“Is anyone else still predominantly using cash day to day?”

Yes. Germany.

I'm starting to use more cash for daily spendings. The rise of surveillance pricing is terrible, better to hide qt least some of information from my bank.

Apparently there has been an uptick in people using cash in the UK because it helps with budgeting. Which has become more necessary since 60% of inflation started coming from corporate profiteering and four people became able to outcompete twenty million others in the market.

I would consider paying with cash again IF $100 bills weren't so much trouble.

It's hard to get a $100 bill. ATMs just don't spit them out. Many places refuse to take them. It's just hard to carry over $100 in cash without quickly having your wallet explode in size.

Back in the day $100 was like caring $1,000 now. You could get a lot done with $20 bills... You can burn through the majority of $100 just going to dinner and I also have no desire to manage all that cash at my house or hit up an ATM every other day.

I'd love to but since tons of credit cards charge fees to the store, shops increase their prices on menus and items to account for this. On top of the fact that I receive points for purchasing, I'd be losing money if I were to be using cash alone.

All day, everyday! Freedom over convenience!

Some credit cards offer 2% cash back... (Not points) So it's hard to give that up when you get 2% off for just about every dollar you spend. Why wouldn't you put every dollar on card you would normally spend.

This doesn't work well if you are paying interest...

If you're fiscally savvy and don't overspend and can pay your balance in full every month and are not paying interest, this is a strong vote for choosing over cash.

However, without that....I see no benefit and would use more cash for all reasons in this thread.

This is all perfect when you live in a responsible country where people pay their taxes. Instead, when you live in a place where paying your taxes is seen as something stupid, the less cash, the less space for tax evaders.

I loved it when COVID came and the government started giving all these businesses owners (bars, hairdressers, etc) a subside based on the profits they declared the year before COVID and they all went mad because they were getting 600€/month (which, ironically is the amount they declared to have earned monthly the year before COVID).

I visited the UK back in 2022 and I was pretty baffled at how you can universally "tap to pay". We visited a pub on the coast of Dorset where they wouldn't even accept cash as a mean of payment. All in all it was nice, because it meant not having to deal with a foreign currency at all, we spent 10 days just using electronic payment, so as a tourist I think it was a good experience.

In Germany, where I live, you're basically getting nowhere without cash, it's still very difficult to eat out or buy small food items like bread or a sandwich. There's also a culture of paying cash for many things, including pricier items like a second hand car! Shop cashiers usually don't even blink if you try to pay with a 100€ bill (except if you're coming super early and they don't have change available yet). It's not unusual for me to end up drawing a quarter to half my monthly salary in cash.

I first disliked it when I moved from France, but now I think it's actually good for the society. You always have some change to tip a waiter or give to a beggar, a coin for the cart at the supermarket, get something from a vending machine... Also I live in a very quiet area so getting mugged is very unlikely, making it not so scary to carry cash around.

Been thinking of trying this. Thing is nobody uses cash anymore around here (Nordics). In supermarkets I know for sure I can use cash, but restaurants, bars or small business it's going to be hit and miss. I guess I'd have to endure the awkwardness of asking in every single place if they take cash or not

I encourage cash spending at a small business I operate. Average sale is around $150, 10% discount for using cash. About 25% of people pay cash.

It's very thinly veiled tax avoidance, but zero people have complained or called us out in it.

I actually started with it this week. It is partially due to privacy but also because I lost a sense for value. It is really easy to press a button online and pay say 20 euro. Not that I am irresponsible with money but the numbers on your bank account feel so meaningless.

The cash I have on hand comes exclusively from playing pub gigs in a band. That is still very much a cash-driven economy where I am. When I accumulate enough, I usually wind up spending it on music gear, so I don't think this hobby of mine is major wealth-builder. But while many businesses are moving away from cash, it seems music stores are used to people like me and still allow fairly hefty cash transactions.

The other day I was settling my tab at the pub and the guy hands me a machine. I say, I'll pay by cash thanks. He says really?!? Dude, you literally just handed me cash for the gig tonight. Oh yeah…

I'm nor a cash-only convert, but I have some anecdotal evidence for you.

I've visited Boston five times in the past thirty years. Every single time I used my debit card at Thanuel Hall for food, my card was later used for fraud. Always caught and never a big inconvenience beyond replacing my card, but still not ideal. I only ever use cash there now.

Online shopping, before the Amazon monopoly on e-commerce, my card would get compromised every few months.

Now I use privacy.com for all transactions that allow it, and its amazing how often those cards are stolen. Thanks to the way the service works, the stolen cards are useless to scammers or thieves, but my declined transaction filter has a few charges declined each month.

My point being that if you want to avoid fraud, and you can do it, cash is king.

I love the occasional "thanks for not requiring change!" that comes from it.

I also want to pay more in cash to reward businesses for still allowing you to pay in cash as I'm noticing more are going cashless. I'm occasionally reliant on cash so I don't want to end up stranded on those occasions where I can only pay cash, so definitely want to ensure the option remains open. The privacy is a benefit too of course.

I think at the moment I mostly buy "important" stuff in cash and everyday stuff with card. Important like a new computer or something, because I'd plan to have that computer for a while and don't want it easily traced to me. Everyday stuff like food because, while I completely understand not wanting the state/banks/etc to know anything about you, I personally don't care too much if the state knows what I eat. Would be nice to eventually become one of those people with no footprint at all though.

In the US, I've started paying in cash to combat the aggressive tip buttons (your options are: 20%, 30%, 40%, or Other). With cash, I feel free to provide a reasonable tip for whatever service and they see it and appear appreciative, even if it's not the 20% the little tip screen attempts to strong arm you into.

My bank recently got rid of their own contactless payment app and now I am forced to use Google pay. You have to accept Google's privacy terms and they'll have access to all your transactions. No thanks.

Beyond that I quite like using tech. Still waiting for bitcoin to take off after more than a decade. For budgeting you can use programs and it'll notify you real time on your expenditures.