4 ms·

I live in Stockholm and haven't used cash for several years. I have no cash on me ever, no coins, nothing. It's liberating. I get very annoyed when travelling a

by stenl 10y ago

I live in Stockholm and haven't used cash for several years. I have no cash on me ever, no coins, nothing. It's liberating. I get very annoyed when travelling and I rediscover the cash-based society and the need to always predict how much cash to carry.

Numberwang 10y ago
Agreed, I moved from Stockholm to London a few years ago and in this regard in particular it felt like stepping back in time. I now end up putting all the smaller coins in the bin just to get rid of them.
sebcat 10y ago
I stood in line at a grocery store recently where the POS terminal failed and they started letting through people who could pay in cash. When they announced that, a hipster-looking guy in front of me commented "who uses cash in 2016?" or similar, to which my silent answer was to pass him and pay for my groceries w/ cash. Doesn't happen very often though.
driverdan 10y ago
I find the opposite is true, that cash is liberating. 1. I always know how much cash in in my pocket. I typically carry $30-50 which is plenty for everyday transactions. 2. It's easy to budget with cash. You can never spend more than what you have. 3. I don't have to worry about paying off card balances. 4. The chances of getting a credit / debit card stolen are a lot higher than having my cash stolen, eliminating the hassle of replacing cards. 5. I support my community by eliminating the overhead of accepting cards. 6. I can easily pay individuals instantly without having to worry about what service to use or delays in transferring from my bank to theirs. 7. I maintain my privacy. I'm not even considering the downsides of using a phone for payments (lost / stolen / broken / dead battery / borked update / bad UIs). All that said I use a mix of cash and cards. Cards do have a lot of consumer advantages (cash back, disputing transactions, etc). Don't pretend that they're far superior to cash though. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. The loss of privacy is a HUGE problem with electronic payments.
- stenl 10y ago
  I agree on the loss of privacy, a big drawback of (current) cards. As for your other points: Swedes use nearly exclusively debit cards directly linked to an account (so no bills to pay, no interest, no risk of spending more than you have). We all have apps to monitor our account balance. For P2P payments we use Swish, an app linked to your bank account and your phone number. It lets you pay instantly to anyone with a phone number and it's "free" but of course locks you in to your bank. The UI is decent. As for "supporting your community by eliminating overhead" I think the overhead is higher for cash, and many businesses seem to prefer cards (many now, like banks, are cash-free). Also, eliminating cash has the advantage of making it harder for businesses to avoid paying taxes. I also agree that paying with your phone sounds worse than using a card (which takes seconds and never runs out of batteries), but maybe you get your privacy back?

by stenl 10y ago

Numberwang 10y ago

Agreed, I moved from Stockholm to London a few years ago and in this regard in particular it felt like stepping back in time. I now end up putting all the smaller coins in the bin just to get rid of them.

sebcat 10y ago

I stood in line at a grocery store recently where the POS terminal failed and they started letting through people who could pay in cash. When they announced that, a hipster-looking guy in front of me commented "who uses cash in 2016?" or similar, to which my silent answer was to pass him and pay for my groceries w/ cash. Doesn't happen very often though.

driverdan 10y ago

I find the opposite is true, that cash is liberating. 1. I always know how much cash in in my pocket. I typically carry $30-50 which is plenty for everyday transactions. 2. It's easy to budget with cash. You can never spend more than what you have. 3. I don't have to worry about paying off card balances. 4. The chances of getting a credit / debit card stolen are a lot higher than having my cash stolen, eliminating the hassle of replacing cards. 5. I support my community by eliminating the overhead of accepting cards. 6. I can easily pay individuals instantly without having to worry about what service to use or delays in transferring from my bank to theirs. 7. I maintain my privacy. I'm not even considering the downsides of using a phone for payments (lost / stolen / broken / dead battery / borked update / bad UIs). All that said I use a mix of cash and cards. Cards do have a lot of consumer advantages (cash back, disputing transactions, etc). Don't pretend that they're far superior to cash though. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. The loss of privacy is a HUGE problem with electronic payments.

stenl 10y ago
I agree on the loss of privacy, a big drawback of (current) cards. As for your other points: Swedes use nearly exclusively debit cards directly linked to an account (so no bills to pay, no interest, no risk of spending more than you have). We all have apps to monitor our account balance. For P2P payments we use Swish, an app linked to your bank account and your phone number. It lets you pay instantly to anyone with a phone number and it's "free" but of course locks you in to your bank. The UI is decent. As for "supporting your community by eliminating overhead" I think the overhead is higher for cash, and many businesses seem to prefer cards (many now, like banks, are cash-free). Also, eliminating cash has the advantage of making it harder for businesses to avoid paying taxes. I also agree that paying with your phone sounds worse than using a card (which takes seconds and never runs out of batteries), but maybe you get your privacy back?