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Not paying with cash

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Re: Not paying with cash

#101

Post by moduspol »

jaza wrote: post #85
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…

Various studies have shown that, for the investment needed to "maximise your rewards" (ie time needed to research the different cards on the market / read the fine print of your chosen product / put through payments on a high rewards card; money on signup fees, recurring fees, transaction fees, etc), you'll achieve a much better ROI just investing the equivalent time and money into an index fund.

Perhaps, although there are multiple “2% on everything uncapped” that are pretty easy to get with no annual fee. Set up automatic payments and you’re golden.

Still wouldn’t recommend them for anyone who’s not particularly good with money, but 2% back for almost no effort is a pretty good trade-off. Keeping track of rotating quarterly bonuses? Yeah—-then it’s worth thinking about ROI of your time.

Re: Not paying with cash

#102

Post by cocogoatmain »

asciimike wrote: post #87
trenchpilgrim wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Hilariously, the physical cards can only be topped up at add fare machines (cash only) or ATMs (cash only). If you go down the "add a pasmo/suica on your phone" then you get into licensing issues with the other cabal (credit card issuers): you need to use an Amex to charge it via Apple Pay (IIRC Visa is now supported, but when I tried it last week my card was declined, so... YMMV).

Assuming you’re a tourist, are you sure it’s not your bank flagging the transaction? When visiting in April I too thought it was an issue with the card when trying to reload on apple wallet, but after two cards declined, found out the transaction was flagged haha

Same experience with reloading on the physical machines. It’s quite amusing

Re: Not paying with cash

#104

Post by WillDaSilva »

m463 wrote: post #38
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…

to me suica seemed limited (for a traveler). you could get one and charge it up with a credit card, but I don't think you could recharge it that way. You could also not get multiple ones. I believe there is a less limited suica card you can get (not a traveler), but I think you need a japanese address.

I was able to get a Pasmo card as an alternative to Suica, and it was rechargable with cash. I also did the same with an Icoca card. I didn't need a Japanese address in either case. I just bought the cards from machines at a couple of the larger metro stations. They could be reloaded with cash at any metro station.

Re: Not paying with cash

#105

Post by hedora »

superkuh wrote: post #3

I'll always remember the time when the tourist town of Ely, Minnesota, USA had it's single fiber internet cable cut. Pretty much all the groups there trying to rent canoes, equipment, hotels, etc with corporate cards weren't able to do it. We were lucky our group brought cash. A society depending entirely on corporations for currency function is incredibly fragile in addition to corporate payment services being rent…

At the very least, they probably should require all vendors to accept imprints (the old offline compatible paper-based credit card protocol).

It’d better if the government just mandated the eCash system in the back half of Applied Cryptography (which is similar to the Japanese system discussed elsewhere in this thread).

Re: Not paying with cash

#106

Post by level3 »

trenchpilgrim wrote: post #57
cosmotic wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You only need to buy it at the airport if you want a Welcome Suica. You can buy a regular Suica at any station with a multi-function machine.

The only real differences between the Welcome Suica and a regular one are the 500 yen deposit (Welcome Suica doesn't require a deposit) and the limited validity (Welcome Suica automatically expires after about a month).

Re: Not paying with cash

#107

Post by cindyllm »

al_borland wrote: post #98
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…

Remember that the credit card companies wouldn’t offer points if they weren’t profitable. People tend to spend more on a credit card than they do with cash, and it’s not enough to make up with points. I’m generally a pretty responsible credit user. I pay the whole bill each month and never paid a dime in interest. But I’d be lying if I said I never justified a slightly larger purchase that I would have otherwise made…

[dead]

Re: Not paying with cash

#108

Post by singpolyma3 »

Cash is honestly the worst. I've boycotted cash only places most of my life and have never carried cash as an adult. It was may e the best we could do in history but it serves no purpose now.

Re: Not paying with cash

#109

Post by al_borland »

dlcarrier wrote: post #70
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #13

The paragraph about the inconvenience of cash resonates with me. It’s a pain to manage and easy to lose or get stolen. At least if I drop my wallet full of cards, in a couple of calls any fraudulent transactions will be voided and the cards turned useless, but stolen cash is just gone. That’s not to discount its upsides but its downsides shouldn’t be handwaived away either.

I've never had physical cash get stolen, but multiple times I've had to get new credit card numbers, because mine was revealed in a data breach. Even if I had been robbed, the cash I have on hand is a fraction of a percent of either my credit limit or bank account balance. I'm only near a few dozen people per day at most, and the chances of one of them trying to rob me are near zero, and the most they could get is a…

Not only data breaches, but people skimming or copying the card. I went to a restaurant a while ago and some random employee decided to grab our bill to “help out”, not our waitress. I was splitting the bill with someone else and both our cards had fraudulent charges in the following days. I still find it crazy that we let waitstaff walk away with our cards in the US.

One of my cards is very thick and metal. I found that one had fraud on it at a much higher rate than any of the plastic cards I’ve had. It was heavy to the point that it would get comments from about 40% of the people I handed it to. I can only theorize, but my guess is that card signaled a higher value and was more likely to draw the attention of someone who may care to go on a spending spree.

While I can report the issues and get a refund and a new card, it was always a real hassle. Since I stopped carrying that card and use it exclusively online, I don’t think I’ve had a single incident in several years. I used to have it happen about once per quarter.

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