my dad will find a way to give me cash instead putting it into my account.

    I say that as if I’m like 15. No, I saw him on the weekend and he gave me birthday money, and the place we went to accepted card for the most part, I asked him “can I give this back to you and you can send me money” and he’s like “nahh don’t worry”. Had to go to my local bank to deposit it.

    • LovelyLittleSausage
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 years ago

      FYI you can now deposit cash at the post office. You need to supply a bank card to identify the account, but there’s no fees involved.

      • landsharkkidd
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 years ago

        I noticed that last night when my sister picked up a birthday present. That’s pretty cool tbh.

    • bastardsheep
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 years ago

      That’s about the only thing I use cash for these days myself. Birthday money. The money I tend to receive sits in my wallet until it’s time for someone else’s birthday. Then it goes in their cards.

      I should mark it or something to see if I then get it back next birthday. :P

    • Briongloid
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 years ago

      I still open every card with cash falling out.