4 ms·

IRL I mostly use credit cards. On a recent trip to the UK+Ireland, I exclusively used credit cards behind Apple Pay. Indeed I rarely use an actual credit card

IRL I mostly use credit cards. On a recent trip to the UK+Ireland, I exclusively used credit cards behind Apple Pay. Indeed I rarely use an actual credit card and I leave most of them in a sock drawer. It's usually behind Apple Pay. So I was pretty damned annoyed when I got a burger (not particularly good) at the Sports Page deep in Google-ville and they didn't take Apple Pay or presumably Google Pay either. I used to use debit cards (behind Apple Pay) but I didn't get any benefit from them. Now I have the Amex trifecta. I still use cash occasionally. Tomorrow morning, I'll be buying a knee brace that I found on Facebook Marketplace with cash. But my favorite taco truck switched over to Toast and so I switched to using my phone. I don't hit ATMs at all anymore and am training my family not to either. I get cash at the grocery store when I need it. Is this brave new world better than cash? Pretty much it is. It's safer for me and safer for the vendor. If the men in black hats want to know that I frequent Tacos Sinaloa on International late at night, I do. They make a good taco.

kylehotchkiss 3y ago
Which 3 cards are your trifecta? I’m guessing green and gold are two of them?
- toomuchtodo 3y ago
  Not OP. Gold, Platinum, and Blue Biz Plus. I swapped out the Blue Biz for Fidelity’s credit card, ymmv. Business platinum might also be a better fit if you have your own business, vs personal platinum (for deducting annual fee). https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/american-express/amex-trifecta/ https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/american-express/amex-...
- CalChris 3y ago
  Platinum, Gold and BCE. I don't really like the Platinum but then I got a huge SUB and the benefits, credits and perks outweigh the $695 AF. It's just complex to use to get AF back. I really like the Gold. It's has a $250 AF and $240 in easy to use credits. The BCE is $0 AF and 3% cash back from online retail purchase. The BBP is also good, 2x on everything and no AF. A quadfecta. I used to use debit only but I didn't get anything from this. I'm happy with Amex but I may revisit the Platinum. How you play this depends on whether you do points or cash or both. I lean toward points but really I do both.
  - charlie0 3y ago
    I use BCE, but only for that sweet 5% cashback at supermarkets.
    - CalChris 3y ago
      BCE is 3% cash for groceries, online retail + gas which is pretty good for $0 AF. Still, I use the Gold Card for groceries and restaurants, 4X points and 3x on flights. There are other eco systems, Chase + Capital One. There are hotel cards (Ritz Carlton which is a Marriott card), airline cards (Alaska Airlines Visa). The whole thing becomes a game of which card where and using credits and benefits to justify the AF. But it's second nature to me at this point. Apple Pay and probably Google Pay makes this easy. I rarely use a physical card. Occasionally, Amex gets declined (grill inside an Indian casino late at night on I5, weird). Then I just use a Visa debit. In modern traveling, you need Visa as a backup. Visa is pretty universal.
Teever 3y ago
> If the men in black hats want to know that I frequent Tacos... Can you imagine any other downsides to a cashless society? If so, what do you think we should do to prevent them while still retaining the benefits of cashless transactions?
- CalChris 3y ago
  Society? Yeah, that would be the unbanked. But cash still exists and I occasionally get it to pay people.
  - Teever 3y ago
    I'm talking about a future where cash is banned. Do you think that's a good world? Why or why not?
    - CalChris 3y ago
      I'm not seeing your future where cash is banned. I am seeing my present where I'm not using cash very much (but still a little).
      - lrvick 3y ago
        Try pretending to be unbanked and switching to only cash for a month and you will quickly learn how many businesses refuse US currency, accepting only visabucks or masterbucks now. We need laws mandating businesses accept cash, but until then the more people using it, the less businesses can justify dropping it
        LeafItAlone 3y ago
        > you will quickly learn how many businesses refuse US currency Can you provide examples? We must live in very different areas, because there is not a physical store I use that would not take cash, and a lot of would prefer it over credit cards. Even my apartment building rent can be paid in cash if you really wanted. Maybe the utility companies would not take cash? Obviously online purchases are different here, but a lot of bigger places (Apple, Amazon, etc.) have gift cards you can buy with cash locally to use online at the shop. On the flip side, there are places I frequent that accept only cash.
lrvick 3y ago
Is this "safety" really worth excluding ~5% of the US unbanked from participating in commerce if you succeed in helping cashless proponents succeed? Is it worth the very real risk of this data empowering political candidates with information on what money is spent on, where, and the demographics of who spends it, to help them do (sadly very effective) propaganda targeting? Statistically advertisers and social media content weighting systems armed with enough data to target you, -will- change your behavior. Our brains are easy to hack no matter how smart we think we are. Ask any magician or casino operator. Is it worth rising insurance rates when POS systems sell out who is buying what over-the-counter drugs at the pharmacy? Or how often they buy car oil from autozone? I wonder how much safety hundreds of billions of dollars of US transaction value could buy if placed somewhere besides the pockets of payment corpos. We could still adopt safe, private, digital cash with all the advantages of the current corpo system, and none of the above drawbacks. We must reject corpo cash to get something better into popular use though.
illiac786 3y ago
Previous poster asked if it was ok to exclude a certain population and you basically answered "yes because the privacy/convenience ratio is worth it for me". I think you missed his point. I like apple pay (shops do not see my credit card nb anymore, less tracking on their side) but I think cash is a mandatory requirement to keep state's power in check. Cashless shops should be forbidden. And as previously mentioned, a vulnerable portion of the population relies on cash.
JohnFen 3y ago
> Is this brave new world better than cash? Pretty much it is. I guess it depends on what you consider "better". I think it's worse overall, personally. Sure, there are safety gains, but they're overshadowed (in my opinion) by the losses in other areas.

kylehotchkiss 3y ago

Which 3 cards are your trifecta? I’m guessing green and gold are two of them?

toomuchtodo 3y ago
Not OP. Gold, Platinum, and Blue Biz Plus. I swapped out the Blue Biz for Fidelity’s credit card, ymmv. Business platinum might also be a better fit if you have your own business, vs personal platinum (for deducting annual fee). https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/american-express/amex-trifecta/ https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/american-express/amex-...
CalChris 3y ago
Platinum, Gold and BCE. I don't really like the Platinum but then I got a huge SUB and the benefits, credits and perks outweigh the $695 AF. It's just complex to use to get AF back. I really like the Gold. It's has a $250 AF and $240 in easy to use credits. The BCE is $0 AF and 3% cash back from online retail purchase. The BBP is also good, 2x on everything and no AF. A quadfecta. I used to use debit only but I didn't get anything from this. I'm happy with Amex but I may revisit the Platinum. How you play this depends on whether you do points or cash or both. I lean toward points but really I do both.
- charlie0 3y ago
  I use BCE, but only for that sweet 5% cashback at supermarkets.
  - CalChris 3y ago
    BCE is 3% cash for groceries, online retail + gas which is pretty good for $0 AF. Still, I use the Gold Card for groceries and restaurants, 4X points and 3x on flights. There are other eco systems, Chase + Capital One. There are hotel cards (Ritz Carlton which is a Marriott card), airline cards (Alaska Airlines Visa). The whole thing becomes a game of which card where and using credits and benefits to justify the AF. But it's second nature to me at this point. Apple Pay and probably Google Pay makes this easy. I rarely use a physical card. Occasionally, Amex gets declined (grill inside an Indian casino late at night on I5, weird). Then I just use a Visa debit. In modern traveling, you need Visa as a backup. Visa is pretty universal.

Teever 3y ago

> If the men in black hats want to know that I frequent Tacos... Can you imagine any other downsides to a cashless society? If so, what do you think we should do to prevent them while still retaining the benefits of cashless transactions?

CalChris 3y ago
Society? Yeah, that would be the unbanked. But cash still exists and I occasionally get it to pay people.
- Teever 3y ago
  I'm talking about a future where cash is banned. Do you think that's a good world? Why or why not?
  - CalChris 3y ago
    I'm not seeing your future where cash is banned. I am seeing my present where I'm not using cash very much (but still a little).
    - lrvick 3y ago
      Try pretending to be unbanked and switching to only cash for a month and you will quickly learn how many businesses refuse US currency, accepting only visabucks or masterbucks now. We need laws mandating businesses accept cash, but until then the more people using it, the less businesses can justify dropping it
      - LeafItAlone 3y ago
        > you will quickly learn how many businesses refuse US currency Can you provide examples? We must live in very different areas, because there is not a physical store I use that would not take cash, and a lot of would prefer it over credit cards. Even my apartment building rent can be paid in cash if you really wanted. Maybe the utility companies would not take cash? Obviously online purchases are different here, but a lot of bigger places (Apple, Amazon, etc.) have gift cards you can buy with cash locally to use online at the shop. On the flip side, there are places I frequent that accept only cash.

lrvick 3y ago

Is this "safety" really worth excluding ~5% of the US unbanked from participating in commerce if you succeed in helping cashless proponents succeed? Is it worth the very real risk of this data empowering political candidates with information on what money is spent on, where, and the demographics of who spends it, to help them do (sadly very effective) propaganda targeting? Statistically advertisers and social media content weighting systems armed with enough data to target you, -will- change your behavior. Our brains are easy to hack no matter how smart we think we are. Ask any magician or casino operator. Is it worth rising insurance rates when POS systems sell out who is buying what over-the-counter drugs at the pharmacy? Or how often they buy car oil from autozone? I wonder how much safety hundreds of billions of dollars of US transaction value could buy if placed somewhere besides the pockets of payment corpos. We could still adopt safe, private, digital cash with all the advantages of the current corpo system, and none of the above drawbacks. We must reject corpo cash to get something better into popular use though.

illiac786 3y ago

Previous poster asked if it was ok to exclude a certain population and you basically answered "yes because the privacy/convenience ratio is worth it for me". I think you missed his point. I like apple pay (shops do not see my credit card nb anymore, less tracking on their side) but I think cash is a mandatory requirement to keep state's power in check. Cashless shops should be forbidden. And as previously mentioned, a vulnerable portion of the population relies on cash.

JohnFen 3y ago

> Is this brave new world better than cash? Pretty much it is. I guess it depends on what you consider "better". I think it's worse overall, personally. Sure, there are safety gains, but they're overshadowed (in my opinion) by the losses in other areas.