7 ms·

Is physical currency still common in the US? I haven’t used physical currency in probably 5-6 years, outside the 10 SEK the tooth fairy leaves.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Come to Austria. The entire country revolves around cash. I rarely see someone pay with card at the supermarket and it's most likely a foreigner. Small shops and cafes don't even take cards, only cash and the rare time they do it's only for larger sums. Also tips are common almost everywhere.
- fmakunbound 4y ago
  What's the reasons for that?
  - jbverschoor 4y ago
    Same reason people DuckDuckGo. They have a stronger connection to the history of snooping on civilians
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    Easier tax fraud mostly to keep your illicitly gained money away from the taxman. Plus conservative population that is skeptical about new tech and strongly keeps outdated ways of working and doing business (visible in any company there). Letters are common as well and digitalization is pretty weak. Like what's the last tech product you remember that came out of Austria?
- givemeethekeys 4y ago
  I've heard similar about Germany (someone from Germany, please chime in). There's a lovely under-appreciated privacy about using cash.
  - sva_ 4y ago
    Cash is still king in Germany, but use of "contactless" payment methods have drastically increased in the pandemic. Small shops often prefer or only take cash, or accept card payment only from a certain amount due to fees of the processors. I heard small businesses prefer cash for tax reasons as well.
    - benmanns 4y ago
      Tax reasons means evading taxes by not reporting cash transactions.
      - sva_ 4y ago
        Captain obvious saves the day.
      - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
        And why should we enable small business tax fraud? I can't ask my employer to pay me in cash and keep my payslips private from the government.
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    It's also super annoying to wait in line at the supermarket until all banknotes, coins and pennies are exchanged and counted between each customer and the supermarket employee vs paying by card wich takes 2-5s. It adds up to minutes wasted nearly every day.and probably weeks/months over a lifetime. Plus the CO2 to transport cash back and forth. But most seriously, cash payments enable tons of tax fraud, especially by business owners in the hospitality industry, making it unfair to those with jobs who pay nearly half their salary in tax, while Gastro owners will buy another Porsche or vacation home from the taxes they dodged thanks to cash payments. I hope they ban cash, it's annoying, time wasting, environmentally unfortunately and makes life super easy for tax fraudsters to the detriment of those who have to pay their taxes fairly. The privacy reason is some hypocritical bullshit, as those same people using exclusively cash, carry privacy invasive Apple/Android phones and constantly use spying services of Google, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Tinder, Snapchat, etc. The real "privacy" they're referring to means privacy from the taxman for their illicit financial gains, a.k.a. tax fraud. That's the real reason, and I hope it gets cracked down.
- brnt 4y ago
  I learned to avoid lines with old people in France, because they will be paying with cash or even worse, cheques. Yes, I've heard all about the benefits of cash on HN, but the millions of man years saved by not standing in line has to be worth something too. One Auchan was boasting that they got line time down to 4 minutes. In NL, anythng longer than 30 seconds is unusual.
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    NL is a more modern country with a forward thinking population. Germany and Austria are more backwards and conservative. If you come to Austrian supermarkets at rush hour, the lines will last several minutes. It not uncommon to hear disgruntled customers (usually old people ironically) yell at supermarket employees to open another till after waiting for ages.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
overtonwhy 4y ago
Mostly only required for drugs and gambling these days.
noah_buddy 4y ago
I carry cash almost entirely to tip servers and other service industry employees in cash. One Americanism for another, huh? But that’s only bills, no coinage.
- jeltz 4y ago
  On Sweden we usually tip with the same method of payment as we paid the bill with.
  - noah_buddy 4y ago
    I usually pay credit and tip cash because I expect more of it to make it to the servers and kitchen staff and less to the owner/none to CC companies.
  - kwhitefoot 4y ago
    You tip in Sweden? Who do you tip, and why? And why them and not others such as the cashier in a supermarket or a bus driver?
    - eru 4y ago
      > And why them and not others such as the cashier in a supermarket or a bus driver? Culture?
kube-system 4y ago
It depends on what side of town you're on. There is a big class and culture gap in the US financial system. Everyone on this forum from the US likely is well banked. But a large chunk of the US is not. A large number of people either do not meet the requirements (undocumented immigrants), distrust the system, or don't meet minimum balance requirements (or don't want to deal with those requirements). https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/08/25percent-of-us-households-are-either-unbanked-or-underbanked.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/08/25percent-of-us-households-a... https://www.npr.org/2021/04/05/984475870/unbanked-what-it-means-to-be-outside-of-the-banking-system https://www.npr.org/2021/04/05/984475870/unbanked-what-it-me...
- nradov 4y ago
  Prepaid debit cards are now widely used by unbanked people in the US. Some employers will even do direct deposit to those cards.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    This is true, but cash is still widely used by the unbanked as well. Go to a grocery store in a poor part of town and you will see plenty of cash being handled at the checkouts.
- jeltz 4y ago
  Minimum balance requirements? Why is that a thing?
  - kube-system 4y ago
    Banks make money by lending on deposits. If you have no deposits, they can't make any money. Although, almost universally, banks will allow you to pay a few dollars per month for your account instead. But, people who don't have very much money usually don't have much of a need to spend spend money for a service to hold on to their money, because they don't have any.
    - 4y ago
timoteostewart 4y ago
I don't see Sweden on this historical tracker of money left by the tooth fairy. The current U.S. average of $5.50 would be 55 SEK! https://www.deltadental.com/us/en/tooth-fairy/the-original-poll.html https://www.deltadental.com/us/en/tooth-fairy/the-original-p...
MichaelCollins 4y ago
I use it pretty much every day. Almost all restaurants and stores have an ATM, and when not, there's always one somewhere nearby. For me it's a matter of principle, I use cash because I want businesses to continue accepting cash. I have credit cards and I sometimes use them out of laziness (or for anything over $200 or so, or online...) But if a business refuses cash then I'll refuse to do business with them, because I think they're disenfranchising people who don't have credit cards and I won't support that. Thankfully this is fairly rare.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
  > Almost all restaurants and stores have an ATM You should never use a private ATM. They are prime targets for skimmers.
mikewarot 4y ago
Internet isn't quite reliable in the US, it's good to have some cash on hand in the event things go down. I tip in cash, so that taxes aren't taken out of an already underpaid person's "wages".
- Hfdlmsh 4y ago
  Bad news, it is presumed they were tipped upon which they are taxed.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

Come to Austria. The entire country revolves around cash. I rarely see someone pay with card at the supermarket and it's most likely a foreigner. Small shops and cafes don't even take cards, only cash and the rare time they do it's only for larger sums. Also tips are common almost everywhere.

fmakunbound 4y ago
What's the reasons for that?
- jbverschoor 4y ago
  Same reason people DuckDuckGo. They have a stronger connection to the history of snooping on civilians
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  Easier tax fraud mostly to keep your illicitly gained money away from the taxman. Plus conservative population that is skeptical about new tech and strongly keeps outdated ways of working and doing business (visible in any company there). Letters are common as well and digitalization is pretty weak. Like what's the last tech product you remember that came out of Austria?
givemeethekeys 4y ago
I've heard similar about Germany (someone from Germany, please chime in). There's a lovely under-appreciated privacy about using cash.
- sva_ 4y ago
  Cash is still king in Germany, but use of "contactless" payment methods have drastically increased in the pandemic. Small shops often prefer or only take cash, or accept card payment only from a certain amount due to fees of the processors. I heard small businesses prefer cash for tax reasons as well.
  - benmanns 4y ago
    Tax reasons means evading taxes by not reporting cash transactions.
    - sva_ 4y ago
      Captain obvious saves the day.
    - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
      And why should we enable small business tax fraud? I can't ask my employer to pay me in cash and keep my payslips private from the government.
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  It's also super annoying to wait in line at the supermarket until all banknotes, coins and pennies are exchanged and counted between each customer and the supermarket employee vs paying by card wich takes 2-5s. It adds up to minutes wasted nearly every day.and probably weeks/months over a lifetime. Plus the CO2 to transport cash back and forth. But most seriously, cash payments enable tons of tax fraud, especially by business owners in the hospitality industry, making it unfair to those with jobs who pay nearly half their salary in tax, while Gastro owners will buy another Porsche or vacation home from the taxes they dodged thanks to cash payments. I hope they ban cash, it's annoying, time wasting, environmentally unfortunately and makes life super easy for tax fraudsters to the detriment of those who have to pay their taxes fairly. The privacy reason is some hypocritical bullshit, as those same people using exclusively cash, carry privacy invasive Apple/Android phones and constantly use spying services of Google, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Tinder, Snapchat, etc. The real "privacy" they're referring to means privacy from the taxman for their illicit financial gains, a.k.a. tax fraud. That's the real reason, and I hope it gets cracked down.
brnt 4y ago
I learned to avoid lines with old people in France, because they will be paying with cash or even worse, cheques. Yes, I've heard all about the benefits of cash on HN, but the millions of man years saved by not standing in line has to be worth something too. One Auchan was boasting that they got line time down to 4 minutes. In NL, anythng longer than 30 seconds is unusual.
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  NL is a more modern country with a forward thinking population. Germany and Austria are more backwards and conservative. If you come to Austrian supermarkets at rush hour, the lines will last several minutes. It not uncommon to hear disgruntled customers (usually old people ironically) yell at supermarket employees to open another till after waiting for ages.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

overtonwhy 4y ago

Mostly only required for drugs and gambling these days.

noah_buddy 4y ago

I carry cash almost entirely to tip servers and other service industry employees in cash. One Americanism for another, huh? But that’s only bills, no coinage.

jeltz 4y ago
On Sweden we usually tip with the same method of payment as we paid the bill with.
- noah_buddy 4y ago
  I usually pay credit and tip cash because I expect more of it to make it to the servers and kitchen staff and less to the owner/none to CC companies.
- kwhitefoot 4y ago
  You tip in Sweden? Who do you tip, and why? And why them and not others such as the cashier in a supermarket or a bus driver?
  - eru 4y ago
    > And why them and not others such as the cashier in a supermarket or a bus driver? Culture?

kube-system 4y ago

It depends on what side of town you're on. There is a big class and culture gap in the US financial system. Everyone on this forum from the US likely is well banked. But a large chunk of the US is not. A large number of people either do not meet the requirements (undocumented immigrants), distrust the system, or don't meet minimum balance requirements (or don't want to deal with those requirements). https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/08/25percent-of-us-households-are-either-unbanked-or-underbanked.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/08/25percent-of-us-households-a... https://www.npr.org/2021/04/05/984475870/unbanked-what-it-means-to-be-outside-of-the-banking-system https://www.npr.org/2021/04/05/984475870/unbanked-what-it-me...

nradov 4y ago
Prepaid debit cards are now widely used by unbanked people in the US. Some employers will even do direct deposit to those cards.
- kube-system 4y ago
  This is true, but cash is still widely used by the unbanked as well. Go to a grocery store in a poor part of town and you will see plenty of cash being handled at the checkouts.
jeltz 4y ago
Minimum balance requirements? Why is that a thing?
- kube-system 4y ago
  Banks make money by lending on deposits. If you have no deposits, they can't make any money. Although, almost universally, banks will allow you to pay a few dollars per month for your account instead. But, people who don't have very much money usually don't have much of a need to spend spend money for a service to hold on to their money, because they don't have any.
  - 4y ago

timoteostewart 4y ago

I don't see Sweden on this historical tracker of money left by the tooth fairy. The current U.S. average of $5.50 would be 55 SEK! https://www.deltadental.com/us/en/tooth-fairy/the-original-poll.html https://www.deltadental.com/us/en/tooth-fairy/the-original-p...

MichaelCollins 4y ago

I use it pretty much every day. Almost all restaurants and stores have an ATM, and when not, there's always one somewhere nearby. For me it's a matter of principle, I use cash because I want businesses to continue accepting cash. I have credit cards and I sometimes use them out of laziness (or for anything over $200 or so, or online...) But if a business refuses cash then I'll refuse to do business with them, because I think they're disenfranchising people who don't have credit cards and I won't support that. Thankfully this is fairly rare.

kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
> Almost all restaurants and stores have an ATM You should never use a private ATM. They are prime targets for skimmers.

mikewarot 4y ago

Internet isn't quite reliable in the US, it's good to have some cash on hand in the event things go down. I tip in cash, so that taxes aren't taken out of an already underpaid person's "wages".

Hfdlmsh 4y ago
Bad news, it is presumed they were tipped upon which they are taxed.