I’ve also used the print your own “stamp” (actually a QR and barcoded address label) service to label up a standard letter.
That also works very well, and allows you to put the letter in a standard letterbox like normal. Very handy when you have no spare stamps!
It even worked perfectly to send a card to France, which was great!
I saw alot of the Blue Passport types when I was in Lisbon a few weeks ago. They were in the looong queue with the Russians and Moroccans making sure they got their Passport stamped entering Schengen 
Well of course and with much respect, you would make a point of telling a story like that, and I suppose you stood around waiting to see how long it took for those ‘blue passport types’ to get through immigration? I’ve been travelling again myself recently and it’s made no difference to me personally. Worst queuing I’ve ever experienced, is getting through US immigration and they don’t care who you are.
When I was in a long queue in Lisbon - someone came over and asked all Brits to split off into the EU queue as there was no one else there.
I’ve got better things to do than locate Southern Brits clutching their Brexit Blue Passport with pride when travelling They were are complaining noisily about being in the slow lane but may have been shuffled to the EU/EEA/CH lane once I’d passed 
Good point, and anecdotally I’ve heard it’s no easier if you are a US resident either!
The TSA check over everybody in their own time.
I’ve never understood this disdainful attitude that people hold about things like this. In the end, the rules of entry to a country are whatever they are, and you have to follow them to get in. It’s as simple as that.
And although I have no wish to rehash, for the umpteenth time, Brexit-related arguments about the relative merits of being inside or outside the EU, the fact remains that we were never part of the Schengen area anyway - so always had some sort of passport control to enter EU countries. It’s hardly that different now.
There used to be a really cool feature where it could generate a label for any standard envelope size, and then you could print that label directly onto the envelope. They don’t seem to do that anymore which is a real shame.
“I didn’t vote for a Brexit like this”
Er, I think you did.
I assume the same people think there should be an “ENGERLISH ONLY” queue at the airport.
I was recently explaining to a Brexiteer (who had no idea about Schengen) that there were no internal checks between Schengen countries. The look on their face went to “absolutely appalled” to “angry” in about 2 seconds. It was, predictably “ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING”
Well, I’m not sure why you’ve bumped the thread to add that, but once again the pertinent point really is: we were never in the Schengen zone even during the time we were EU members, so the situation now isn’t hugely different.
And given that it never applied to them, perhaps it’s not surprising that the average “Brit in the street” doesn’t know about Schengen or how it works.
To respond to what Oberoth was saying, which I am broadly in agreement with. The “point” is British people want to wander the world freely, but don’t want those terrible foreigners coming here.
And earlier my comments were aimed at the economic exclusivity of various countries and the difficulties that presents in going cashless
Good points, although I would expect those one-country only systems to adapt over time to allow everybody to use them via some method or another.
It could be allowing people from other countries to sign-up to their apps, or it could be via cross-acceptance agreements with various other companies. The UK “Pay by Bank app” system (which hasn’t really yet caught on at all) could probably be made interoperable with Swish, for example.
We were never in Schengen though, so it’s not relevant at all though, right? The CTA (common travel area) was in place before either were members of the EU, even (if i recall correctly).
also wild how anyone was expected to know every nook and cranny of a 500 page agreement that hadn’t even been negotiated yet with a yes/no question
Oh Gawd! Last night, I had little option to visit one of those ancient machines that spit cash out of a wall. Me and the missus were out on the lash and the bus we were supposed to take home, was cancelled without explanation. Two absolute complete strangers had also arrived at the bus stop at the same time as me and 'er indoors and as it happened, it turned out that they lived within a mile of us and so a polymer ten pound note exchanged hands as we piled into a taxi with them. The smell of kebab being consumed by our new found taxi mates on the 5 mile journey home was a worthwhile compromise!
It could, but what would be the advantage for them? Too much risk
I think easy acceptance of money from tourists, without having to pay the (generally more costly) card fees that would be the other option, would be enough for most businesses.
This idea that merchants are “suspicious” of foreigners seems to have only come up in relation to Germany in this discussion, and I think the future there is probably card payment anyway.
I was thinking more of the Swish-type systems in Nordic countries, which I doubt would be a problem.
I get that (and being a regular visitor to Germany, I definitely get the ‘suspicion’). I would still say that card acceptance is still only 50/50 there, and there is the distinct possibility of them going down the Nordic route and adopting a “German only” solution. You say you doubt “Swish” and the various Nordic solutions will be a problem. All of them require ID cards and bank accounts from only that country - are you thinking this will somehow be relaxed? Or that (and I doubt this massively) there will be a Europe wide solution ?
Iran gets around this issue and an international Visa/MC boycott led by the Americans by issuing gift cards (accepted almost everywhere) for hard currency.
I thought that was Girocard, although with Maestro being retired acceptance of Mastercard and Visa is getting more widespread?
I was meaning that I doubt that Swish and others integrating with other similar systems would prove to be a problem (in response to your comment about what the advantage would be).
The way I would expect a cross-acceptance integration to work would be with mutual acceptance of the QR codes across different systems. So the QR codes would be in a standardised format, the apps would all be able to read each-other’s codes, and therefore it wouldn’t matter that people were restricted in registration. I agree that opening registration more widely would be difficult and a probable non-starter, but allowing “Pay By Bank App” to read Swish codes (for example) is technically possible and replies on the user’s “home bank” to have done proper KYC and AML checks.
A little bit like American Express have a cross-acceptance agreement with the JCB card network, for example (and other credit cards have similar cross-acceptance agreements around the world).
A bit like how Suica reloadable pre-paid cards are popular in Japan. This is another potential avenue, although how you top-up or buy gift cards or prepaid cards in a future without hard currency is another thing to consider.
"I thought that was Girocard, although with Maestro being retired acceptance of Mastercard and Visa is getting more widespread?"
That’s the theory - though I can also see a swing back to cash instead.
"I doubt [… ]Swish and others integrating with other similar systems would prove to be a problem"
I don’t doubt it - these are essentially domestic networks that would be expected to take on an international aspect at greater risk to themselves. There are already numerous places where “Swish” (and their equivalent) only are accepted (like Dutch Maestro cards in the Netherlands) - no cash or other card equivalents. I can see cross-Nordic cooperation, maybe even EU, but the UK/US, and other administrations ? I don’t think so.
"A bit like how Suica reloadable pre-paid cards are popular in Japan. This is another potential avenue, although how you top-up or buy gift cards or prepaid cards in a future without hard currency is another thing to consider."
I would imagine the “giftcard” solution would require you to purchase these online before you travel.
CBDC can solve this though, with one of the European countries where it’s (potentially) going to be an issue actively aiming for the implementation of this (that being Riksbank, Sweden). CBDC will be interoperable and an eventual replacement for cash, easily tradable and widely accessible for payments as governments will need to a) incentivise usage (near/zero-cost payments) or b) force usage so there is a heavy standard for foreigners to rely on + not cut themselves off from money outside
For those who are spooked personally about foreign cards just pretend it’s a MaestroCard or something and use contactless - doubt they’ll be able to tell until after
probably pay with CBDC / bank payments (only 100 yen plus tax at your nearest in hours ATM!)
That would be an odd theory considering the pandemic has pushed cashlesness five years into the future as well as even Germany was switching more to card than it has been more to cash as a trend, just slower than here
but honestly i think general thoughts here should boil down to this: governments are not going to allow businesses to move entirely onto a closed platform with no other options (like Swish).
Going cashless would be a big problem for millions - RSA report