QOTW: Do you use contactless payments?

[Spud1]

Yep I use it almost daily, and when I don't, I tend to be using my card/watch etc anyway.

The sooner we can get rid of cash the better - cash is less secure than card imo (much easier to lose/forget/have stolen/change scammed/etc) and its an inconvenience to carry around. Much easier to budget when using your card to spend (particularly if you have an app based or modern bank) and you know exactly how much you are spending & have left in the bank, in near enough real time. Cash is also a major inconvencience for retailers in the same way - it's generally cheaper to pay a card fee to your acquirer than it is to bank cash, and holding large amounts of cash leaves them vulnerable to robbery.

Of course its perfectly possible to budget/manage your money without using cards, but it's certainly more effort.

I definitely look forward to the day when we all use electronic currency around the world, even if i'll likely not live to see cash die completely in the world, I am pretty sure i'll get to see it become the least common form of payment in the devleoped world

[spacein_vader]

Out of interest, is there a reasoning behind that, or it it just out of preference/don't see the point? I've known a few people to criticise me using it on the basis of 'security', but it's a flawed logic.

2 reasons really:

1. Privacy. It's virtually impossible to get by without a bank account these days, so given I already have one and they already know what I spend most of my money on (clue: buying and running a house,) I see no reason to also share it with Google/Apple/Paypal/A N Other.
2. It's redundant. I have a debit card (and rarely used credit card,) that support contactless already, why do I need another means of doing something I can already do?

Yep I use it almost daily, and when I don't, I tend to be using my card/watch etc anyway.

The sooner we can get rid of cash the better - cash is less secure than card imo (much easier to lose/forget/have stolen/change scammed/etc) and its an inconvenience to carry around. Much easier to budget when using your card to spend (particularly if you have an app based or modern bank) and you know exactly how much you are spending & have left in the bank, in near enough real time. Cash is also a major inconvencience for retailers in the same way - it's generally cheaper to pay a card fee to your acquirer than it is to bank cash, and holding large amounts of cash leaves them vulnerable to robbery.

Of course its perfectly possible to budget/manage your money without using cards, but it's certainly more effort.

I definitely look forward to the day when we all use electronic currency around the world, even if i'll likely not live to see cash die completely in the world, I am pretty sure i'll get to see it become the least common form of payment in the devleoped world

1. When I was very hard up some years ago I found the best way of budgeting was to leave enough in my account after payday to cover the DD bills and withdraw everything else. That way I could see exactly how much I had left. It got me through a 4 very lean months.

2. It's unlikely to be the least common form of payment, as a reminder: Cheques still exist. For some reason. Despite being even less secure and even more hassle than cash for the retailer and bank.

[AGTDenton]

Yes I use contactless where possible.
I still won't put anything like that on my phone though.

Rumours in the grapevine are that once next-gen card machines are rolled out, contactless will rise to £100

[Hoonigan]

I still won't put anything like that on my phone though.

Why not?

[=assassin=]

When shopping I tend to mainly use cash, and very rarely have I used a Credit or Debit card, and even rarer have I used contactless. I've literally used contactless only two times so far, both times this year.

[Saracen999]

Yep I use it almost daily, and when I don't, I tend to be using my card/watch etc anyway.

The sooner we can get rid of cash the better - cash is less secure than card imo (much easier to lose/forget/have stolen/change scammed/etc) and its an inconvenience to carry around. Much easier to budget when using your card to spend (particularly if you have an app based or modern bank) and you know exactly how much you are spending & have left in the bank, in near enough real time. Cash is also a major inconvencience for retailers in the same way - it's generally cheaper to pay a card fee to your acquirer than it is to bank cash, and holding large amounts of cash leaves them vulnerable to robbery.

Of course its perfectly possible to budget/manage your money without using cards, but it's certainly more effort.

I definitely look forward to the day when we all use electronic currency around the world, even if i'll likely not live to see cash die completely in the world, I am pretty sure i'll get to see it become the least common form of payment in the devleoped world

Unsurprisingly, I completely disagree with most of that.

I don't see how carrying a contactless card is more convenient than carrying cash, unless talking about large quantities (which the cintactless won't do anyway). After all, I carry a wallet with both cash and cards .... and "cards" isn't just payment cards but membership cards, etc.

As for getting lost, stolen, etc, I've yet to lose a wallet, yet to have any stolen, yet to have my cash scammed, etc. But I have had (unsuccessful) attempts to scam my bank account by setting up fake cards. Which is one reason why I keep a modest balance in any account that has cards attached, and have written guarantees from banks that neither new cards nor internet access will be established on main accounts with pre-specified measures bejng met, including me, in person and with defined ID like passport) asking for it at a pre-designated branch.

Budgeting is easy with cash, too. I know how much regular payments will be, and I know how much cash I have for a week/month, etc. I can see instantly how I'm doing against budget by niw having that money left. I can also determine how much risk I take with cash by not carrying more than I need, and what I carry is the limit of the risk.

It's really a case of convenience versus risk. Both methods have conveniences, and both have risks. Use what suits you. For me, it's cash.

What is clear is that cash leaves a much smaller digital footprint.

[raygdunn]

Contactless with it's £30 limit is fine, but I don't trust access to larger amounts on a mobile. I found it very scary installing a bank app. on my mobile (a claimed new facility to scan in cheques, which wasn't actually active). Fake apps do get into the system and one might be handing over vital login details! Being forced to reinstall it for verification now

Low value cash has become a real problem with only £10 and £20s from cash machines and my bank has closed it's local branch.

I have to admit that I avoided using contactless, then handed my card over at the local garden centre, for their small held machine The assistant says "You don't need to use the pin with this card"... wave.. and it was active. I've decided it's well worth the convenience since.

[simonpreston]

The sooner we can get rid of cash the better - cash is less secure than card imo (much easier to lose/forget/have stolen/change scammed/etc) and its an inconvenience to carry around.

You won't be saying that when the banks have negative interest rates and you can't get your money out.

[OOSeven]

Yes, I use my phone all the time, and then they make you put your card in every now and again when you hit a limit which is totally annoying as I don't take my card with me as a rule. Kinda the point of my phone. So I got stranded unable to buy a train ticket home with my phone thanks to the limit put on contactless payments by my bank and they refused to do anything until I used my card in a chip and pin reader to reset the limit.

[Rad77]

I use contactless with a CC almost exclusively, despite always having my phone with me and enabled for Google pay, just habit I think. I have a backup tenner stuffed in my card wallet but cannot actually recall the last occasion I used cash or visited an ATM.

[Mapester]

I use contactless almost everywhere that I am spennding £30 or less, however the side effect of this is when I am asked to enter my pin number it is becoming harder and harder to actually remember what my pin number is as I have a few cards each with a different pin number and rarely enter them these days.

[watercooled]

The sooner we can get rid of cash the better

Choosing to use something else because it seems the most practical for yourself is one thing, but downplaying the benefits for others is a bit short-sighted. There are countless reasons people may prefer to use cash, or at least have it as an option, e.g. for convenience paying friends/small businesses, privacy, being able to use it without electricity, a computer or an Internet connection, being able to use it when your card decides to stop working and you're miles from home, and I'm sure others could add a ton more to that short list of examples. Both have their risks and benefits, so what's wrong with having both available?

2 reasons really:

1. Privacy. It's virtually impossible to get by without a bank account these days, so given I already have one and they already know what I spend most of my money on (clue: buying and running a house,) I see no reason to also share it with Google/Apple/Paypal/A N Other.
2. It's redundant. I have a debit card (and rarely used credit card,) that support contactless already, why do I need another means of doing something I can already do?.

Fair enough, valid points IMO. Although in response to the second, I'll sometimes go out without my wallet and using mobile payment can be convenient.

[spacein_vader]

Fair enough, valid points IMO. Although in response to the second, I'll sometimes go out without my wallet and using mobile payment can be convenient.

Not sure if it's my age or force of habit but I never go anywhere without my wallet, I do occasionally leave/forget to take my phone though.

[Saracen999]

Not sure if it's my age or force of habit but I never go anywhere without my wallet, I do occasionally leave/forget to take my phone though.

Likewise. And I can vary what's in my wallet (cash, cards, etc) according to what I'm doing, and unlike so many phones, the wallet itself has no real intrinsic value and minimal replacement cost if lost or stolen.

I even have a dirt-cheap spare that I stick stick minimal content in if I don't need the full, normal wallet.

[TooNice]

I do not have a wallet, but I do have a card holder. I do keep cash in my pocket (amount depending on the country I am in, as some countries are more cash reliant than others).

Personally, I feel safer with chip and pin rather than full contactless and I am not too fond of carrying lots of cash.

I seldom use my phone as payment (2019 is the year when I finally installed a few payment related apps.. but generally speaking I am quite worried about malware etc.).

And though my debit card in Japan doesn't have contactless, the Oyster equivalent in Japan could be used to buy things long before contactless became common in the UK (could be wrong but I think the limit is also higher than £30).

At the moment I am cash only, in a country where the largest denomination is about £10-15 and setting up a bank account is a bit of a hassle paper work wise. Having to count thousands of bills at the end of the business day is not exactly something I am fond of (some of the bills literally look like it's been used to wipe someone's bottom.. someone with haemorrhoid at that. Like how can paper bill get so foul and are those really blood stains??! ).

[DevDrake]

Yes, a lot