You can still pay with your phone when there’s no service
I’m mostly cashless too, but I only ever use the physical cards, and only have a card set up in the Google wallet for backup, in the event I ever lose or forget my wallet. Maybe the modern equivlent of £20 in the glovebox, which I also still have too.
Perhaps I’m a bit old fashioned but I find there’s nothing wrong with using a tool intended for its dedicated purpose - I have seen people get caught out by device contactless payments, not necessarily through any fault of their own, mind. For example I was in a supermarket behind a lady that only had her phone on her and the card terminal kept asking for her to insert her card and PIN for some reason. She had to leave all of her shopping behind.
Also, physical cards are generally more robust. They can take a dunk (or spin cycle) in water and still work fine, be dropped or sat on and still function (you might knacker the contactless antenna though, as I once found out when kept the wallet in my back pocket when they first came out and wondered why the contactless was flaky and had to keep ordering replacement cards).
I draw the line though at making bank transfers to random barbers, however. I was in one in South London and he was cash only, no signs up or telling me it was as such before the cut.
I said no cash on me (true!), he pulled out a bit of paper with his bank details on! I trudged off to the nearby cash machine to get what was owed. Evidently, whatever he saves in card charges and tax is offset by the number of people walking off saying they’ll go to the cash machine but do a runner.
People are increasingly getting too “eggs in one basket” I feel with phones, and yet it’s a device can be easily stolen or broken, and the constant surfeit of software updates I have found causes phones to do all sorts of issues such as unexpectedly draining the battery quicker, running slowly etc.
Despite only using cash when I have to ever since the iPhone 6 came out, I’ve always had cash with me until very recently.
And I’ve been caught out already, because I didn’t have a £ for the trolley at Tesco.
I now have a token on my key ring for that.
Getting £1 to pump the tires is a nuisance.
I remember when it used to be 20p.
That’s inflation for you.
Some places take contactless for pumping tyres.
Garages around the area we’re in have had contactless air/water machines for years.
However, of more concern… the vending machine at work was recently fitted with a contactless terminal. The reason I didn’t carry cash was because it’d get used in the cash-only vender. But now - Oh, the financial abuse coupled with calorie increase
Must.Have.Willpower.
I remember when they were all free!
I know, all the motorway ones I think, but none round me unfortunately.
£1.50 is the cheapest down here.
Speaking of cash….You can all save between £15-20 a year here. Open boot, plug in inflater to 12v socket, inflate tyres to spec…….
Went to the Imperial War Museum the other week and needed to use a locker (I’d stayed in London overnight because of a business thing the evening before so had more with me than usual).
Lockers needed a £ but I didn’t have one - but they sold me a token for £2…
Edit - which I left at home yesterday when I went back to London, but as I was paying quite a bit for a climb at the Cutty Sark, they loaned me a token. Must add the IWM token to the contents of my manbag
There’s a Sainsbury’s that requires coins, but I always ask a member of staff to unlock a trolley for me and they always do.
I just tell them I have no coins on me.
I don’t think I could find anyone at my local Tesco.
I’m not sure about Sainsbury, but I’ve got a little plastic thing on my keyring which works on trollies that don’t capture the £.
Went to the barbers earlier and his card machine has gone down and it’s only cash today
So got my hair cut and had to go and get cash which is a very rare occasion these days
My barbers card machine is very often ‘down’, actually out of the last 6 visits I’d say it’s been down for 4 of them.
I kindly suggested last time I was in there, he might want to get that replaced as it’s so unreliable
They always get down on busy weekends.
the nuisance kiddie rides that you find in supermarket lobbies take contactless now, so you don’t get to use ‘sorry kiddo, don’t have any change on me’ as an excuse any more.