General Chat

Well , here is a very critical report on the continuing disappearance of ATMs in the UK.

https://www.finextra.com/blogposting/18527/designing-a-less-cash-not-cashless-future-for-the-uk

I think they are baying for the moon. Cashback does not have anwywhere near the capacity to replace ATMs. If ATMs continue to vanish at the current rate cash will not be an option by the end of the decade regardless of whether people want to use cash or not. That cannot be right.

However a govt that insists on connecting to a good chunk of the population via wifi on not-very-smart mobile phones for corvid teaching, UC and so on would probably not be fazed.

The amount of money that banks and business can save from reducing the cash in circulation is massive. The police hate it. So does the tax man 'cos of tax avoidance and money laundering.

Now even the mobile phone companies are closing their stores, the utilities have long gone as a physical prescence, banks are vanishing at a cli[p, anythng to do with the govt demands the internet and shovel fulls of time, trains rarely have station staff or even drivers (Paris line 1), perhaps the desire to hang on to physical cash is due in part to the disembodied state we live in, more and more like a real (?) live version of a work from Ray Bradbury or Philip K Dick.

Thank you Island, I think I know who it is.now ;-)
I don’t see that no real money would work and what about all that plastic?

My view as well, Sylvia.
I can't see me giving my grandchildren a card to buy sweets, either!

No ZZzzz perhaps most definitely NOT. Not you either if that's what you're thinking :-D

I believe in tipping a person who does something for me ............. a porter at the station, crew on the train, a door keep who holds the door open for me, in the tips jar at the coffee shop, the person who pushes my wheelchair at the airport or the train station, etc etc .................

that all needs cash and will do for much time to come.

I also don't have a smart phone so can't do contactless paying via that, nor are my credit cards contactless.

Pity, a lot of places will be losing my business, but that's not my concern, is it?

I won't need what they won't let me pay for.

Who is the WUM, you perhaps Island?

I honestly don't know why anyone responds to this bored WUM.

Stagecoach don't have a monopoly because they don't run the buses in Poole & Bournemouth?
If you're going to be picky, RTR, they have a majority of money making routes all over the UK, excluding Dorset. Is that better?
They don't bother with services that don't create money, and have owned, then sold off many routes for this reason.
Also, there are bus routes that have kept their original name, but are owned by Stagecoach.

RTR - you ask what narrative? Sorry, I should have said your statement of fact according to you..
If we all agree that, yes, of course, you're right, we're all wrong:
Money will be gone by 2021; Winchester is flat; those of us who pay money to use buses or shop are wrong - it's not allowed; your grandfather was a copper- you know all about police procedure; you allegedly live in London, and have multiple cars, but know the buses in Poole & Bournemouth; landlines will be gone within 2 years, and Windows 7 (which I'm still using) won't be here 2 years ago, can we get back to the subject?

I think the rules on masks are ambiguous, which can cause problems.

I’m a great believer in the theory that technology will eventually get past even those who are currently very tech savvy.

Have banks made it free for businesses to accept card payments? There used to be a lower level when it just wasn’t worth the cost to the business.

And thank you for reminding me that I am almost out of cash and need to get some more.

If you pay by card it doesn't have to be contactless and anyway that only goes up to £40, you can still put your pin in. And I have paid cash for a newspaper and OH has paid cash for a meal at a local bar restaurant recently. And you don't need to wear a mask in bars/pubs.

Stagecoach do not have a monopoly.
In Poole and Bournemouth they are run by Yellow Buses, indie after a buy out from RATP, and Morebus, a Stagecoach competitor.
What narrative?
Cash is on the way out just look at the stats. Younger people in particular hardly use it.
The shift away from cash is just one of many long term changes which a lot of people dislike but as ever that won't stop change happening with the detritus being sold off on ebay and Channel 5 or becoming a steam railway day out.
Those who allow themselves to get too far behind the curve rarely find it a comfortable experience.
I have a very old fashioned boat called a Crabber. I like it but don't really expect gaff rigs to prevail over Sun seeker and jet skis.

My debit card went contactless one year a couple of weeks before Christmas so I had to keep it.
I’ve used it that way about three times during the pandemic.
I don’t live in Hampshire and like Maggie I can pay the right amount in cash for a bus ride if I can’t use my bus pass. I keep an Oyster card for occasional trips to London - no problem with that.
I can also pay in cash in most of our shops. I haven’t yet gone to the pub, but if they expect me to order and pay via a smart phone - well, you can guess what they can do.
Any firm With half an idea would know their clientele and would work accordingly.

I think you'll find Stagecoach now has a monopoly on bus services all over the UK - even on Skye - that's not whaffle, I've seen them, so why you condsider Stagecoach 'dozy' in Winchester is beyond me - please tell me more as, since you told me once, that Winchester was flat - you obviously know more than us residents!

As for collecting for the guy - just because you don't do it, doesn't mean others don't, you know.
Oh! I forgot, You're a 'trendy' 70 year old, aren't you - as such, I suspect you didn't collect for the guy....but I'm sure you mentioned you did....

Ah well, whatever suits the narrative, eh?

RTR yet again it’s to feed the egos and bank accounts of the CEO types thinking only of themselves and not about us who have enough struggles to cope with.

Change does not happen in a day, one day all in the next all out. There are always leaders and the long wraggly tail.

Payment for bus fares in cash has been impossible in London and other cities for some time. Back in dozy Winchester , one time lair of the King Alfred bus service , such notions as not accepting fares in cash may take more time to catch on. Hants CC cut back its bus subsidies quite a bit ( zero ? ) but the various concerns which replaced Pants & Corset don't seem to have learned anything from it.

Handling cash is an expensive and labour intensive activity. Any firm with half an idea on the bottom line would removed the need to accept it. Given the strictures of covid there is not much choice anyway.

Apart from public health and cost issues it is not very difficult to see why the police and the taxman would welcome an end to payment by cash.
Oh, those Russians...

Penny for the guy ? How quaint.

I don’t know if our buses take cash as I’ve have a bus pass.

Well yes penny for the guy, children having credit or debit cards hasn’t been thought through has it :-D

Like you, ZZzzz, when found out, in January, that my card was 'contactless', I sent it back.

Strange how I can catch a bus - and pay by cash (exact amount), when the 'expert' has declared I can't. Or am I imagining it?
I've also found I'm still 'allowed' to put my PIN number in to pay a bill.

'Penny for the Guy' looks like it will become more and more difficult - and how children are meant to buy things in the future, well, who knows?

Cash is on the way out. It will probably still be in limited use over the next ten years beyond that it is difficult to say.

Right now cash accounts for 28% of transactions Debit and credit card are by far the most popular. Contactless has recived a major boost from the limit being increased to £45. Unauth use has been well below that expected such that a limit increase to £ 100 over the next year or so is probable.

What is sure right now is that covid has dramatically accelerated the trend towards assorted non contact payment systems both card and phone based.
Those without such facilities will find life increasingly difficult. Public transport, car parking, drink at the pub, meal out among things that cannot currently be paid for in cash. My hairdresser only accepts contactless.

At the same time access to ordinary banks and ATMs goes on shrinking.

Well that’s me not going to the pub then, I had the contactless bit removed from my card and my phone is very basic.

The primary duties of the police are
(1) to uphold the Queen's peace
(2) ensure the physical safety of the Queen's subjects
and second to that their property
(3) Uphold the laws.

There never have been and never will be enough police to fully carry out all of these duties and in any case they may conflict.

The police do not see themselves as a free service to shopkeepers ensuring laws relating to sale of goods (esp alcohol) , shoplifting, distancing and now face masks are complied with. They just do not have the resources to do so.

The government does not expect mask wearing to be complied with by dint of police action. Instead it expects peer pressure to do the job - it has worked pretty well so far.

I went to a popular pub last night and enjoyed a couple of beers outside. Nobody, customers or staff, wore a mask. Contact slips were handed out, nobody filled them out. Payment was by contactless phone only, no drinking at the bar.

Still alive this morning.