What is societies obsession with carrying cash?

Just look up your balance like a normal person.

I work in a retail based environment, I don’t see any issue with cash or card. I do prefer people who pay by tap or by tapping the phone if it’s over 50.

Some people are slow to get cash out of their wallet but more people are unable to use a card machine. Ages fishing for it in a wallet despite standing in a queue for 2 minutes knowing they’re paying very soon. Can’t get it out if their wallet cos it’s rammed tight with all other cards etc.

They have to be told to put in the card even though they’re looking at a machine that says ‘please insert card’. Putting card in upside, chip not going in first, not pushing card in fully, forgetting their PIN, have to be told to press the green button after entering it, have to be told to take the card out. Boils my piss so it does.

Amazing also how many people have their PIN written on a piece of paper in their wallet. One good reason for keeping cash is that around 3-4 times a year the card payment system malfunctions for maybe 2 hours. No option to make a transaction then only cash. Plus I would say the vast majority over 65 don’t have smartphones to pay or check balances. A lot of post offices and banks have closed in rural villages and towns.

The choice should always be there if feasible.

If you think about it for a while you'd see that banks and payment processors make an absolute fortune off card transactions.

The fifty euro you pay by card to the merchant instantly becomes fifty euro minus fees into the merchants account.

The merchant spends that via card and money becomes less again in the next persons account and so on and so on. The fifty euro is gone pretty quickly in this type of cycle in fees.

Fifty Euro cash is always fifty Euro cash.

This is more important and easier to understand the smaller the business you are.

There are other reasons as well, all outlined here but we need to be careful about where we are heading when it comes to this.

a pretty good article on the topic above which may outline the main point I make better than I have.

It doesn't though, if the charge is 1% then I lose 5c for processing a card fee, the next person doesn't lose 10c, then 15c, then 20, that 50 euro will always be 50 euro.

Right, but unless businesses are paying other businesses out of the till directly, that money has to be lodged, which comes with a fee.

I prefer cash because I can more easily keep track of my own spending, If I take out 50euro and limit myself to the 50 so I don't overspend, i've less chance of sticking to that limit if im trigger happy tapping my card. Also, if I ever did manage to get to the point were id be able to apply for a mortgage, id be persecuted for the amount of takeaway coffees and random little spends on my statement that eat into my money. You can always tell when someone is privileged and disconnected from from 'lower' economic classes because they dispute amenities, products, services ect that less well off people depend on. It might be surprise to you but theres allot of people who don't have bank accounts, homeless people and the elderly are often totally dependant on cash. Society has to cater to all people, not just those who are in good positions in life.

I prefer to use a card but if buying or selling used stuff on adverts or DD it has to be cash.

Because overspending when drunk never happened in the pre contactless days.....

How do you spend cash you don't have in your pocket. OK so if you take out far more than you need but thats a choice you can make while still sober.

And you were doing so well with the creative writing.

So, it’s either another tax on rural Ireland or it’s all part of the WOKE(all caps) conspiracy?

I find those who a slow to pay with cash are even worse with a card.

It takes them ages to put in a pin code.

@Count Dracula @elperello ... beaten to it .