Another little step towards a cashless society.

[Arzosah]

One fairly big step towards a cashless society is what happens if you try to use public transport in London you use an Oyster card, or a contactless card; if you pay cash at a ticket booth, you're charged double https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/f ... ntcmp=1660.

As for small purchases - absolutely, the percentage charge used to make that a no-no. I don't know, but the method of charging may have changed, so that it's become feasible.

[Deeps]

Maybe its just me getting old but it really does my head in when people use a card to pay for something that's only a couple of quid. Contactless makes it better but aaarrgggh, carry a few quid for bits and bobs.

Resisting joining "that" conversation & veering things on-topic again, I have to say that my OH drives me mad sometimes with her dislike (or whatever it is) of cash!

Just the other day she asked, in prep for battling with the Christmas decorations, if we had any superglue around. Knowing full-well that she'd only need it for a one-off use I suggested she popped into the very good little tool shop/chandlers that opened in town a few years ago - one of those traditional little shops that has a bit of just about everything & very rare to survive these days, never mind to open anew, and pick up a pack of single-use tubes so she'd have some for next time too.

Anyway, it's literally a 4 min walk from home, to which she responded "but then I'll have to get cash out", I'll just walk to Tesco instead.

I pointed out that she'd walk past no less than 4 cash machines between home & said shop, then walk past said shop for a further 3 mins or so to reach our local Tesco! By that time she'd started muttering about something else she wanted from Tesco anyway so I gave up.

So, in short, if she can't pay for it with her debit card, she just isn't interested! Time & again I've told her to keep a bit of cash in her purse for emergencies etc. but she has no interest whatsoever.

Until of course the times when she has no choice but to use cash, then she comes looking to me for it (because she KNOWS I always keep a bit handy).

Drives me mad!!!!!!

[Mad enough for me not to tell her that I had a couple of single-use tubes already in my stash but if she couldn't be @rsed then neither could I ]

Me? Petty?

Sounds very familiar mate. My missus even jokes about being like the queen and not carrying cash. She even tapped me up for cash for her works night out tonight, it will come out of next months 'kitty' money though.

[jansman]

My dentist gives me a 5% discount for cash.Helps him pay suppliers,so he tells me! Saved me a tenner a couple of weeks ago,and that tenner is better in my pocket.

[Arwen Thebard]

We still throw all our coins into an old jar when we get home, surprising how quickly it adds up.

[Deeps]

We still throw all our coins into an old jar when we get home, surprising how quickly it adds up.

I take it one further, instead of putting the coins in the machines that gobble up 9% I bag it up and take it to the bank. My local bank only take 5 bags at a time so when I have the 5 bags ready they go into my savings account.

[peejay]

I spent years filling one of those break-it-open pottery things with £2 coins which I finally broke open a few months ago & got £570 out of.

Then rather than banking as I originally planned I realised it was a handy amount of non-combustible cash to have handy so it's still sat there...

[Deeps]

I spent years filling one of those break-it-open pottery things with £2 coins which I finally broke open a few months ago & got £570 out of.

Then rather than banking as I originally planned I realised it was a handy amount of non-combustible cash to have handy so it's still sat there...

We had one with mostly coins but some notes, when the news that the pound coins were changing we ended up smashing it. We've now got a metal tin for the 2 quid coins. It does seem a little one sided as I've said, Her Maj isn't really one for cash so the "every 2 pound coin" rule seems harsh on little old moi.

[grenfell]

Last evening I listened to PM on radio 4 and they had an interview and talked about bitcoin. One thing the interviewee said was that he disliked the term crypto currency because it was in many respects it was wrong in that bitcoin acts more as an asset than as a currency . It is possible to "spend" bitcoin in the way one can with pounds , euros or dollars at a limited number of online outlets but generally most transactions aren't carried on that way . He said if we were to look at bitcoin as we would gold , tin , oil or other commodity that is speculated upon it makes more sense. Currencies are more or less generally quite stable ( with a few fairly rare exceptions) and don't see huge swings in values whereas gold can see quite large swings in the monetary values. That goes a long way to explain the allegedly large gains some have made in trading bitcoin although as he said it is equally possible to drop dramatically and for people to lose a lot of money.
Using the term asset did seem to make a certain amount of sense to me but there's still a part of me that seems to see it as a sort of real life video game. Time , energy and money have been expended just to give us a virtual assest to trade with , an assets with very little real life application , in the same way as one might gain points in a game for zapping alien spaceships

[Arwen Thebard]

Fair play to you Grenfell for looking into it.

I've been involved with digital currencies, like Bitcoin and others, for a while now and in the beginning I just didnt "get it" and have spent hundreds of hours learning the fundementals.

I hear and read many pundits comparing it to gold or silver, stocks and shares, fiat currencies and tulips, but its not like any of them at all, it is a completely new game-changer altogether. When the internet came into being it had the same problems, it was difficult for the mainstream media and so called experts to understand and appreciate just what it could do.

Its not all about the financial aspects, some of these new technologies called smart contracts such as Etherium (ETH), Veritasium (VERI), and Pillar (PLR), have huge disruptive potential across a wide range of markets. They have the potential to bring about the demise and control of central banks, remove the ability of government's to print fiat money at will and expose the corruptible practices of the banking system. It can offer the un-banked parts of the world instant freedom from extortionate banks and national corruption, reduce costs across all markets for everyone and all being transparent and instantly verifiable. It all sounds very admirable and far fetched I know, but once you delve into the prospects for smart contracts and crypto currencies fully its easy to see why it is all possible.

I am not an expert by any means, but the next stage of the crypto revolution is likely to see its mass adoption and acceptance world wide, its happening now, today, everywhere. The fact that it is being discussed on this forum is point in case, The BBC, ITV and Channel 5 have all had it on air in the past week and radio shows as you have witnessed yourself. very large hedge funds, insurance groups and pension funds are already involved and major stock markets and governments have plans in place to implement them in place of their current systems.

There is a digital revolution happening now, everywhere, that very few people know about. It just needs to survive the inevitable attacks that are coming from the current banking and political systems.

Personally I love change and expect some exciting times ahead.

[jansman]

Humour me here please... Supposing I had bitcoin and it was 'worth' £10,000.How do I cash it in?Who is going to give me physical cash for it,so I can trade it for goods in the normal way?

Call me simple,but I get paid in cash.With that cash,even if it is in the bank,(I can use a debit card,which is in lieu of readies),I can buy stuff.

With these ' virtual' currencies ( which I have hypothetically purchased with real money),how do I spend it in the real world? How can it be actually valued.I know that survivalists talk of 'fiat currency', but that pound sterling is the accepted trading medium - and will be for a long time hence.

What backs it? I bought this house with cash, and also by cashing in some actual gold- for cash.I don't see houses for sale for in anything other than £££'s.To me it seems bitcoin is like the fable of The Kings New Clothes.