One thing that bothers me about any abolition of cash is without it how will children learn the value of money.
When my son was little and had a money box he regularly counted the content and worked out if he enough to buy something or needed to save more likewise my 3 older grandchildren.
Without cash it will be more difficult to teach children about managing money.
And that is exactly why this country is in the state that it is Meg, with debt that will never be settled. Debt is positively encouraged…When you are in debt the banks have got you by the balls, and that is just what they want.
Good post Meg, and I agree with you.
I am using cards a lot more than I did. i hardly handle cash now. Having said that I have a stash of £20 notes I will need to get rid of before the new ones come out. Not under my mattress as somebody else joked but kept in the house.
Not a good idea as they are just a little’ lumpy’, it does of course depend upon how many rolls of them you have stashed away! 
Oh no you don’t put them into rolls if you stuff them under the mattress. Flat packs of say £1000, makes it much more comfortable.
P.S. The ‘new’ 20s are already in circulation.
It seems that - in recognition of the decline in being able to obtain cash and the difficulty this presents for so many people - The Treasury is launching a consultation into the possibility of getting cash in shops without having to make a purchase.
It’s no great surprise that the industry is already objecting saying - amongst other things - that it will make them more vulnerable to attempts of robbery.
Personally though I don’t see quite how they will be holding significantly more cash than they do now.
I mean, it’s like a perpetual cycle; those who do use cash will take it out and then spend it again and so the cycle goes on.
And those who use electronic means and cards will continue to do so, like myself who haven’t carried cash on a regular basis for years - and the pockets in my trousers last longer as a result!
(I think I have a dusty plastic fiver and a tenner in my wallet for “just in case” - but they must have been in there for certainly well over a year.)
I can see this being beneficial for a certain minority, one of whom is my near-luddite technophobe MIL (bless her) who has an aversion to using her bank card unless it is absolutely necessary.
That’s nothing new. Quite a few shops have cash machines in store.
That might well be true but there are more and more towns and villages without any cash machine.
Also there are many places which only have a pay-to-use cash machine.
“Number of ATMs customers must pay to use increased by almost 40% in a year”
The link I first included contains the following:
“The watchdog also expressed concerns about plunging numbers of free-to-use cash machines - with almost 10,000 lost over two years. The BRC said it believed there were just 10,000 left.”
So that’s another reason why the change is being considered.
Can’t you get cashout from the checkout at the supermarket?
At the moment only if you make a purchase here Bruce; “Do you want any cash back with that?” is a phrase well-used.
Yes you can Bruce, if you can distract the assistant long enough to grab a handful of folding stuff out of the till and then run like hell. They won’t recognise anyone wearing a mask, and in our local Tesco, the security guard is so overweight, Long John Silver could out run him…
Although, using my loyalty card for the points might not be a good idea…
The more we rely on technological advancements, the more we will struggle when they fail.
Technology is great when it works… there is no plan B. Without cash and no means of accessing money, how would you cope.
I agree with you Cinders. 
How many chickens to the £ or maybe some carrots?
You can be sure lots of people said that when the first motor cars appeared.
They also said, What if these motor cars take over from the horse, where will we get the manure for my roses and tomato plants?
And television and the internet…
the Luddites on here hate technology
I caught the wife mooching around in my wallet, I thought it strange that she ignored the notes compartment and was checking just the coins, then the reason became obvious, she was “going through the Change”.
Without cold, hard cash, life without it may be more so.
Turn a phone into a virtual wallet, and an expensive toy becomes a necessity.
