Cash or Card

Biggins wrote: »

My point exactly.
We will all reach that age too - if we are lucky.
What is that line from the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off film?

“Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”

Are some peoples lives so important that for maybe once in a week at a supermarket queue, that a few extra seconds is going to kill them?
Thats one sad life to live!

Why should my life be slowed by some twit unprepared for what he or she knew was coming? I typically go to the supermarket after a long days work to pick up bits and pieces ... standing in a queue in a supermarket at that time of day is probably the last place on earth I want to be and I def dont want that time extended by some dope staring witlessly around fumbling with cards reciting ferris beuler lines. If you want to stand around ejoying the ambiance of supermarket music and the beeping of tills then go right on ahead, just dont hold others up while you soak it all in yeah.

Typically cash for single purchases <= €50 and card above that. That's more because I'm rarely carrying more than €50 cash, not some kind of conscious choice.

My Dad uses a lot of cash, always has. He used to go to the bank every Friday and take out a few hundred punts to cover him for the next week. Even now I'd still expect to see €200 in his wallet at a minimum.

Biggins wrote: »

Was in the Laughter Lounge (Dublin branch) this week, again I noted that even the waiters/waitresses with their trays have credit card payment facility - and that was just for paying for a round of drinks.
Its a common normal thing now. Here at home and especially abroad.

Cash is going out in a lot of ways. There is pro's and cons to it - buts thats the way things are heading.
People better get used to it. They can still give out about it but thats the way things are going.
Adapt or die moaning over their notes...

wait till using your phone to pay for things comes in and people are terrified of this technology, Irish people in general seem to be really slow to adapt new methods of doing things, less so the younger generations. its a big thing in america already, swipe your phone over a point to pay for subways, coffee in starbucks etc.

JohnMarston wrote: »

This thread reminds me how much i simply love standing behind someone in tesco trying to pay with their card

you forgot to add something..."at the self service till"...

I Heart Internet wrote: »

I prefer to pay by debit card when I can - there's something not quite logical about going - atm-shop-atm-shop, etc when you could just stick your card into a machine at a shop!

This ideal is scuppered, of course, by the retailers who impose a €10 minimum. Absolute farce. I once did a bit of shopping in a particular SuperValu, it came to €9.70 or something. The atm in the shop happened to out of order and i though I had about €9.40 on me. The till woman wouldn't take my card - i explained the atm was out of order - still nothing. Luckily, I did find enough change (in an inside coat pocket) to meet her demands. So I wasn;t forced to put stuff back on the shelves.

Redonkulous. This whole "we'll all be paying with our mobiles soon" talk you hear sometimes is made a joke of when shops woun't even take cards for purchases below a certain limit. Backward.

it is coming though, I work for a phone company and they'll be pushing it in the next 12 months, theres serious money being invested in it.

Duggy747 wrote: »

Person comes into my shop and tries to buy €2.50 headphones with a card.

I tell them I can't accept cards for anything under a tenner.

Person looks furious and sickened so much that they pull out a fistful of coins from their pocket.

Why exactly ? Just to be a cnut ?

Now you are 2.50 up and have an unhappy customer, who will most likely never return.

Bravo !

I Heart Internet wrote: »

Redonkulous. This whole "we'll all be paying with our mobiles soon" talk you hear sometimes is made a joke of when shops woun't even take cards for purchases below a certain limit. Backward.

To be fair though, they're not doing this for the sake of avoiding cards, they're doing this because the banks charge small retailers a per-transaction fee.
So if someone buys €10 worth petrol, on which the retailer might make a profit of 10c, but they pay with card for a transaction fee of 50c, it'll cost the retailer 40c to sell you petrol.

It's generally only a problem for the likes of petrol stations and small shops where they sell things like petrol or phone credit which have tiny profit margins. It's one of the main reasons why they allow those ATMs to take up space in the corner of the shop.

krudler wrote: »

it is coming though, I work for a phone company and they'll be pushing it in the next 12 months, theres serious money being invested in it.

I've witnessed this unsettling procedure on BBC's Click and it was mentioned that there is then however the problem with phones being stolen. I'm no technophobe but phones are the most commonly stolen item a person carries when using them especially.
I know theres a PIN system in place (just as with a card) but if a phone gets lost/stolen you also have the added worry about your financial details and all the changes that then have to be made - I mean if a thief can skim and clone a card, how easy would it be for him to break through the technology and make a big purchase (say a laptop) in the minutes after the theft?
Also would this be forcing people to purchase a smart phone they might otherwise not want/can't afford? Or is it just a personal choice option instead of carrying (the hefty weight ) of a credit/debit card?

I try to use my laser card more than cash, just because it's safer than carrying around cash i.e if my bag or purse ever got stolen I wouldn't lose all my money. Most of our local pubs and the local nightclub take cards so I rarely even bring cash on a night out now.

I Heart Internet wrote: »

I think the story goes...there's a cost involved for the retailer...

EDIT - See above

Naturally there's the fair argument that retailers should operate on a win some-lose some basis and take the loss in the hope that it turns into repeat business.

But there are then other arguments that the guy who just buys €10 phone credit will probably never buy anything except €10 phone credit from you, and if you allow him to pay card once, he will always use his card and he will never turn into a profit-generating customer in the long run.
In some places (think a garage on the side of a dual carriageway), repeat business isn't that big a concern because their model is based on passing business, people coming in when they need to, not when they want to.

Otherwise there's also the issue of a one-size-fits-all approach. While it might makes sense to allow a card transaction for €5 worth of high-profit goods, how do you figure what purchases are and are not OK without having to tell people, "I've let him pay with card because I've made a €2 profit from him, but I'm not letting you pay because you're only worth 20c to me".
If you stick with a minimum limit, it avoids red faces all round.