81–90 of 162 posts
UK. I haven't used or carried cash here for about 3 years. Other than a really inconvenient time someone gave me some for one of my kids and I had to pay it in.
Since nobody's chimed in here from Germany yet: Germany's broadly a hold-out. Particularly a lot of restaurants, bars and clubs are still cash-only, and some smaller shops definitely prefer cash. Used cars are, interestingly, almost always cash-only. Person to person transactions (i.e. buying something you pick up in person) are almost always cash. Open air markets (produce, flea markets) are always cash. Electronic…
To add, Germany is an outlier when it comes to cashless payment adoption, even (and especially when) compared to its neighbours. Overall, our experience is that it is impossible to be out and about cashless in Germany as there is no telling which bar / beergarten / restaurant / shop only accepts cash.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For me, the answer is no, I don't care about this at all.
Would you also not care if that dataset gets leaked to the internet some day?
The thing that is the most glaring difference between the western countries and the east Asian ones is that in the US and Europe, there is an ultimate goal of try to force people to use e-payment systems to get some kind of regulatory benefit. Therefore people also constantly push back for fear of excess control, and the government tries to mandate it to force only digital payment.
The approach in the Asian countries seems to be the exact opposite. From mpay in Macau, to Suica/Pasmo/PayPay, 街口支付/easycard in Taiwan ....
Most of them had their origin in transit card system(China is different). But they then had a proliferation of QR code payment systems that competed with each other for dominance.
The difference between the east Asian approach and the western one is that the east Asian one never needed to try to ban cash to push for e-payment. It offers so much convenience and other benefits that people don't really think about it in those terms. Want to pay your parking bill? The license plate scanner is connected to the machine at the front. Is privacy compromised? For some parking lots yes, for others no, but the speed of processing is so much better than anything I've seen in Europe.
Nobody is talking about banning cash here or in those other societies, but many people will not use cash, because its too much of a hassle.
EDIT: I guess I don't know enough about the smaller EU states since someone below just mentioned MobilePay.dk
But regardless, there is a level of competition in those Asian e-payment systems that does not seem to exist in "the West"
The US Army Corps of Engineers no longer accepts cash for campsites they manage. The US Government no longer accepts its own currency. That's where we are in the USA at least.
Not accepting cash should be illegal everywhere across the world. What if your battery dies?
Czech Republic. Usually my girlfriend has ~$5 on her for stuff like lemonade stands or public bathrooms, and I'm the irresponsible one who hasn't carried cash since 2018. Some pubs, very small stores or small tourist attractions (climb a tower, see the inside of a church, etc) are still cash-only, especially in the rural parts of the country, but visiting or living in Prague (the capital) cashless is easy with zero i…
some merchants use the excuse that their POS is currently “not working”, or there are “connectivity” issues. with recent laws coming into effect every merchant has to accept cards, or be fined (ridiculous percentage..)
i always got some cash on me in case I stumble upon those ingenious and cunning merchants, but it’s getting less common that I actually don’t really need it