QOTW: Are we ready for cash-less high streets?

[HEXUS]

With Denmark considering cash-free shops, could the UK follow suit?

Read more.

[Smikis]

I been looking strange at people with cash for last decade.. seriously who uses cash any more.

[cheesemp]

Got to be honest I never carry cash so I'm all for making cashless living more easy however it seems unfair to force this on people. Couldn't they keep using a carrot rather than a stick?

[Brewster0101]

Kids don't have cards.... So no more popping to the shop for sweets or comics.

There's a place for cash - under my mattress :-)

[deejayburnout]

cards all they way. Any coins i have my son steals them.

[RT-XD]

I'm all for it!
But I hear a lot of people who say they are less inclined to spend a lot if they use cash instead of card. Maybe it's a student thing...

[stevie lee]

hey, I still use cash. have my reasons for doing it, main one being I haven't changed my bank account to a card based one yet. that's besides the point though.

as to the question of a cash-less high street, well Southport is turning into a shop-less high street so if the UK does go that route it will be very easy to implement around here.

[hellig]

But who is paying the bill for all the digital transactions taking place ? for anything below a tenner 100 dkr ? The baker i used to frequent in Denmark, did not take any cards since most of the shopping is below a fiver and it would cost 5 pence 50 øre pr transaction for the shop. And a small afterthought, the big country south of Denmark Germany they hardly uses any card transaction on the high street, last i was there, back in 2000, i and some friends drove through Germany to go to france and stopping at a mcdonalds there, we couldn't pay since all we had was card, and they didnt take cards

[GuidoLS]

At this point and time in history, this would NOT work in the US. Denmark, as a nation, has a smaller total population than multiple large cities here, and what works well there (or multiple other European nations, EU or not) won't work here, simply based on scale. I'm not certain if this is a good thing or not.

As for me, I'm cash and carry on smaller (<$250) purchases, and bank card on larger items, with paper checks used for payment of utilities, in person.

[aniilv]

HAHA yeah right, with UK shops mostly not accepting cards for low transactions and sometimes not accepting higher expense cards like american express...

uk wont be coinless for at least a decade and more if nothing changes

[outwar6010]

We're nowhere near ready. Having a physical currency to spend, gives you a strong sense of how much you're spending, while spending digitally takes that sense away and can lead to people spending a lot more then they would have imho.

[TooNice]

Wouldn't work in cash centric Japan for a long, long time. Whereas back in the UK, I rarely withdraw more than a tenner or twenty quid at a time as I know it would last me ages since I pay most transactions by card, here in Japan, it isn't uncommon for me to withdraw a hundred quid just so that I don't have to make another withdrawal soon. It is hard enough in Tokyo (unless you stick to high end establishment), but head to to smaller towns and it is definitely cash only. It does help I suppose that crime rate is low over here, so you don't have to worry as much.

[iranu]

I been looking strange at people with cash for last decade.. seriously who uses cash any more.

I do and I pay for everything with cash. A cashless society is a controlled society.

[shaithis]

Once NFC/eCash payments take off for smaller purchases, I can really see this flying.

[Jowsey]

Regarding people mentioning the costs. If the nation were to get rid of coins and notes then the Government would lean a lot hard on banks to reduce these and I would not be surprised if the savings from no longer printing money (which is surprisingly expensive quick Google shows that for the USA it's about 10 cents per bill, or 5 cents for $1 and $2 bills) are used to form some kind of tapered subsidiary.

Rural areas will always pose an issue, some form of caching (your cash...*snigger*) and 'calling home' feature will be required I'd imagine.

Works for me though. Coins and paper to represent money seems oddly archaic IMHO. But something is only worth what people think it is.

Good on Denmark for being progressive in these matters though.

[=assassin=]

I very rarely carry a card around with me, and like not having to. When I go to work, all I have is my bus pass and about a fiver in change for emergency. I'd hate having to take a card in, as the area where we store our belongings isn't completely safe IMO. Also, how would stuff like this work for staff collections for birthdays etc? IMHO I think it completely limits freedom, and like others have said, no more kids being able to buy a comic or sweets. What happens to some poor homeless person maybe busking hoping to get a bit of money for the day? They wouldn't be able to get a card, and people certainly wouldn't start taking them to a cash machine! Having cash means more control and discipline over what you spend, and I notice in my personal experience that alot of people who pay with a card only often are the same people who have no discipline regarding money too, and are often in debt. It's an out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing, whereas with cash you can physically see the money go down in your wallet/purse, and it makes you think before you buy.