I've been using mostly cash for the last few weeks as I have to keep my credit card spending to the minimum, mostly as I always pay it off in full and I really don't want to have to dip into savings any more than I have to, to pay it while I have such a small trickle of cash coming in each month.
Doing this has really got me thinking about what a cashless society we are becoming, and in my opinion it's not a good thing at all. Look at the meme above and see what we would lose without cash in our pockets.
I was also thinking about how much the bank is actually making from the shop keepers for our credit and debit card purchases. The highest charge that they have to pay for the convenience of taking money from their customers via card is 3.4%, and the average for credit and debit cards works out just under 2%, it is slightly cheaper for debit cards.
That means if you take £50 as an example, if it were to be spent in cash over and over again changing hands from you, to the shopkeeper, them paying for their lunch or more stock etc. it would remain at £50, but if you were to spend it in the same way over and over again on a card, it would eventually disappear altogether into the pockets of the banks.
Food for thought ... and I have to say I do like using cash.
Sue xx
Cash is the only way to manage a tight budget rigourously, I found. If it wasn't in the purse, it wasn't there to spend. People who have never experienced living hand to mouth really shouldn't be dictating rules about how to manage money to people who don't have enough. 40 years ago I was questioned by the buiding society why we had no savings. That was because I had worked out we could, for an uncomfortable level of deprivation and NO treats, manage to save 50p per week... £20 per year which seemed pointless. Once I completed my degree and we had two incomes, everything changed.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. But don't forget businesses are also charged for banking cash. It bugs me when banks won't take cash to pay into children's bank accounts.
ReplyDeleteBanks in the UK have been charging businesses when they pay in cash for almost forty years. This is shocking,
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