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Not paying with cash

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Re: Not paying with cash

#121

Post by CapricornNoble »

Shank wrote: post #34
mappu wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of the motivations are AML. Suica has a low maximum balance, that probably restricts the nefarious use cases.

I would personally argue that 20,000 yen is not a low maximum balance for day-to-day purchases like food, because you can recharge so easily. Before Suica (and a bit concurrently), JNR and later JR issued "orange cards" that included both high value formats and lower value formats. The "high value" cards were 5,000 yen and 10,000 yen respectively, so the new maximum is 2x the previous "high value" orange cards that t…

>Carrying 20,000 yen in cash is easy when it's 2x 10,000 notes, but when it's a mix including coins, it's a pain.

Carry a coinpurse. I use an old faux-suede Samsung camera pouch.[1] Plus it's fun when someone is running an errand for you, like getting you a snack from the konbini across the street, and you plop your coinpurse on the desk with a thud, then pour out a handful of 500-yen coins and say "this should cover it", like a feudal lord.

[1] kinda like this: https://www.amazon.ie/DFVmobile-Samsung-Galaxy-Camera-Closur...

Re: Not paying with cash

#122

Post by kxrm »

zippergz wrote: post #64
dlcarrier wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Curious what part of the world this is in. I can recall a grand total of three places I've seen in my area do this. It's a tiny minority here.

In the DC area we are seeing more places offer cash discounts. At restaurants it is listed on the menu. With local (not national) retailers you have to ask. However I do save a bit by avoiding cards at the right places. Sometimes as much as 6%.

Re: Not paying with cash

#123

Post by dartharva »

I started abandoning cash around a decade ago, and have steadily moved to mobile-only payments for the past five years (India has ubiquitous instant bank-to-bank transfers through mobile payment platforms).

Not having to carry your wallet around and make trips to ATMs is rather convenient, but in aggregate, I'll still NOT recommend this. I realize I have ended up spending several times I would have had I stuck to cash. There seems to be a psychological aspect that makes you keep track subconsciously of how much you are spending when you have to physically draw cash. With mobile payments? It's just scan a code and forget about it. I am planning to stop by the end of this year.

Re: Not paying with cash

#125

Post by lmz »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #96
marssaxman wrote: post #16

I got irritated with the profusion of "no cash accepted" signs a few years back and started making a point of always carrying cash, to use whenever practical. I don't take it to an extreme, but I also don't want to live in a world where every transaction is trackable and all commerce is regulated by Visa, Mastercard, Apple, or Google.

I have similar concerns, but I think it's the payment conglomerates you have to worry about. Visa knows how much you spent, Fiserv knows what you bought.

Sometimes Visa also knows what you buy: https://www.marqeta.com/blog/data-details-what-is-level-1-2-...

Re: Not paying with cash

#126

Post by TheAlchemist »

gghffguhvc wrote: post #114
TheAlchemist wrote: post #112

One additional feature for paying in cash, is from the business side - a lot of small businesses declare only a part of what's paid in cash, and the rest is kept 'tax free'. While it breaks the law, I kind of feel sympathetic to it, given how much the law tends to advantage big companies.

Paying tax isn’t a big company vs small company thing. A single company not paying tax isn’t that bad directly but it can be infectious. “They don’t pay neither should I” attitude is a problem.

I know, but then you look at effective tax paid by big companies and it makes you wonder.

Re: Not paying with cash

#127

Post by JustExAWS »

jppope wrote: post #81

I prefer cash, not for the reasons mentioned. First, cash makes me really think about what I'm buying. It doesn't poke you the same way when you tap a card... which is obviously one of the main reasons they want you do use cards. When I use cash, I am reminded of when I didn't have a lot, which keeps me from spending without thought. Next, its a hallmark of the middle class to spend money that you don't have. Myself…

You realize that debit cards exists right?

Splitting a tab is a simple matter of asking for separate checks and at the bar, separate tabs.

Re: Not paying with cash

#128

Post by Brian_K_White »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #19
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…

That’s thanks to Android phone manufacturers, which don’t want to pay for a global license for the NFC tech involved. Apple on the other hand does pay for a global license and so iPhones and Apple Watches from anywhere work perfectly with Japanese cash card terminals. I use a digital Suica on my US iPhone during my visits. Supposedly Pixels have the requisite hardware, but Google software locks the functionality to J…

Why the F should an interoperability fundamental like NFC require any such thing as a license in the first place??? It's utterly absurd to have ever allowed such a condition, despite it being a fact that everyone has been just living with for decades. If there is a problem, it is very definitely not thanks to anyone failing to pay a license.

Re: Not paying with cash

#129

Post by ekianjo »

marssaxman wrote: post #16

I got irritated with the profusion of "no cash accepted" signs a few years back and started making a point of always carrying cash, to use whenever practical. I don't take it to an extreme, but I also don't want to live in a world where every transaction is trackable and all commerce is regulated by Visa, Mastercard, Apple, or Google.

> profusion of "no cash accepted" signs

How this is even legal baffles me

Re: Not paying with cash

#130

Post by paulgerhardt »

> Cash is also—I regret to say—disgusting.

Not true!

For a while I was manufacturing cash and did some research on the hygiene component.

Surprisingly, I learned tap to pay was the most hygienic iff one didn’t use a common terminal for tips or signing.

Coins were the second most hygienic with a germ score of 168RLU . Cash third. Credit fourth, and dead last was shared payment terminals one physically touched (this includes tap to pay if one “answers a couple of questions.”) A separate study found smart watches were dirtier than terminals.

[1] https://www.electronicpaymentsinternational.com/news/what-is...

[2] https://www.self.inc/info/dirty-money/

[3] https://www.nmi.com/blog/how-contactless-payments-impact-glo...

And amusingly [4] https://nocash.ro/oxford-university-european-bank-notes-on-a...

Reports in this space are full of confirmation bias so take the RLU scores with a grain of salt. Likewise some cultures have cleaner methods of dealing with cash than others.

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