Living Only Using Cash - Is It No Longer Possible?

bargain huntress on 22/01/2024 - 21:43

I have been considering trying ditching the plastic and the online banking and going cash only.
For a couple of reasons:
To resist the imposition of a cashless society - use it or lose it.
And there are numerous budgeting systems where people use cash only. For some people the physical cash is the psychological thing they need to stay on budget. David Ramsay's Envelope System is probably the most famous.

I was planning to test out paying bills at Australia Post.

Well look what they've done:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12990531/Aussie-out…

'Some billers charge a bill-payment fee for bills paid in person,' Australia Post told Yahoo.

'Australia Post charges the utility for processing the payment and it is common for companies to pass this onto the customer,' Telstra said.

Both blaming each other of course

Financial

Comments

  • Muzeeb on 22/01/2024 - 21:46
    +36

    Do you have a job? I bet they don't pay you in cash if you do so your plan is stuffed from the get go.

    • bargain huntress on 22/01/2024 - 21:48
      +21

      People who do cash envelopes withdraw in cash from the bank every week etc
      Like the olden times

      • Muzeeb on 22/01/2024 - 21:49

        Do the banks charge you for withdrawing cash via a human teller?

        • mapax on 22/01/2024 - 21:50
          +18

          The scumbag banks do…

          • Muzeeb on 22/01/2024 - 21:52
            +4

            @mapax: David Ramsays system seems very expensive with fees galore.

            • bargain huntress on 22/01/2024 - 21:56
              +13

              @Muzeeb: The system is old, the fees are new

            • AlanHB on 24/01/2024 - 19:10

              @Muzeeb: Eh the envelope system isn't really part of Dave Ramsey's "system" (ie. the baby steps), but it is a technique he endorses. You can replicate the same thing by creating different bank accounts for different purposes.

        • bonezAU on 24/01/2024 - 12:45

          Most don't, but good luck finding a teller who actually has enough cash to give you.
          I walked into Bankwest a couple of weeks ago with 2x $20 notes and asked for a mixture of $1 and $2 coins. The teller pulled out 2 little bags with a total of $7 in coins and said "Sorry, can't help you".

      • badg3rz on 23/01/2024 - 09:21
        +4

        Like/In the olden times, you got paid cash in hand, not in their bank accounts

        • bchliu on 24/01/2024 - 22:02
          +1

          Dodge the taxman along the way?

      • SlickMick on 23/01/2024 - 13:46

        Ahh I remember the weekly envelope of cash.

        We've come a long way, thank goodness. There are a few reasons why cash is bad, but we're very close to eliminating every benefit it every had. (I don't see keeping cash in an envelope as a benefit.)
        I'm seeing formerly cash-only businesses implement cheap, portable eftpos facilities like Square, and I can't see why anyone who wants to sell something privately can't do the same. (Unless/ until real time secure payment transfers become standard.)

        • ssfps on 24/01/2024 - 04:08
          +2

          and I can't see why anyone who wants to sell something privately

          I'm curious why you think a sale can be described as "private" if you're electronically transacting it between at least three regulated financial institutions.

          • wyrmy on 24/01/2024 - 06:35
            +3

            @ssfps: Because private doesn't mean what you think it means in this context.

        • brandt on 24/01/2024 - 11:10

          Yeah, back on my first job - the yellow cash envelope used to be handed out on Monday arvo, and without fail someone used to get rolled for it.. usually one of the newer employees who were likely to be walking alone after a late shift. The whole thing was so stupid because it was clearly someone on the site who was involved, and the cops refused to do anything about it.

        • Assburg on 24/01/2024 - 11:49
          -1

          Pay with cash - no cash handling fee, you're not paying for the staff to count the money/account for any cash losses/physically bank the money.

          Pay with EFTPOS - more and more frequently charged for doing the business the favour of not having to do the above. 0.1% or whatever it is on the day might not seem like much but I don't want to give 0.1% of my lifetime spending to leeches.

    • dust on 23/01/2024 - 09:17
      +20

      If your job rhymes with mug mealer then getting paid in cash is fine.

      • FrugalBoi95 on 23/01/2024 - 13:48
        +26

        Mug mealer = Person that eats meals exclusively from a mug

      • Shoocat on 23/01/2024 - 20:27
        +8

        Pug peeler? It's a pretty specialised and gruesome sub-field of taxidermy.

      • ezekiel181 on 23/01/2024 - 20:40
        +4

        The real youth crime pandemic - damn Rug Stealers.

      • illusion99 on 24/01/2024 - 06:32
        +2

        That for beginners or amateurs. If you actually want to make decent coin from that job you need to go set up on the dark web and use crypto payments (the furthest you can get from cash payments)

      • iDroid on 24/01/2024 - 17:48
        +2

        Mate, I've been a Tub Sealer for years - no one pays cash.

    • drprox on 23/01/2024 - 11:18
      +6

      OP weirdly dodges this simple qn

  • soan papdi on 22/01/2024 - 21:48
    +15

    You can ditch credit cards and stick to just one debit card for all cashflow. Much easier than futzing around with physical cash.

    • bargain huntress on 22/01/2024 - 21:48

      Not when there is cyclone etc

      • soan papdi on 22/01/2024 - 21:49
        +52

        How often do you go out shopping during cyclones?

        • bargain huntress on 22/01/2024 - 21:54
          +9

          Electricity can be out for a week
          No electronic payments

          • soan papdi on 22/01/2024 - 22:07
            +36

            @bargain huntress: By all means, keep some cash for emergencies but subjecting oneself to cash on a daily basis is just painful. Whatever works for you I guess.

          • Papa Huggies on 23/01/2024 - 12:42
            +2

            @bargain huntress: if you're in FNQ sure, literally anywhere else in Australia? That's a contingency I'll roll with

          • SlickMick on 23/01/2024 - 13:49
            +3

            @bargain huntress: What's the longest duration where shops have accepted cash but not credit?

            I reckon batteries are a better solution than cash.

            • banana365 on 23/01/2024 - 14:35

              @SlickMick: Batteries won't fix broken comms links. That's the main cause of places being unable to take cards.

              • SlickMick on 23/01/2024 - 14:41

                @banana365: What's the longest comms outage you've experienced?

                • banana365 on 23/01/2024 - 14:46

                  @SlickMick: I was referring to the cause of the outage, not the duration. My direct experience is irrelevant though, I know that lengthy outages can and do happen. Last week, for example. We had a work team out near Kalgoorlie that lost comms for a day and a bit due to storms. I'm aware of longer but can't remember the details to refer to. I do know that outages are getting more frequent and longer, largely due to significant weather events.

                • Assburg on 24/01/2024 - 11:50

                  @SlickMick: Have you heard of Optus?

              • callum9999 on 25/01/2024 - 17:28
                +2

                @banana365: People constantly bring this up but it's incredibly easy to solve. Back when I was a kid the store I worked in had card imprinting machines for this very scenario - the power did go out one day, and card transactions were still completed.

                Given lots of cards aren't embossed any more you'd have to tweak the system, but a very similar idea could still be used during emergency outages.

                • banana365 on 26/01/2024 - 00:43
                  +1

                  @callum9999: Then you're going back to requiring access to bank branches to take those slips into. Branches are closing all over the country. In even slightly remote towns have none within an hour's drive. Yes, it's an alternative, but one that the entire financial industry has moved past and will not go back to.

                  • callum9999 on 26/01/2024 - 03:04
                    +1

                    @banana365: I didn't say "go back to that", I said you can use a similar idea - temporarily authorise small amounts to be taken without requiring verification.

                    It doesn't require going to a bank branch at all. You SERIOUSLY can't think of a way to transmit information electronically!?

          • ceroau on 25/01/2024 - 10:26
            +3

            @bargain huntress: If someone lives in cyclone area and their default isn't to stock enough supplies to last them a week than cash isn't going to save them from that stupidity. People have bigger priorities than manning registers to sell groceries if their region just got decimated by a natural disaster to the point where they have no electricity or Cell service.

            Everyone keeps using natural disasters as some sort of argument for maintaining a cash society but If you're in middle of a natural disaster, cash is physical, you could leave it behind, you could lose it or otherwise be damaged. As for the after impacts of a natural disaster, if there is a prolong delay in return to services like internet and electricity than who still has good and services worth selling? how are they going to bank it? Who want to be sitting around in a disaster area with 10's of thousands of dollars on them?

            Cash is tangible which is why people get hard on for it cause they struggle to comprehend intangible things but just cause they don't understand it doesn't make their way better.

          • nikey2k27 on 25/01/2024 - 17:27
            +1

            @bargain huntress: o (profanity) were have one at moment might need some cash

        • Jaspa7 on 25/01/2024 - 12:50
          +2

          Just had this vision of OP surfing a cyclone of cash into Colesworth…

      • Muzeeb on 22/01/2024 - 21:50
        +8

        When was the last cyclone in SA?

        @DashCam AKA Rolts - can you recall?

        • bargain huntress on 22/01/2024 - 21:53
          -3

          Bushfires then, we have lots of those

          • Muzeeb on 22/01/2024 - 21:54
            +24

            @bargain huntress: I guess if your cash burns in the fire you are stuffed. If your plastic card melts the bank sends you a new one within 5 business days and off you go shopping again.

            • bargain huntress on 22/01/2024 - 21:55
              +1

              @Muzeeb: That is a fair point
              Fire safe is a good idea

            • DashCam AKA Rolts on 22/01/2024 - 22:42
              +8

              @Muzeeb:

              I guess if your cash burns in the fire you are stuffed.

              My coin jar is finally coming in handy.

          • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 23/01/2024 - 10:00
            +4

            @bargain huntress: Does your local shop stay open during bushfires?

            • 2esc on 23/01/2024 - 12:45
              +1

              @Typical16-bitEnjoyer: Yes the local iga, service station and fish & chip shop all stayed open every thing stayed open The fires got within 1.5 klms of town at one point. Could barely breath at times but we all kept going to work 90 percent of the town kept working. The fires were a constant threat for weeks.

              • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 23/01/2024 - 15:26
                -1

                @2esc: Lol, so if the fish & chip shop was open then the town stayed open because it had electricity.

                Also you outed your alt account lol.

                • afoveht on 23/01/2024 - 16:30
                  +1

                  @Typical16-bitEnjoyer: I remember once as a kid the whole suburb (maybe all of Sydney actually, during those planned blackouts in the late 70s / early 80s I think maybe due to workers' disputes) had a blackout but the fishnchips shop was open - and busy - because their fryers were all gas.

                  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 23/01/2024 - 23:55

                    @afoveht: There was a bushfire in inner Sydney during a blackout?

                    Bet the whole suburb let rip on social media that day.

        • DashCam AKA Rolts on 22/01/2024 - 22:41
          +2

          No cyclone, but guess whose mum had a Whirlpool?

        • nikey2k27 on 25/01/2024 - 17:28

          i can sent one we have at moment if you like

      • jellykingdom on 23/01/2024 - 10:36
        +5

        Cyclone will blow all of the money away. Better stick to coins only

      • johnno07 on 23/01/2024 - 16:08
        +1

        Natural disasters is literally one of the biggest reasons to not hold physical cash, as it can be destroyed smh

    • ParmiAndChips on 23/01/2024 - 19:57

      But this completely defeats the purpose of the "use it or lose it" mindset in regards to physical cash that OP refers to.

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 22/01/2024 - 21:51
    +20

    I have a customer who always tells me how great it is to be cashless.

    However -The local pub recently stopped accepting cash payments.

    Customer: well they’ve lost me as a customer for life.

    Yeah mate, they will genuinely be spewing at losing out on that $15 lunch parmy once a week

    • cloudy on 22/01/2024 - 22:18
      +17

      They'll be spewing when the inevitable tech glitch happens and they lose a whole day of trade.

      • Jimothy Wongingtons on 22/01/2024 - 22:24
        +5

        They did get caught in the Optus outage I guess

        • Gunnar on 23/01/2024 - 06:12
          +15

          That outage where the cash is king cookers had a lifetime of prep come into play for around 18 hours

          • bargain huntress on 23/01/2024 - 11:02
            +1

            @Gunnar: 🤣
            Just think of it as a drill

            • Chandler on 23/01/2024 - 11:42
              +8

              @bargain huntress: Yeah except for when the apocalypse they're all prepping for actually happens and they realise that people don't give a hoot about "money".

              Gold was the trading medium back in the day because people actually valued it, and it even has some utility. The currency we use today only holds value because society agrees upon its value. Once that mechanism is gone, good luck!

              • Gunnar on 23/01/2024 - 13:58
                +1

                @Chandler: There’s too much factual and historical information in here for a ‘cash is king’ nut to comprehend

              • bargain huntress on 24/01/2024 - 10:58

                @Chandler: A lot of cookers preppers whatever stack metal bullion

                Others tradeable barterable goods - seeds, books, longlife food

                Most of them dont believe in cash for after a hypothetical apocalypse as far as i have seen

                They just use it now pre the disaster they fear

          • ssfps on 24/01/2024 - 04:12
            +6

            @Gunnar:

            cookers

            How cooked are you to not know local outages happen all the time. And what's with midwits calling people "cookers" and "karens" as ultra-generic insults these days?

            in here for a ‘cash is king’ nut to comprehend

            Are these "cash is king" nuts in the room with you right now?

        • prodrome on 23/01/2024 - 09:33
          +1

          Yet I still used apple pay through that outage.

      • freefall101 on 22/01/2024 - 23:55
        +6

        Assuming all their customers were carrying enough cash to pay for everything. Which excludes everyone under 30.

        • cloudy on 23/01/2024 - 06:18
          +2

          It’s really not hard to carry enough cash for a meal and drink. But you’re right many don’t, and when the Optus outage occurred many under 30 went coffee-less and hungry for a day I assume.

          Hopefully lessons learnt, but rarely do

          • SlickMick on 23/01/2024 - 13:55

            @cloudy: Did everyone ditch the old slide card copy machines? That would be a better backup than cash.

            • ssfps on 24/01/2024 - 04:15

              @SlickMick: That's about as good as leaving a handwritten promissory note these days.

            • joelmuzz on 26/01/2024 - 16:01
              +1

              @SlickMick: CBA cards aren't embossed anymore. Just flat plastic. Couldn't use one if they did have it.

              Unnecessary anyway since the smartcards (all in Australia for over a decade) provide an encryption signature when tapped/inserted which can be post processed for payment.

              Anti-fraud sides with the customer in this offline usage (as does web payment) which is why shops might reject it in a coms outage.
              But that's their choice, extra risk vs no sales.

              • SlickMick on 26/01/2024 - 16:39
                +1

                @joelmuzz: Did you say eftpos machines can verify credentials even when comms are down? (And the risk is in not being able to verify balances?)

                I noticed no one was willing to do that when Optus was down, but it's interesting that it's an option if there was actually a crisis.

      • Nebargains on 23/01/2024 - 12:12
        +1

        Only relevant if their customers also carry cash, most people don't.

        When that happened a cafe near my work just wrote down a list of who owed what (a bit easier when 95% of the customers are regulars) because basically no one had cash to pay with.

      • joelmuzz on 26/01/2024 - 15:52

        Doesn't stop you accepting card payments, just exposes the business to more fraud claims and a higher transaction fee since they are operating with no stolen card database and live suspect usage monitoring.

        With the proliferation of cheap satellite internet it is really the business own lack of contingency planning and poor merchant gateway choices if they are caught in that situation anyway.

        • cloudy on 26/01/2024 - 22:50
          +1

          How cheap is cheap satellite internet for that 1 day a year they cut out, is it $100 per year kind of number?

    • kiitos on 23/01/2024 - 07:26
      +4

      When the pub did that, did they stop applying a card surcharge as well?

      • Crownie on 23/01/2024 - 09:07
        +3

        Pub probably increased the fee because most pub goers don't know or care about the fee.

    • Poor Ass on 23/01/2024 - 11:04
      +2

      so is the customer pro cashless (line 1)?

      • SlickMick on 23/01/2024 - 13:57
        +1

        I think that was a brain fart coz cashlessless looked wrong

        • Poor Ass on 23/01/2024 - 14:23
          +1

          yeah it's weird maybe he means customer is saying how great it is to have cash?

    • MrFunSocks on 23/01/2024 - 11:37

      That makes no sense. You said the customer likes being cashless, so why would they be upset when the pub goes cashless?

      • Poor Ass on 23/01/2024 - 14:24

        lol yeah that's what I said

  • djones145 on 22/01/2024 - 22:00
    +4

    if u have any issues send me cash
    ill pay your bills that need credit cards

    might need to create a new company offering this service. gonna be a millionaire. no one steal it.
    please

    • Jimothy Wongingtons on 22/01/2024 - 22:07
      +6

      Elon: buy him out, boys

    • SlickMick on 23/01/2024 - 14:00

      The idea is out there. Haven't go noticed the guy that so generously collects cash from everyone at the restaurant to pay the bill?
      It's just hard to implement beyond friends & colleagues.

  • cloudy on 22/01/2024 - 22:13
    +5

    my folks still live cash only, works for them.

    • bargain huntress on 22/01/2024 - 23:26

      How do they pay bills?

    • gromit on 24/01/2024 - 00:12
      +4

      My mother is like that. Freakin pain in the arse. Constantly says i dont need a credit or debit card then calls me or my brother and begs us to order X or Y online for her. Told her she either gets a card or does without internet shopping going forward.

      • NoisyMiner on 24/01/2024 - 14:48
        -1

        Cmon man give her a chance, she just wants to communicate with her sons it’s not about the payment.

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