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Not paying with cash

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Re: Not paying with cash

#51

Post by throwaway22032 »

theamk wrote: post #30
throwaway22032 wrote: post #18

Budgeting with the data trail of a card is significantly easier if you have a lot of transactions. It's also generally cheaper due to cashback and other incentives. Other than that I've always found the idea that cash is "inconvenient" a bit of a child-like argument. Okay, yeah, you have to count some coins, you also have to brush your teeth and use a knife and fork instead of your hands, come on.

We improve our life with technology all the time. Electric lights, refrigerator, AC, washing machine, dishwasher, electric toothbrush... Nothing "child-like" in trying to make your life better, even in small ways.

Sure.

I suppose my argument is along the following lines - books are too cumbersome so let's scroll Instagram instead.

It's a fake argument, it's not that big a deal, you just didn't care enough about reading books.

Re: Not paying with cash

#52

Post by lisbbb »

spankalee wrote: post #31

The article and none of the comments mention rewards yet, which are the biggest reason to use cards! Credit card processors charge large fees on transactions, which is a huge tax on just about... everything. You can make a lot of that tax back via rewards. And not every card user has a good rewards-paying card - it's usually the more rich that do - so rewards function as a wealth transfer from the less rich to the mo…

Most rewards systems have brutally diluted their points, same as airline "miles."

Re: Not paying with cash

#53

Post by Larrikin »

mapt wrote: post #21
Shank wrote: post #4

One thing I really love that Japan got right was the creation of e-money systems that are anonymous (you can get a Suica for 20,000 yen without any registration information), work offline (you don't need network at-payment, nor does the terminal), and are easily accessible (you can get them at any train station, you can charge them at any ATM or convenience store with cash). In contrast, a debit/credit card usually r…

Those prepaid visa cards don't actually exist, I think they were killed by AML/KYC. Instead, they appear to be "prepaid visa gift cards" accepted at less than a hundred large chains.

This is wrong.

The visa gift cards work pretty much everywhere, unless they are specifically disabled by the establishment. They do show as a gift card but all the POS systems are perfectly capable of splitting the payment now. I've only seen them disabled at small restaurants that have dealt with scam charge backs and sites like Raise that deal in gift cards and gift card scams as part of their business.

Usually they simply aren't worth it because of the activation fee. It's always more than the highest paying credit card cash back. However sometimes stores, run sales where they waive the activation fee, but there's always a limit.

Re: Not paying with cash

#55

Post by trenchpilgrim »

lisbbb wrote: post #50
Shank wrote: post #4

One thing I really love that Japan got right was the creation of e-money systems that are anonymous (you can get a Suica for 20,000 yen without any registration information), work offline (you don't need network at-payment, nor does the terminal), and are easily accessible (you can get them at any train station, you can charge them at any ATM or convenience store with cash). In contrast, a debit/credit card usually r…

But Japanese people largely still use cash, don't they?

This isn't as true as it used to be. Mobile pay and IC-type cards have risen in popularity, and if you have a credit card, it's accepted in many places.

Re: Not paying with cash

#56

Post by etbebl »

How milquetoast... "Young people want to pay with cash more, and there might be interesting reasons for that, but ehh cards are convenient and cash is gross so still no cash for me!" What's the point of this?

Re: Not paying with cash

#57

Post by trenchpilgrim »

cosmotic wrote: post #9
Shank wrote: post #4

One thing I really love that Japan got right was the creation of e-money systems that are anonymous (you can get a Suica for 20,000 yen without any registration information), work offline (you don't need network at-payment, nor does the terminal), and are easily accessible (you can get them at any train station, you can charge them at any ATM or convenience store with cash). In contrast, a debit/credit card usually r…

Meanwhile, there's no apparent way to pay for a train using an American android phone (or at least I couldn't figure it out last year). One of the two apps refused to install on non-japanese phones, the other installed but refused to run. Had to pay with cash and it was a huge pain. Half the time I inexplicably had to do a fare adjustment, a hugely embarrassing moment blocking the turnstile, especially considering th…

The trick is to get a Suica card, which as an foreigner you need to do at the airport train station before you leave to the rest of Japan.

https://www.jreast.co.jp/en/multi/welcomesuica/purchase.html

Re: Not paying with cash

#58

Post by dlcarrier »

lisbbb wrote: post #48

The main problem I have with cash is that we don't have denominations large enough to buy much these days thanks to inflation. The $100 is the new $20, but ATMs won't serve $100s. I buy gas for my car, it's at least $35 right there. Groceries run $80-$120 every trip now. I don't know if revaluation is possible, but we need it. I'm not worried about dirty cash as compared to every purchase being tracked and all the fe…

My banks ATM defaults to $100 bills, and it takes a bunch of taps to get only $20 bills.

Re: Not paying with cash

#59

Post by lofties »

lisbbb wrote: post #50
Shank wrote: post #4

One thing I really love that Japan got right was the creation of e-money systems that are anonymous (you can get a Suica for 20,000 yen without any registration information), work offline (you don't need network at-payment, nor does the terminal), and are easily accessible (you can get them at any train station, you can charge them at any ATM or convenience store with cash). In contrast, a debit/credit card usually r…

But Japanese people largely still use cash, don't they?

This is no longer true. With the advance of "cashless" systems that were heavily pushed and promoted by the government, cash payments have dropped significantly![0] Cashless payments now sit near 50%, up from 16% 10 years ago.

[0]https://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2025/0331_001.html

Re: Not paying with cash

#60

Post by dlcarrier »

spankalee wrote: post #31

The article and none of the comments mention rewards yet, which are the biggest reason to use cards! Credit card processors charge large fees on transactions, which is a huge tax on just about... everything. You can make a lot of that tax back via rewards. And not every card user has a good rewards-paying card - it's usually the more rich that do - so rewards function as a wealth transfer from the less rich to the mo…

Most of the places I buy from charge an extra 3% for credit card transactions, so rewards cards are just giving your money back, but worse.
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