Despite never using cash at home, I do enjoy seeing different banknote designs when on holiday abroad, a bit like people who enjoy card designs. The Euro makes it much less fun though, as if it didn’t exist there would be many more currencies with totally different designs.
I like Australian dollars - they have very colourful notes, unlike our washed-out colours which almost seem to emulate the cotton paper of old which could never be made a bright colour.
Seriously, I’ve no issue with bank notes, like most I rarely use them - once in a very blue moon, I reckon. The grubbiness thing I understand but can’t get too bothered given the rarity of use.
I come back to the main, yet marginal, use case - tipping. When I’m in a tipping situation, I like to express my gratitude that way. My dad did it - I like to do it. It’s ceremonial more than anything.
I still love old coins though (but that’s off topic, I fear ).
Old coins of special designs are nice to see, and there is a level of interest there too from coin collectors.
Tipping is one of those things which is still around even though almost everyone agrees it’s not the best idea. I’d much rather prices were genuinely reflective of work involved and there was no need to tip. However, it’s rarely a problem for me personally as I almost never eat out or do any of the sorts of things where tipping would be expected. It’s more of a problem in America, but still not to be underestimated here.
Well, apart from the single £10 note that changed hands for a tyre fitting a few weeks back and the diabolical cost of a haircut that I had several weeks back which involved a cash only transaction (I won’t be going back to the barber involved!) which necessitated I and my Wife quite literally having to look down the back of the sofa to find enough money to cobble together, I haven’t used any physical cash for shopping items, for months. Some time last year, probably August maybe, I might have had to use up an old fiver somewhere. But yes, you’re right, not a fan of physical cash at all for all of the reasons already explained.
It will most likely be the case that Which? “recruited” their own readers who had opted-in to being contacted for studies.
Therefore the sample is probably almost exclusively elderly.
The fact they don’t comment on how the cohort was identified is a red flag for me. If it was independent and representative I would have expected them to say something like “a representative proportion of the population from across the U.K., identified by IPSOS Mori, was asked the following questions between 1st February and 30th April 2022”.
I think that this paragraph is the whole point of the exercise;
With less than a week to go until the Queen’s Speech, Which? is calling on the government to finally make good on its 2020 promise to legislate to protect cash for as long as it needed.
A pointless call to enact legislation to protect cash. As if any future government couldn’t just change the law as it sees fit. I seem to remember a fixed parliament act which would ensure that no future Prime Minister could call elections when it suited them.
I’m really interested in what “legislation to protect cash” might mean, and I bet the various parties who campaign for it don’t all think it’s the same thing.
Is it having a free-to-use ATM within a certain distance from every house in the UK (say two miles, as LINK seem to want)?
Is it making cashless businesses illegal, overhauling the concept of legal tender to include not just debt but any tendered payment? Does that extend to everything, like house purchases?
Is it a legally-enshrined commitment from the government to continue printing notes and minting coins in the current denomination for the following 25 years?
Is it forcing retail banks of a certain size (those included in the service quality survey, perhaps) to offer free cash withdrawals and pay-in at the Post Office for personal customers?
Am curious about the idea of digital cash. Would any of those campaigning for retainment of cash be satisfied with some form of digital cash which is independent of bank accounts? Or is it entirely about retainment of physical cash?
I would say no, because the whole debate really centres on people not able to use or struggling to use technology (for a variety of reasons such as cost, difficulty learning new things, an attachment to cash, physical tangibility, etc).
I’ve always regarded Which? as a rather more well-meaning organisation than they’re being portrayed here. I’ve no idea how big their survey samples are, mind you.
Even so, the sentiment behind the call for continued access to physical cash has merit (though I fear I’m not in the majority). They suggest a number of options deeper in their article.
I reckon their call for legislation is more about keeping the issue on the agenda. (It seems they’ve been calling for action since 2017).
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