You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I never spend cash if plastic is available, reckon £200 to £250 per year.
The new normal, or am I odd?
not a clue
Well you can't buy coke on plastic......
Mostly very little, unless I've sold some bike stuff or been out somewhere remote that seems cash focused (like Germany)
I was trying to use cash with small retailers/bars for low value transactions (due to fees) but most of those locally have gone card only these days.
I tend to keep a few quid and change on my desk for the charity snack boxes in the office and that is about it
Around the same as the OP (£250 ish). I've had the same £20 in my wallet for a couple of months.
It's not something I've ever considered counting, to be honest. But probably not a lot.
I do almost all of my day to day spending in cash. plus I paid for some building work in cash so probably push £10 000 in cash
I was most pissed off the other day, went to get £20 out of the cash point, but due to screen lag/impatience ended up double clicking a button, resulting in £150 being dispensed. Off to the bank today to pay it back in!
Many GBP/EUR here. Very rarely use plastic and never on hols
Pretty much all of my daily spending is cash as its easier to budget, obviously online purchases are by debit card.
It's 2018. I use a card for almost everything. Even a music festival I went to this year was cashless. I tend to view cash-only businesses as tax scams.
An educated guess would be £520- ish.
Every Monday I take the eldest to Youth Club, every week he needs £1 to go, I don't as a rule use cash and haven't since chip and pin became a thing. I have to go to the ATM, take £10, buy something, give him the £1, some usually goes on parking where I'm riding, or I stuff it in the Automatic till in Tesco towards the weekly shop.
No idea but an awful lot less than I've spent by other means.
Similar to the OP, B'cards at work, P&D machines in the Lake District and I had to pay cash for an xmas tree as the local Grocer is cash only...
many thousands wasted on beer
Very rarely use plastic and never on hols
I always use cards on holidays now. The exchange rate is great on my card, no fees, and it's far safer than walking around with a couple of grand in your back pocket in a foreign country.
It’s 2018. I use a card for almost everything.
This. Contactless payment on my watch, for small purchases I don't even have to dig my wallet out. I love living in the future.
£783.26p
Somewhere in the region of £25000. But it's been a bit of a weird year...
Probably about a grand or so.
We just have a pot in the kitchen where we throw notes and change then if someone needs cash there's something there to save the rigmarole of going to the cashpoint when you're invariably late.
Most of the cash spending is horse/child related though, farrier, extra bale of straw here and there, brownie subs/trips and spends for the kids if they're out and about without us.
Cash on large transactions tends to encourage tax evasion by contractors or suppliers, so is probably a bad thing overall. After all, I think most folk here would want the tax funds waiting when you turn up broken at an A&E, your bin needs emptied or a child needs education.
Cash vs cards at bars, shops & restaurants is less clear cut. It's not uncommon for an owner to have several merchant acquirer accounts, with some being paid off-record into a private bank account. Using a card is far from a guarantee that the transaction has been declared.
In some parts of the UK, this has led to a recent resurgence in cash, as it's easier to hide cash takings from HMRC than it is to hide the data that can be passed over from the banks. Although some small groups of people (STW demographic..) may rely quite heavily on cards, there is still a huge amount of cash washing about, perhaps a lot more than some folk might realise.
I'd like to see that plotted against population and inflation footflaps, I also wonder how that is directed by the balance and programming of cash machines, most of the ones I use seem to be set to £20's first which is a pain until we get the new waterproof ones which I hope are a bit smaller - my wallet is configured for Aussie$$'s
Loads, most of my spending is cash.
I’d say I’m about 50/50 ratio Cash with Cards and contactless probably making up the smaller “can’t be bothered to get my wallet out” purchases.
I like cash, I learned very early on when stuck deep in a rut that counting every penny really does heade those impulse purchases when you stand there counting £20’s out at the till.
I always take out £300 in cash a month, then spend that on Food shopping and petrol. I know once it’s gone that I should rein it in a bit. Rarely do I have any cash handy left at the end of the month in my wallet though 🤔
But the obvious answer to the OPs question is £5k a month.
HTHs
Very little, and I suspect there's only 2 places that I have spent it. One is a little bakers that has no card facilities and the other is at regular street food event where some sellers again don't take card.
Much rather pay card or contactless.
Cash on large transactions tends to encourage tax evasion by contractors or suppliers, so is probably a bad thing overall. After all, I think most folk here would want the tax funds waiting when you turn up broken at an A&E, your bin needs emptied or a child needs education.
Cash vs cards at bars, shops & restaurants is less clear cut. It’s not uncommon for an owner to have several merchant acquirer accounts, with some being paid off-record into a private bank account. Using a card is far from a guarantee that the transaction has been declared.
In some parts of the UK, this has led to a recent resurgence in cash, as it’s easier to hide cash takings from HMRC than it is to hide the data that can be passed over from the banks. Although some small groups of people (STW demographic..) may rely quite heavily on cards, there is still a huge amount of cash washing about, perhaps a lot more than some folk might realise.
I have to agree, it's wrong of course to assume that just because a business will encourage cash payments, or even insist on them they're up to no good, but in my limited experience businesses that are up to no good will generally work that way.
Goverment and Banks have been discouraging cash for years now. Some see this as a way to get us to spend more and like to use cash as a way of budgeting. I know when I only used cash I felt it was easier to budget - I'd have £50 in my wallet on Monday and if I wanted a pint on Saturday there would still need to be some there, but that was pre banking apps for me, back then you could get the last 10 transactions from the ATM, but other than that it was a case of waiting for your statement to arrive by post 6 weeks later before you knew the hows and whys of your unexpected poverty.
These days even my window cleaner takes cards / PayPal, and I can see my balance,, months of statements and even payments made and uncleared within moments.
There's a few places I've stopped shopping in because they only take cash, not because I think they're not paying tax per-se, but mostly because unless there's an ATM outside, I won't have anything to pay them with.
Tax evasion ?
Wow, that furrowed brow you are wearing looks awfully uncomfortable.
Well under £50. Cant think of anything other than a few parking machines that didn't take card. I like to use the same debit account for all my day to say purchases as each month I can download all transactions and see where I spend my money.
I’d like to see that plotted against population and inflation footflaps
Do you reckon it would make a difference? Inflation has been near 1% until the last year or so and the UK population hasn't changed much that I recall...
Inflation has been higher than that!!
https://www.statista.com/statistics/270384/inflation-rate-in-the-united-kingdom/
Interest rates have not, so you need more cash to buy the same stuff
Population growth is also about 0.6% PA so both combined mean more people and more cash in circulation, there should be a statistical way to show that on a per capita inflation adjusted stat to make comparison easier and more meaningful (or at least have some values with the chart!!)
Less than £20. I keep £10 in my wallet just in case.
Probably around £20,000.Most of my daily spending including fuel, food, pub, shops is cash. Take out £200 a time at the cash machine a couple of times a week.
Why? Habit, and I like having a 1 page bank statement u can check in a few seconds.
Mostly babysitters (but I hope I can sort out some sort of immediate transfer soon) and fivers for the pub after weekly nightride because it's easier than all of us traipsing into the pub to order separately.
I bet if we were all paid in cash a few banks would suffer. They love having your wages first, it's free money for a while.
Absolutely no idea but I use contactless more than cash but way over £250 as that’s a day out on the lash.
They love having your wages first, it’s free money for a while.
And people like free banking too 😉
For me ( no internet banking) to pay large amounts cash is often the easiest way. smaller business often don't have facilities to take cards, bank transfers involve me going to my bank, taking out cash and paying it into their bank account. so a legal non tax dodging transaction
smaller business often don’t have facilities to take cards
I honestly can’t recall the last time I seen a business that didn’t including market stalls.
I honestly can’t recall the last time I seen a business that didn’t including market stalls.
Yesterday, Kingston market. The hog roast stand was cash only. Worth it too. Bloomin lovely.
It also seems to make life a lot easier for small businesses now you can have everything automated through a simple tablet and card reader. does all your receipts and books for the day with zero hassle compared to trying to reconcile the cash and sales at the end of the day.
The real last bastion of cash only seems to be the Taxi drivers, unless it's a £20, they don't carry enough change for that.... no wonder Uber is popular
Our local Greengrocer is cash only as is one of the local restaurants (center of Cambridge). I'm guessing they either can't get a bank account or are fronts for money laundering....
I have a change pot that fills up over the course of the year, in the past twice a year. This year it took all year to 3/4 fill it. Since emptying 2 weeks ago I think it has 2 coins in.
So overall very little compared to day to day card transactions and bigger credit card transactions.
cash only as is one of the local restaurants (center of Cambridge)
Mill road? There's quite a few cash only round there, struck me as quite suspect when we were out a while back.
Don't tell me they are just waiting for their vat number too 😉
I bet if we were all paid in cash a few banks would suffer. They love having your wages first, it’s free money for a while.
Every bank is slightly different, but if everyone who had a free account with their bank and not one of the Premium ones, or ran into their over-draft every month were paid in cash they'd be delighted.
There is no money whatsoever in consumer banking unless you actually buy something from them. (loan, insurance, premium account etc) the amount of money they can invest because of their collective consumer accounts balances is relatively small compared to the amount of infrastructure they need and charges made for cash withdrawals, card fees etc.
Goverment and Banks have been discouraging cash for years now
Erm.. that’s not strictly true.
Banks don’t discourage cash, they don’t like handling it because it’s really expensive to produce, sort, hold and distribute. Banks have encouraged the use of Cards and Contactless because it’s cheap, once the IT infrastructures in place it’ll happily tick over in the background with support. But that’s by no means the only option, cash has its place in any functioning society. But when the IT systems fall over (most recent TSB) you certainly count your options when you’ve got £50 in your wallet.
smaller business often don’t have facilities to take cards
I honestly can’t recall the last time I seen a business that didn’t including market stalls.
4 different small building companies or sole traders in my case. They would have taken bank transfer but That involves me taking cash out of my bank and paying it into theirs as the easiest way as I don't have internet banking and they banked with different banks. So it was just easiest in 3 of the 4 to simply give them the cash
Nothing is free always a hidden cost. Can't have an overdraft if you only use cash. No money no purchase. Credit cards are only OK if you have the money to clear them.
Nothing is free always a hidden cost.
So what is the hidden cost with my bank account then?
Never paid a penny for anything and used the account for 15 years. If I were to go overdrawn and charged that is not a hidden cost is it so what exactly would count as a hidden cost?
about £50 a week on beers and food at work,
money is made to spend. no good for anything else
So what is the hidden cost with my bank account then?
Never paid a penny for anything and used the account for 15 years. If I were to go overdrawn and charged that is not a hidden cost is it so what exactly would count as a hidden cost?
Part of it is they will use your money to do other things, part of it will be they are giving you a lower interest rate than the market. There is always a cost, you might be one of the few who cost the bank a bit (and they are obliged to have a basic free account I think) but they will be taking something from you for that service.
Probably somewhere around £2000. I'll use the debit card for most things but will use cash for low value transactions, say below £5, like a butty at lunch. No absolute cut-off really.
Agree that cash is generally less and less requisite. There's a few things like low level fell races where the organiser won't have a means of handling electronic payments but they are becoming much more the edge cases.
Nothing is free always a hidden cost.
There are no hidden costs at all with consumer banking. It is free unless you use one of the services that cost something.
Get your wages paid into your account - free
Withdraw some cash - free
Pay from your account by debit card - free
Get your wages paid into your account - free
Withdraw some cash - free
Pay from your account by debit card - free
Etc
Etc
Zero cost.
Mill road? There’s quite a few cash only round there, struck me as quite suspect when we were out a while back.
Yep, Hilary's Green Grocers and Al Casbah restaurant are the two that spring to mind, probably more...
There are no hidden costs at all with consumer banking. It is free unless you use one of the services that cost something.
You don't have to pay for something for there to be a cost.
£250 as that’s a day out on the lash.
You need help.
Iv'e just worked out that I've spent £342.08p in actual cash this year.
You don’t have to pay for something for there to be a cost.
Not sure I understand what you are getting at?
What is the hidden cost for my banking that I’m not seeing ?
Mainly just two places I use physical cash. A local take-away and a café, both of which only take cash.
One is understandable that he can't afford the card machine stuff, but the café is doing well, nicely kitted out, not the cheapest of prices, so I'm sure something else is going on there. The food and coffee is great though and I'm not going to get high and mighty about "fair share" bollocks in terms of tax etc (hey I'm a contractor, and taxman screweth anyway so...). Even paid my Polish kitchen fitters in cash (some years ago now) as they kept insisting, knowing they're benefiting in certain ways there, but then again they did a great job and could actually be bothered to do it unlike the British guys who were originally booked and were going to take twice as long.
Aside from that, virtually no where cash now. Even USA, Canada and France been paying mostly card and contactless (even finally North America has woken up, though contactless took off more than chip & pin. They still used plain signatures only a few years back and some places still do).
What is the hidden cost for my banking that I’m not seeing ?
The bank gives you a lousy interest rate, uses your cash etc. that is how you pay for the services you are getting them. Everything costs something, weather you pay for it directly or indirectly.
in pure cash, looks about 5k frittered away..
Between second hand bike parts, takeaways and my bad habits, about 5k.
Yesterday, Kingston market. The hog roast stand was cash only. Worth it too. Bloomin lovely.
I wasn't there.
I have recalled one local the Chinese restaurant went cash only about 2 years ago, not sure if it's a laundry too.
Err, all of it?
The bank gives you a lousy interest rate, uses your cash etc. that is how you pay for the services you are getting them. Everything costs something, weather you pay for it directly or indirectly.
That’s not a hidden cost.
I know the interest rate I will get on my account.
All the other services I use are free.
I understand that banks make money, but there aren’t any hidden costs and I pay no fees for the services I use.
About £5k
That’s not a hidden cost.
Fine - it's not hidden. But it's a cost nevertheless, as you could be richer if you were not keeping your money in the bank.
neal - the hidden cost is the lack of interest on your money.
But it’s a cost nevertheless, as you could be richer if you were not keeping your money in the bank.
No it is not a cost in any form. I use the services of the bank to manage my money (good online banking application, sending and receiving money - direct debits, one off payments) all for no charge.
Not sure how I could be richer by not using the bank as I would need to get paid in cash and then go around and pay all my current direct debits (17 of them) in cash personally and even if that were possible I would be spending hours each month of my time doing so (a true cost)
Not much at all. What cash I do use will either be parking, or the odd spend in the village shop. Don't really keep track but I'd guess I take 50 quid or so out of the ATM every 3 or 4 months.
Can’t have an overdraft if you only use cash.
Incorrect. My first account let me run up a £1000 overdraft, but wouldn’t give me a debit card (only a cash card to get money out of an ATM). I’m no longer with that bank...
Assume the £5k group get £100 a week out and use that? I transfer the same to a 'spending account' to help me manage by weekly expenditure, I just love how easy it all is to track via an app!
Not sure how I could be richer by not using the bank
Investing the money, obvs.
You can work the system with accounts to avoid a direct fee to you (i.e. avoid charges), but it's still a cost. In particular with zero interest. Banks dropped interest way back when rates were plummeting and despite increases that should be providing interest on current accounts they are providing no interest on free accounts. They therefore make more profit on your money than if they paid the interest due to you, which is a cost to you.
Free accounts are a problem to the banking industry. They weren't always free, but were introduced to drive competition, but it's costing them a lot and they'd rather get rid of them if they could.
Why free banking isn't free: