Going cashless

I do think cash is dirty in respect of the fact that it is without doubt, filthy, germ and narcotic ridden. I also don’t use public transport because I don’t live in a city and I have a car which is my only effective means of transport. I definitely don’t float through mid air because I’m so fat, gravity wouldn’t allow it :laughing: Neither myself nor my Wife have any time to wipe down our shopping after purchase, especially with wet wipes because they are entirely environmentally unfriendly and cost too much.

I wouldn’t have responded to your post, but your final paragraph wasn’t at all necessary in my opinion as it has nothing to do with the topic in hand.

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Rubbish. I hate cash and I regularly use public transport. You may be surprised to learn that most, if not all, forms of public transport now take contactless payments. In fact, at the height of lockdown last year, the local bus companies banned cash fares and you had no option but to use contactless.

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What a flippant remark. Cash has been proven to be absolutely filthy and an effective vector for harmful pathogens, covered in bacteria and viruses, and also covered in traces of multiple illegal narcotics (one study showed that 79% of one-dollar bills contain traces of cocaine). And that’s not to mention ATMs - those things are gross.

I use public transport regularly, but I don’t go rubbing my hand over every single handle on the bus - for example. That’s the same principle as when you touch cash, since you’re coming into physical contact with surfaces that have been handled extensively by a large number of people and often exchanged for unsavoury things in unhygienic conditions.

Anyway, this discussion should probably be over on the Going cashless thread.

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Whilst I can agree that it is likely to be true that bacteria etc can be found on cash, I find it hard to believe that it is an effective vector for harmful pathogens for the simple reason that shop and bank branch staff who handle cash for hours at time would be dropping like flies.

For clarity, I define ‘effective vector’ for a harmful pathogen as one in which the pathogen causes harm when transferred.

Also, I don’t disagree that handling cash just feels dirty. I always want to wash my hands afterwards, though the new polymer notes have helped in that regard.

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You’ve just successfully made me shudder :nauseated_face:

I’ve been to some countries in the world, where handling cash notes quite literally constituted a health hazard.

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Cash is no more filthy than everything else you handle constantly, such as your iPhone, or the pole on the bus. How many people change their kitchen sponge every other day? Or wash their hands after picking up the petrol pump? Most peoples’ computer keyboards never get cleaned and are dirtier than their toilet, but no one freaks out about that?

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I admire your robust defence of paper/polymer money, but whether one likes it or not, it’s still filthy stuff to handle and I’ve made a choice not to fill my wallet with notes these days. Indeed, using cash is definitely becoming a super rare event for me in 2021. To be fair, sponges, toilet seats, bus poles and faeces laden peanuts, aren’t usually presented for payment :laughing:

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As many of you will probably know, I work in public transport, and I loved the day we were finally able to take card or contactless payments.
I’m definitely not a germaphobe, but it is nice not to have filthy hands at the end of the day from handling all those coins.

Having said this, and also being a big fan of cashless payments myself, I would never want cash to disappear totally, I do think there should always be a choice.

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I barely use cash myself, and wish that more companies took cards and other forms of payment. But until everywhere accepts it (and there are still shops and other traders who do not) then cash will remain.

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Cash is more filthy than things I handle daily. I put my iPhone in a UV-light cleaning device when I have been out with it. I don’t use public transport, as I live in a remote rural area, and if I do I avoid touching things as much as possible. Plus I would have a bottle of hand sanitiser with me to clean my hands afterwards if contact was unavoidable. I wear the little gloves you get at a petrol station to touch the petrol pump.

I also do clean my computer keyboard with isopropyl alcohol wipes at regular intervals.

Am I a clean-freak who probably takes it “too far”? Yes, and I was even before Covid. I used to take sanitiser or wipes with me all the time and people couldn’t understand it. Now they do. It’s not that hard to make an effort.

If everybody was a little bit more like me then most circulating diseases worldwide would be hit severely. Unfortunately, most people are both selfish and disgusting. I still can’t believe how people will eat things like a pocket of crisps without washing their hands first! I also can’t understand people who make contact when paying with a contactless card. They have missed the point of the technology entirely.

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Person after my own heart!

Just briefly (so I don’t somehow turn this discussion on cash into one on device sanitisation), out of interest, which wipes do you use? Screens are easy, but I’ve always personally struggled with just what exactly is best to use to keep the casings and enclosures of my devices clean too.

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I don’t use anything special, just generic isopropyl alcohol wipes (the same ones I would use for the screen).

I follow the guidance posted by Apple, as I use a MacBook Pro. I hope this helps!

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Oh I know cash is filthy. My point was that people fixate on cash being dirty whilst ignoring the fact that they handle things which are as dirty all the time. The point about avoiding cash but then touching a bank card actually onto the contactless reader, or eating without first washing ones hands are both fine points.

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OK - I think I understand your point better now, and I actually totally agree with you!

Sometimes nuance is hard on the internet.

At least I am consistent with my attitude to contact, and for me that means being forced to use cash is both against my natural inclination against it and a more “germ-ridden” option.

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Interesting article, one amongst many, but quite recent:

At the end of the day, whether folks agree or otherwise, we’re heading towards being cashless. It will happen, undoubtedly not for a few years yet, but it will happen. Technology, life, everything, it moves on. I get it some people as things stand, have no option but to use cash, but we should be seeking long term solutions to this issue. I’m sorry, but no one is going to tell me that in 50 years time, we’re still going to be handing over physical notes and coins for transactions, technology is just moving too fast. I see the progress we’ve made in the last 40 years in my life, I managed my entire childhood and early adulthood without a mobile phone or computer and now, it would I admit, be very difficult to manage without a smartphone on a daily basis.

Some businesses who accept card only, have reported no significant loss in business (Covid aside obviously) and of course as we’ve previously mentioned, the time saved cashing up and the security benefits of not having to get cash to a bank or dare I say it, staff dipping their fingers in the till, are obvious.

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I need to teach you the art of eating a packet of crisps without touching the crisps… prevents transfer of germs from your hands to the food, and also means you aren’t left with horrible greasy fingers afterwards - absolute game changer!

I see so many people doing this :man_facepalming: Both of my parents used to do it too, but fortunately I’ve managed to train them out of that habit.

Which one do you use, out of interest? I’ve got a Belkin one - I’m somewhat sceptical of how the two little UVC LEDs in it can provide sufficient direct exposure to the whole surface area to kill as much bacteria as it claims, but it is supposedly lab tested and certified. I prefer the look of the ones with the big LEDs on the top (lid) and bottom panel though… seems like they’d be more effective.

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What you’re really saying Lonford is, open packet, flip back head and empty contents into gob. Job done

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Well, I suppose that’s one way of doing it :joy: But mine involves much more manual dexterity. It’s all about shuffling individual crisps up the packet until they emerge, singular and easily-consumable. It makes you look like a right doorknob, but it’s a small price to pay for clean crisps and non-greasy hands.

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I was brought up on a council estate in the 1970’s. If I ate crisps the way you’ve described, I’d have had my head shoved down a toilet and my sherbert dip nicked. They’d have then thrown my packet of crisps all over me. The youth of today, you have no idea :rofl:

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To be honest I have received some grief for it (albeit no head flushing or sherbet dip theft) but at the end of the day they’re left with a phone screen that looks like a slip-and-slide and exposed themselves to whatever filth was on the bus handles while my fingers are perfectly grease-free and my stomach is safe from diseases.

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