Change...ing times

[Fergus]

Yesterday my wife asked me to get some £1 coins.

I walked into Nat West bank with a £10 note and asked if they would change it....

Operative: Do you have an account with us.
Me: No
Operative: Sorry but we cannot change it.
Me: Bwahahahhaaaaa as I walked out.

Best laugh all day but it's a sad case of affairs.

[inscription]

I'm not surprised. NatWest Group is at the centre of the de-banking scandal where, if your values don't align with theirs, they will tell you to sod off and find another bank. Trouble is that all banks are acting in the same way thus making it impossible to find another bank that will accept you. This came to light after they (via Coutts Bank) cancelled Nigel Farage's accounts. God knows what they were thinking by taking on the biggest bloke in the pub - perhaps they thought he was going to take it lying down! This has highlighted how rotten the UK banking sector is, and the regulator (FCA) sat back and let it happen.

Oh yes, and they're killing cash too by severely limiting how much cash you can pay into your account. It is indeed a sad case of affairs.

[HiBeat]

only slightly off topic (more of an adjacent addition) but I went to a baseball game here in the states and the entire facility was cash-free.

You had to pay for parking with the likes of Apple Pay, GooglePay, credit card using a hand held card reader (probably tap to pay cards only, I used GooglePay so not sure.)   They told you as you paid to park that there was no cash accepted within the confines of the facility.

So for me and 99% of the likely patrons no problem, just an observation of where society is headed.  Stash your cash at home - it is no good there.

[inboost]

Yeah, it's the way of the world now for sure HiBeat. I think it comes from three places:

1) taxes and fees - the credit/debit card companies make 2~4% and the government gets to see more taxation as you can't hide electronic transactions. You better believe some (if not most) of the cash transactions were improperly reported to the tax authorities.

2) employee theft - it's pretty easy to stuff a few extra bills in a pocket when you're picking up cash from hundreds of customers

3) People are carrying less cash on them - infrastructure and resources costs needed to ensure the safe transport of cash and the ability to make change to customers outweighs the odd chance you might turn someone away. It's cheaper not to have to secure cash!

[small]

My $.02 in credit
Most people just swiping or tapping are not "paying as much attention" to what things might be costing. When I had a wallet full of green backs once it was gone or down to gas money to get home, spending stopped. These days with almost unlimited credit people just charge away and why individual debt in the US and Imagine elsewhere is as high as it is...

In Illinois there are no maned tool booths on the toll roads anymore. No idea what it cost to run through one. When the Ipass first came out it was to speed things up and it did, having cash payers pay double what the Ipass travelers paid to use the same road. Now there is no cash and all the rates have doubled. Yet you never really see it because your Ipass just gets refiled automatically with the charge card on file! If you travel for work your more likely to notice than a causal driver. I don't think there was a single OpEd , article or report in print or even on my online newsfeed that even mentioned the change...That said they are dong some massive repairs to the system so it's not like that money is just sitting...Heck I was traveling with my son when we entered a on ramp that had the rate posted IIRC it was nearly $3, he was taking that everyday to and from work! I said I hope someone is coming by at the end of the week with a happy ending because those prices are just nuts!    

Figures lie and liars figure but looking at the different stats I'm blown away by how much debt is carried by all of us, including governments? Who is really owed all this money???

Anyway I might have been pushing my $.02 to $.03

[trilo]

IIRC, studies show, that when you use cash, you spend less.

[appumaster]

Works the other way round where I live...

The funds in your bank account are "tax paid" money i.e. the $100 you spend digitally was say originally a $110 value when you earned it and subsequently paid a $10 tax.

The cash $100 you spend is the same $100 value when you had earned it; reporting aside of course.