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Bluestone, which now has 20 stores in the U.S., went cashless last October.
A big reason: Nearly 90 percent of customers [...] never paid in cash.
Another reason: The lines move faster when employees don't have to make change.
"We see a lot of guests that pay for a meal with a credit card, but will always leave a cash tip. And I think people like doing that. People like palming a bartender a $20 or palming their server a $10. Palming the bus boy a couple bucks," said Fileccia.
There are also people, he said, who want to keep their meal off the books — if they're having an affair, for example.
No, businesses are not required to accept cash: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender
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When The Cash Register Doesn't Take Cash
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Oh, that sound of male ego. You travel halfway across the galaxy and
it's still the same song.
-- Eve McHuron, "Mudd's Women", stardate 1330.1
(Score: 2, Disagree) by ledow on Tuesday January 09 2018, @08:17AM (24 children)
You have about 10-20 years before you won't be able to pay for anything, anywhere then.
Cash is dying, except for anonymous transactions.
I have now met any number of other people who are like myself and literally carry no cash. When we need it, it's a massive hassle if you're not already carrying it, so it's actually more convenient to go elsewhere even if it costs more.
About the only cash I have in my possession is in two stashes.
One in my car, coins for parking. Usually added to whenever I'm forced to use cash or people give me cash (e.g. friends to pay their halves of meals, etc.)
One in my house, a coin jar. Literally, when I get home, I dump all cash straight into it and then don't touch it. Friends, etc. are welcome to dig into it, it's used for "emergencies" and a treat if it gets too full, that's about it.
Sorry, but I could quite happily set up a large retail business in the centre of London now and never need to touch cash. Your lost custom would be lost in the noise.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by rob_on_earth on Tuesday January 09 2018, @09:50AM (1 child)
I hate parking and then finding the meter, can only be used, once you have signed up, phoned up, downloaded and entered your Car and plate details.
And none of them are the same.
I remember the good old days when you had cash stash in your car, but you hardly ever used it because as you entered the car park someone would pass over there old ticket that still had half an hour on it.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday January 09 2018, @11:42AM
Parking meters are a much older scam than those red light cameras. The city is really hoping that they can bust owners of parked cars with huge fines for expired meters, and have been known to fiddle with the timing to make the meters expire too soon. Enforcers hover over nearly expired meters, with tickets already written and ready to be slapped on the car the second the meter expires. Or they don't wait for the last few seconds to tick away. Why bother waiting if it looks like no one can reach the car in time? Another trick is limiting the maximum time the meter can handle to less than what people need, for instance to wait in a long line. Much more lucrative than collecting chicken feed.
One day after work, a friend of mine who parked on the same street every working day for months discovered that the city had added new parking meters to the street. Of course there was a parking ticket on his car that day.
I found the story of Sylvia Stayton especially revealing: http://articles.latimes.com/1996-11-10/news/mn-63253_1_parking-meters [latimes.com] She was a nice granny who fed coins into expired meters, and the police actually arrested her for that. She interfered with their racket.
I'll walk a mile to avoid having to use a parking meter. Or I'll take my business elsewhere. Parking meters are the top reason I never park in the downtown area of a large city.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Unixnut on Tuesday January 09 2018, @10:28AM (14 children)
> You have about 10-20 years before you won't be able to pay for anything, anywhere then.
> Cash is dying, except for anonymous transactions.
I very strongly doubt that is the case. Cash will stay for a long time to come. Perhaps not in dystopian police states (or ones on that path) like the UK, but there are enough people in the world who know how much it is a bad idea to trust banks/government with your money and will try to minimise their exposure thereof (The French, Germans and Swiss are still big on cash, and that is just in the EU), not to mention any number of software companies that now think they (who can barely code a bug free functional app) can start dealing with money.
I don't trust my phone with my basic details, and you think I am now going to hold money and/or do financial transactions on it? Yeah, as if.
Not to mention the fact that money in your bank current account is no longer "yours". You have technically loaned the money to the bank, you are an unsecured creditor, and if the bank goes bust, you can lose your money, or just have them skim 30% off your balance without your consent in the form of a bail-in (like they did in Cyprus). Best bit is, the interest earned on loaning your money out to them is, well, nothing. Now they want you to pay to loan the banks money.
In comparison, you try taking out an unsecured loan from the bank, and see if you can get away with 0% interest, or them paying you to take out the loan. As such, I keep virtually no money in the bank. Either in cash, some in physical metals, and others in all kinds of assets/investments.
> I have now met any number of other people who are like myself and literally carry no cash. When we need it, it's a massive hassle if you're not already carrying it, so it's actually more convenient to go elsewhere even if it costs more.
Then you have a very small social circle, live in a very unified monoculture, or just don't go out much. I guess I am the opposite, I carry cash, and perhaps one of my cards, which I use rarely. In fact I use my cards so rarely I have the problem of trying to remember the PIN on those times when I want to use it. So for me it is a massive hassle to not pay with cards (and if I can't remember the PIN, impossible at that time).
As a result, I will tend to go elsewhere even if it costs more, just not to have to deal with the hassle of cards. Saying that, only once in the 10 years of going out in London have I ever been refused service due to a "no cash" policy. It was a new craft brewery in Shoreditch. I guess they were trying to be "Hip", so I just went to the next craft brewery down the road, which was more than happy to earn some money.
I wasn't always like this, I used to be big on cards, but experiences led me to realise how much of a bad idea it is, hence the move to cash. And not just because of the spying aspect, or the fact others control your money, but that the system is unreliable. I cannot tell you how many times I have had my card refused, transaction rejected, connection issues between the till and the bank, and all other myriad problems that don't exist if I just hand over cash.
The straw that broke the camels back was when I was stuck at a petrol station on new years eve for 2 hours because all card payment systems went offline (missing a good NY party) , because in the UK, you fuel up your car first, then go to pay, and I had no cash, relying always on cards. Likewise the ATMs didn't work, so couldn't even get cash out to pay. The entire system was offline.
> About the only cash I have in my possession is in two stashes.
> One in my car, coins for parking. Usually added to whenever I'm forced to use cash or people give me cash (e.g. friends to pay their halves of meals, etc.)
One in my house, a coin jar. Literally, when I get home, I dump all cash straight into it and then don't touch it. Friends, etc. are welcome to dig into it, it's used for "emergencies" and a treat if it gets too full, that's about it.
I don't have stashes as such. I have cash on hand, usually for the week (good for budgeting), then cash at home, and a coin jar that occasionally gets emptied into a coin sorting machine at the local supermarket (I get vouchers back off my shop).
> Sorry, but I could quite happily set up a large retail business in the centre of London now and never need to touch cash. Your lost custom would be lost in the noise.
Possibly (but I doubt it, the amount of Saudis and general rich folk that buy expensive stuff for wads of cash in London is something to behold), but London is not representative of England, or even the rest of Europe, let alone the rest of the world. Some people willingly submit themselves to to spied upon and taken advantage of, others are ignorant of what they are doing, but that is no reason to ignore the rest of the world that are neither.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Tuesday January 09 2018, @11:00AM (10 children)
"(The French, Germans and Swiss are still big on cash, and that is just in the EU)"
I have travelled through all three of those, for months on end, without a single cash-related problem.
"I don't trust my phone with my basic details, and you think I am now going to hold money and/or do financial transactions on it? Yeah, as if."
Nor do I. That's a phone. It's also running general purpose code supplied by unknown outside third-parties. That's just stupid.
"Not to mention the fact that money in your bank current account is no longer "yours". You have technically loaned the money to the bank, you are an unsecured creditor, and if the bank goes bust, you can lose your money, or just have them skim 30% off your balance without your consent in the form of a bail-in (like they did in Cyprus)."
Nope. The UK guarantees all current account deposits up to ... is it £80k per person? Partly because of the Iceland crisis, but also because they always did as they recognise that's where "money" actually exists nowadays (they just raised the limit). Zimbabwe had cash. It didn't do them much good.
"Best bit is, the interest earned on loaning your money out to them is, well, nothing. Now they want you to pay to loan the banks money.""
The interest earned on anything is an absolute pittance, if you haven't noticed. Leave £10k in a bank for 10 years untouched and you might earn enough to compensate for inflation and a few hundred quid on top. They are providing a service for that "free" interest, however - being able to access your money in any country, use it on any website, get it queried, refunded, etc. without any hassle. Something cash doesn't offer.
"In comparison, you try taking out an unsecured loan from the bank, and see if you can get away with 0% interest, or them paying you to take out the loan. As such, I keep virtually no money in the bank. Either in cash, some in physical metals, and others in all kinds of assets/investments."
Banks are not the only places to offer cards. Pre-pay cards exist, for example, and even debit cards for children (my 9-year-old has a Visa card, to teach her how to handle money... it's an official card from a company called GoHenry, it has her name on it and everything. But her spending is strictly monitored and controlled and she can never get into debt). I distrust banks too, and literally have never even looked at using them beyond being a storage of funds, paying them nothing to do so.
"Then you have a very small social circle, live in a very unified monoculture, or just don't go out much."
Not really. It's quite common. Go stand by any Tube station and watch as people get the coffee and paper with a card, tag onto the Oyster reader to pay for their journey, go for lunch on card, pay all their bills by DD, etc.
"I cannot tell you how many times I have had my card refused, transaction rejected, connection issues between the till and the bank, and all other myriad problems that don't exist if I just hand over cash."
I can. Zero. I've literally never had a card refused or not work (if the hardware is clearly operational - worst case is "Could you come over to this till, please?"). Hell, I went to an antiques market full of old fogies selling tat on rickety tables in an old community hall, and they all have Zettle.
"The straw that broke the camels back was when I was stuck at a petrol station on new years eve for 2 hours because all card payment systems went offline (missing a good NY party) , because in the UK, you fuel up your car first, then go to pay, and I had no cash, relying always on cards. Likewise the ATMs didn't work, so couldn't even get cash out to pay. The entire system was offline."
Never had that happen. But, to be honest, I would never try to fill up a car on NYE. And the solution is simple "I only have a card and you have no way to take that... Okay, sir, can you just fill out this form". I've done it before with friends when they realised they didn't have any money. Any large chain gives you a form, checks some ID, and gives you something like a week to pay and then charges you £10 on top if you don't.
This isn't a case for "never use a card". It's a case of "what do those shops do when their system is down". They are just as likely to not be able to operate the pumps or ring up your goods at all, to be honest.
"London is not representative of England, or even the rest of Europe, let alone the rest of the world."
It doesn't need to be. It's millions of people, some portion of whom would be able to live cash-free today which they couldn't do 10 years ago. That portion was smaller 10 years ago, bigger now, will be bigger still in 10 years. At the point that having to put coin/note readers into every device (and updating them every time they change the pound coins!) becomes less than just sticking in a card reader / RFID reader, fewer places will start handling cash. Hell, even banking cash is a risk where people still have to don riot-helmets and lockboxes to take their earnings to the bank.
It's not about when PEOPLE change. It's about when BUSINESS changes. And business has no reason to not use cards over cash. In fact, the only reason they have at the moment is customer-request. As that dies off, it very, very quickly becomes a business expense to handle cash that you can eliminate by one simple sign: Cards only. People complain that they don't have a card? Well, sir, over here we have our loyalty credit card and/or pre-paid cards you can use in-store. We'll take cash at that one till, for the next few years, until you learn that it's easier for everyone to use cards.
Go through London, and you no longer ever have to ask "Do you take cards?". I used to have to ask all the time.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday January 09 2018, @01:52PM (2 children)
In taxis? If so, things have changed in the last 12 months.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by ledow on Tuesday January 09 2018, @03:58PM (1 child)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/03/all-london-black-cabs-to-take-card-payments-from-october [theguardian.com]
October 2016.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday January 09 2018, @05:00PM
And the minicabs?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @02:04PM
>> "(The French, Germans and Swiss are still big on cash, and that is just in the EU)"
>
> I have travelled through all three of those, for months on end, without a single cash-related problem.
Really? You can't even pay for public transport e.g. in Hamburg (or pretty much anywhere else) without cash. They only take the local German "debit" cards since they have no fees (or rather, they just use them to find your bank account and take the money from there).
The convenience store in my home village ONLY takes cash, even though they are owned by the bank (you can go over to the bank and take out cash, if you are not a customer you'll pay for that though).
Also, even at big stores like ALDI and LIDL it's only since maybe 4 years you can pay with card, and only since about 1 year they take CREDIT cards. And not sure they still have the 10 Euro minimum for that.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday January 09 2018, @03:15PM (3 children)
So does the FDIC in the United States.
How much did they have to pay for the equipment and ongoing services needed to use iZettle [izettle.com] or Square [squareup.com], such as a phone or tablet, card reader, and cellular Internet access? Say you wanted to use iZettle or Square payment processing at your next garage sale or yard sale [wikipedia.org]. How much would it cost to set up, and how much of each transaction would payment processing cost?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:03PM (2 children)
I'll tell you, because I've done it.
My ex-gf makes pottery. She was talking about selling it, I bought her a iZettle reader for her phone. Does chip-and-pin, NFC, Apple Pay, etc.
You could either pay £49 for the fancy bluetooth standalone reader, and a smaller commission charge.
Or £0 and a larger commission.
Very much reliant on "the phone you have in your back pocket" but if you already have one... literally nothing. And she only had an old smartphone but it still worked. I reckon 95%+ of people have a phone they could use and a data package that would work already.
Just add a few percent to the price you negotiate, even if you need to say "Look, it's £10 cash, or £11 if you want to use your card".
To be honest, it's incredibly easy to get one. And they work remarkably well. Hell, they'll even sort out receipts, accounts etc. for you for free with their app.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 09 2018, @05:29PM
I can see the pros now:
$20 for a blow job if you pay cash...$25 for a card.
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday January 09 2018, @07:33PM
How much is the minimum commission per transaction? Consider that 0.50 to 1.00 USD transactions are common in a garage sale.
It's possible to have a phone but no data service. Currently my Android phone is on a $36/yr T-Mobile plan that includes 0 MB of cellular data transfer allowance per month. Other phone users whose plans do include cellular data may have used up all their data for the month. An access point in your garage should let you run a garage sale on your wired home Internet, but not away from your home.
That depends on whether your national law, provincial law, and merchant agreement allow cash discounts.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Nuke on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:18PM
Ledow wrote :-
You missed Unixnut's point. He is talking about the interest the bank earns by using your money, not the interest you earn by lending it to the bank. Banks can get much more interest - by lending it in turn to pay-day loan companies, for example.
Ledow wrote :-
My wife does the bookkeeping for a small specialist supplier, and they do not take cards; they looked into it and found the expense of installation is horrific, and the ongoing expenses and the cut the bankers take are horrific too. In the UK many shops refuse to take cards for purchases below 10 GBP because the banker's cut makes it not worthwhile. I was in a bookshop recently when the shopkeeper launched into a long and emphatic diatribe about the downside of cards for her business when a customer offered to pay with one; I paid cash. The only reason most shops offer card transactions is that their rivals do and they'd go iout of business if they did not. My wife's company can refuse cards because they are specialists and customers would need to go a long way to find an alternative.
Ledow certainly seems to lead a charmed or sheltered life, never having had a problem with cards, DDs etc.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Tuesday January 09 2018, @08:30PM
> I have travelled through all three of those, for months on end, without a single cash-related problem.
Yes, because they are not "cash only", they will happily accept card payments. Very few places are "cash only", and usually because they want to keep money off the books for tax purposes.
However they will happily accept cash, and a lot of the locals transact in cash.
> Nope. The UK guarantees all current account deposits up to ... is it £80k per person? Partly because of the Iceland crisis, but also because they always did as they recognise that's where "money" actually exists nowadays (they just raised the limit). Zimbabwe had cash. It didn't do them much good.
Yes, but they don't say when they will pay up. If there is a massive bank fun, the government would have to print a lot of money, which is inflationary. Sure, you might eventually get your balance back, but that £80k might buy a loaf of bread. Not keeping your wealth in the bank is the better option.
Also, that is only in the case of a bank going under, not a bail in, in those situations you would get money taken out of your account. It is an EU law, which the UK has ratified (quietly), although not sure what will happen now with Brexit. They would be wise to get rid of that little rule IMO.
> The interest earned on anything is an absolute pittance, if you haven't noticed. Leave £10k in a bank for 10 years untouched and you might earn enough to compensate for inflation and a few hundred quid on top.
Yes, my point exactly. However try to take out a loan, and they will charge you a lot of interest. So between giving a bank my money for a pittance, and keeping it outside earning decent returns (around 10% so far, ignoring cryptocurrencies, which are more like gambling right now), I will keep as much of out outside of the bank.
> They are providing a service for that "free" interest, however - being able to access your money in any country, use it on any website, get it queried, refunded, etc. without any hassle. Something cash doesn't offer.
Actually, nowadays they want to charge you. I didn't realise people actually pay to have a credit card nowadays. My cards are grandfathered in due to having them so long, but if I want a new CC, they want me to pay (indeed a lot of current accounts want to charge me monthly now too).
And yes, there are benefits to using cards. I am not arguing against card based transactions (hell, it is the only way I buy stuff online). Just saying that I don't believe a cash-free future is on the horizon. Most likely we will continue to have both side by side.
> Banks are not the only places to offer cards. Pre-pay cards exist, for example, and even debit cards for children (my 9-year-old has a Visa card, to teach her how to handle money... it's an official card from a company called GoHenry, it has her name on it and everything. But her spending is strictly monitored and controlled and she can never get into debt). I distrust banks too, and literally have never even looked at using them beyond being a storage of funds, paying them nothing to do so.
Yes, but still have the security and tracking issues. Admittedly I had one of those accounts as a child. HSBC (or Midland Bank as it was then) offered them and my parents took it for me. I agree, it taught me a lot, even if I never actually used the card (still have it, pristine and unsigned, in my accounts folder).
> I can. Zero. I've literally never had a card refused or not work (if the hardware is clearly operational - worst case is "Could you come over to this till, please?"). Hell, I went to an antiques market full of old fogies selling tat on rickety tables in an old community hall, and they all have Zettle.
Well, not my experience. I can (and have) had cards rejected multiple times a month. Can't tell you how embarrassing it is going out on a date and having your card refused by the restaurant, or holding up the line at the supermarket trying repeatedly to pay for something, and being rejected multiple times.. Thankfully with cash I know it will be accepted, no matter what.
> Never had that happen. But, to be honest, I would never try to fill up a car on NYE. And the solution is simple "I only have a card and you have no way to take that... Okay, sir, can you just fill out this form". I've done it before with friends when they realised they didn't have any money. Any large chain gives you a form, checks some ID, and gives you something like a week to pay and then charges you £10 on top if you don't.
Yes, I made that mistake, however if I had cash, I could fill up whenever I wanted as long as the station was open, I would not have to work on the banks time, I have access to my money, on hand, whenever I want. Now, I can pay whenever I want, even on NYE, or if the systems are down (like with that outage a few months ago, was it Natwest?).
Yes, after 2 hours there, they realised the system wasn't coming back soon, and let me go, after taking my driving licence and my promise to come back tomorrow to settle the bill. Still, a very uncomfortable situation, and ruined my NYE. Petrol stations are far more strict, because people filling up and then driving off is a big problem, so they don't really believe you "will come back later". So, now with cash, I don't have to worry about that, which is one less thing to worry about.
> This isn't a case for "never use a card". It's a case of "what do those shops do when their system is down". They are just as likely to not be able to operate the pumps or ring up your goods at all, to be honest.
I have never had that happen. Unless there is a power cut (which doesn't happen in London often), they can ring up the till and process my payment with cash just fine. Likewise the petrol station worked fine, apart from no card based transactions.
> Not really. It's quite common. Go stand by any Tube station and watch as people get the coffee and paper with a card, tag onto the Oyster reader to pay for their journey, go for lunch on card, pay all their bills by DD, etc.
To be fair "TFL travelers" are a monoculture. In that tightly controlled and monitored system, where there is really only one choice (and people are conditioned to use contactless) you don't offer alternatives, so all the people will use the most convenient (or only) option available to them.
Compare it to the countryside in the UK, or even parts of London outside of the commuter/underground system, and you will find cash is still king (hell, where I lived, many places were "cash only", refused all cards and contactless).
> It doesn't need to be. It's millions of people, some portion of whom would be able to live cash-free today which they couldn't do 10 years ago. That portion was smaller 10 years ago, bigger now, will be bigger still in 10 years. At the point that having to put coin/note readers into every device (and updating them every time they change the pound coins!) becomes less than just sticking in a card reader / RFID reader, fewer places will start handling cash. Hell, even banking cash is a risk where people still have to don riot-helmets and lockboxes to take their earnings to the bank.
There is a right tool for the job. I am not arguing for a cash only world, just that a "cash only world" is just as unlikely as a "cashless world", despite governments pushing really really hard for it.
> It's not about when PEOPLE change. It's about when BUSINESS changes. And business has no reason to not use cards over cash. In fact, the only reason they have at the moment is customer-request. As that dies off, it very, very quickly becomes a business expense to handle cash that you can eliminate by one simple sign: Cards only. People complain that they don't have a card? Well, sir, over here we have our loyalty credit card and/or pre-paid cards you can use in-store. We'll take cash at that one till, for the next few years, until you learn that it's easier for everyone to use cards.
Well, seeing as many business still offer me a "cash discount" when I don't pay by card, seems they still have an incentive over cards. I suspect it is to do with card transaction costs (which are borne by the traders), along with less overhead for processing. I am happy to get a discount in return for using an anonymous, simple and direct system of value exchange. Others who are willing to pay more for the "convenience" of cards are also welcome, I have no problem people using whichever system they want.
That, along with a large number of people I encounter preferring cash over cards, means that customer requests "dying off" is not going to happen anytime soon. Perhaps it is the different social circles I live in/encounter to you, but it goes to show that there are whole groups of people who do not live, work or handle money like you do.
The only way cashless societies can happen if they are forced upon unwilling people, which I don't doubt the government will try to do. The ability to tax, monitor, control and deny anybody their wealth is an immense power over those people, and governments love power.
And quite frankly, I don't care how easy cards are to use, they are still a bad idea. There are more important things than convenience and ease of use.
> Go through London, and you no longer ever have to ask "Do you take cards?". I used to have to ask all the time.
Fair enough, I never had to ask if they took cards, primarily because those who were "cash only" had it displayed clearly on their tills, so you knew when you entered what to expect. The one time it was "card only" they didn't advertise it anywhere, otherwise would not have wasted time picking out my beer there.
I never knew a time when you had to ask if someone took cards, it is pretty much a given people accept both, or just cash.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @12:34PM (1 child)
In Europe cash is and remains king.
There are however a few exceptions:
Nordic countries, UK and Ireland are less cash heavy than other EU Countries.
As I Belgian there are certain groups I want to know as little as possible about my or anyone's finances...
Namely the state((s), both Federal, provincial, city and district), the banks (who are legally required to send certain info to the state(s)) and the IRS.
I trust no government with my money, and no Bank not to do stupid things (like lending out 40 times what the bank has in deposits) so I prefer cash and avoid CC as much as possible.
Any shop not taking cash is a dead set idiot bunch of fucktards whom will only hear my laughter fade away as they reload whatever I had put in my trolley back on their shelves while I walk off laughing at their idiocracy. Thus costing them whatever they could have possibly saved in change time a thousand times over.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:05PM
"Thus costing them whatever they could have possibly saved in change time a thousand times over."
Only if you represent even 10% of their customers. Otherwise your refusal is lost in the noise of 90% of their customers coming back every time and paying by card (possibly without even realising they don't take cash), and then not having to handle cash (secure tills, the little sucky-tube machines to move it, safes, two people to count it and bag it, security van visits to pick it up, banking fees, etc.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:59PM
The Swiss are not in the EU.
(Score: 2) by chromas on Tuesday January 09 2018, @10:28AM (4 children)
Do your banks do Zelle? [zellepay.com] Your friends can throw money at you and it's usually free (last I checked) because it's a service provided by the banks instead of a third party.
(Score: 3, Touché) by ledow on Tuesday January 09 2018, @11:05AM
Or PayM.
Or PingIt.
Or Paypal, even.
Loads of places do that and most only need a mobile phone number or email or similar to send money to people.
I mean "those friends who only have cash", and things like work colleagues who don't want to faff about adding you for a single payment and happen to have a tenner on them.
To be honest, as time goes by - and especially with younger friends - they are infinitely more likely to do a direct bank transfer to me via their banking app, rather than any third-party service.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday January 09 2018, @01:56PM (2 children)
What kind of perverted banking system do you have over there?!?! I pay for them to look after my money. I pay for them to accept more of same. I pay for them to give some of my money back to me. I'd pay even more for them to lend their money to me. I pay for them to tell me how much of my money they have. I probably have to pay ground rent while waiting in a queue at the ATM, they're such ferengi.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by ledow on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:15PM (1 child)
UK banks - I pay my bank nothing. There is a "premium" account that you do pay and get discount travel insurance, etc. but the numbers don't add up enough for me to bother. They keep trying to con me into it, I keep saying no, like most people I know.
No charge for a card (Visa/MasterCard).
No charge to pay in.
No charge to draw out.
No charge to set up PayM or PingIt (depends on which bank which one you use).
No charge to send via PayM or PingIt.
No charge to NOT send anything via PayM or PingIt or equivalent (i.e. if you don't use it very often).
No charge to talk to someone.
They pay me a couple of quid in interest every month. It's really not worth the effort to bother about it.
Sure, if I go overdrawn they charge fees and interest. That's expected, it's basically unarranged credit. But I don't pay for banking services. I can't fathom those who do. Businesses, sure. But personal accounts? Bugger off.
That's why they have a certain rule, though. You must pay in so-much a month, each month, even if you immediately spend it. They use that to (presumably) generate further interest on that which they keep, and that's the threshold to make it profitable for them to do so. Pretty much every working individual or person receiving benefits will do just that without fail every month.
People whine about the banking system but they hold my money for free and have to comply with legislation which guarantees I get that money back. And give me a card. And sort out mistakes. And have somewhere I can go to argue or pay in cash etc.
That side of banking, the high-street banking? I can't fault that. And I've blacklisted at least three banks permanently from my life for other things.
The irony: If you're a foreigner with no UK credit history, they will charge you for a "basic" bank account that does nothing and has a card you can't even really use online. Even if you earn twice as much. My girlfriend found that out. Only after a few years, or if you move elsewhere, will they give you a "real" account.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday January 09 2018, @07:41PM
The one downside of a "free checking with payroll direct deposit" offer happens when your employer isn't large enough to offer payroll direct deposit, instead requiring employees to either accept paper payroll checks or resign. Or when you're a contractor instead of an employee; there's no "payroll" to speak of, and there may not be a deliverable every month. I've been in both situations.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @11:02AM
Thanks for contributing to our mass surveillance society. Your masters are grateful.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday January 09 2018, @01:42PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves