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Cash is pretty much dead for me and has been for years. My wife and I use a credit card for every purchase we can, big or small. And we've never carried a balan

• iwwr 11y ago
  Now think how an average Greek person feels when their banking system no longer works, denied access to electronic transactions and when bank accounts hold mere numbers that may or may not be actually recognized (or downright confiscated).
  • cameldrv 11y ago
    It's hard to imagine how the Greek banking system is going to recover from this. Everyone loaned them all of their money, and they weren't even getting any interest on it. Now they have to stand in line for 60 euros per day when it could have been in their mattress the whole time.
    • iwwr 11y ago
      The bigger problem is that money people have in banks, which is not borrowed and only belongs to private citizens is being plundered or destroyed. Second to that is an inability to access modern forms of transactions, which make running IT companies (and not only) an impossibility.
    • cpr 11y ago
      What's more, with the miracle of credit creation by modern banking, only 5% of their money is actually in the bank--the rest is out making more money for the bank. It's all a consensual hallucination which works only as long as everyone still has confidence in the system.
      • javajosh 11y ago
        >It's all a consensual hallucination which works only as long as everyone still has confidence in the system. Yes, but delusion is not as irrational as it sounds. http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/2669.html http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/2669.html
      • iwwr 11y ago
        It's only an illusion when the central bank is unwilling to inject money into the system in the event of a bank run. The central bank has to maintain somewhat of an equivalence between money stored in banks and cash. It depends on if banks become merely "money vaults" or investment/speculative vehicles.
  • grey-area 11y ago
    Gold, Bitcoin and paper cash are also subject to confiscation, tax or other legal controls, speculation and devaluation. There is no safe haven from a government which wants to confiscate your belongings or redistribute wealth.
• stevekemp 11y ago
  > paid for I assume by the high rates and carried-balances that others have. And the merchant fees the retailers pay, to receive the money at the point of sale. Credit card companies make their money at both ends :)
  • avn2109 11y ago
    Yeah, that "free money" is priced in to the cost of goods/services at firms that accept the cards. This is why you sometimes see a lower cash price, like at smaller gas stations etc.
• the-dude 11y ago
  When I started to become poor, I started valueing cash. As soon as I had some balance on my account, I would withdraw it. Why? So no automatic payments would succeed which were running on the account, immediatly destroying my balance. With cash in your pocket you can buy food.
  • marssaxman 11y ago
    Yeah, I learned to avoid automatic payments when I was poor, and have never chosen to trust them since. I don't care how convenient it is, I'm not letting somebody else's bank determine my financial priorities.
• jeltz 11y ago
  The credit card companiesand banks probably make most of their money from charging the merchants. Not from the rates on customers.
  • ghaff 11y ago
    The "credit card companies" (i.e. the networks like Visa) make their money from the transaction fees which they split with the issuing banks. The transaction fees are also a significant money-maker for the banks but my understanding is that they typically make more from interest and fees (including both annual fees and late fees). Unsurprisingly the high-end cards make relatively less from interest.