A thing no longer king

"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse) 06/25/2020 at 16:31 • Filed to: Cash, Rupiah

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Here we have:

A €10 note

A €1 coin (from Spain, as it happens)

An Indonesian 1,000 rupiah coin that somebody passed off to me as a €2 coin.

I’ve had all of these for months and there’s a reason for that. Since the beginning of the Current Unpleasantness we’ve been encouraged to use contactless payments wherever possible so it’s Google Pay and cards for me. Nothing need be contacted unless I’m paying more than the €50 limit beyond which most terminals require you to use the keypad.

So the note just sits there. I’ve phased out cash. The coins though I’m using but not for the purpose intended. They’re for releasing supermarket trolleys. Aldi need the €2 lookalike, others content themselves with the €1.

not for canada - australian in disguise > Cé hé sin 06/25/2020 at 16:47

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It’s been a while since I’ve seen a paper note that isn’t Canadian Tire money in person, since we switched to plastic ages ago. I’m surprised the Eurozone still has paper banknotes. Our new notes are even the wrong way around like how the Swiss do it.

That being said, with stuff like tap-to-pay being everywhere, it’s been a while since I’ve used cash/coins , except when I need to take the bus/train since my city is 20 years in the past and has been in the “ proces s” of implementing tap cards for the past 10 or so years and still haven’t finished.

Cé hé sin > not for canada - australian in disguise 06/25/2020 at 16:52

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Plastic’ll come presumably.

Not often you see Romansch (tschient francs, milli francs) in writing.

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > Cé hé sin 06/25/2020 at 16:53

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Ditto, si nc e well before Covid. I’ve got $40 in my wallet that’s been sitting there for at least 6 months. The only thing I use actual money for is the snacks honesty box at work: I’m going to have a real problem there once the several hundred dollars of loose cha n ge I’ve accumulated in a jar over the last decade or so runs out, but since I’m mostly working from home now that might take a while .

And I can’t even remember back to w he n I la st wrote a cheque or spoke to a bank teller.

It’s becom ing a real problem for the older generation. My Dad can handle phone banking, ATMs and cards, but my Mom is cash only and basically computer-illiterate. She hasn’t got the vision for anything screen-based, never mind the ability to acquire new skills . There’s no way she’d be able to cope on her own.

ranwhenparked > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 06/25/2020 at 17:14

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My parents are the opposite way around, my dad doesn't trust ATMs or credit cards, for some reason. He has one debit card he never uses, and one credit card for emergencies, that he never uses, and walks around with a giant wad of cash in his wallet all the time. My mom is in her 60s, but is all over Apple Pay and plastic, maybe a little too much. Never has cash on her, and doesn't really do a good job vetting websites for online shopping

barnie > Cé hé sin 06/25/2020 at 18:46

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Wow. I’ve been reading OP and yer replies and I’m the opposite. I use cash wherever possible. Just today paid cash at the pizza joint, WallyWorld, smoke shop and hardware store. I keep a couple hundred on me most of the time. Coins go into a jar when I get home, then rolled eventually for the bank. Haven’t had a credit card since 1983. Do have one of those debit cards but that’s mostly for online stuff where PayPal doesn’t work. But then I’m in my 60s and just used to cash, I guess , even for the legal stuff.

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > ranwhenparked 06/25/2020 at 19:29

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My folks are in their 80s. I think on the whole the 60-some th ing crowd can handle it: they were still in their wanting -to-adapt years when the web became a thing. It’s the next decade or tw o older that are the big problem, and with lifespans and geriatric health steadily increasing, they may be still with us and semi-independent for the next 20 years. By which time we’ll all be managing our money using cerebral implants and the teenage checkout chick wo n’t recogniz e a banknote when an old crock waves it under their nose.

ranwhenparked > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 06/25/2020 at 19:39

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That’s probably the issue here, too. There’s a 9 year age gap between my parents, so my dad is in his early 70s, she’s early 60s. The only computer he ever learned how to use was some room sized one they trained him briefly on in Vietnam, then told him he’d never see again unless he was posted to an embassy. He used to have his secretary print out his emails for him, and he’d write out replies on legal. We got him an iPad for his birthday several years ago, which was his first introduction to the Internet and using email for himself, and he took to all that really, really well, especially when he found the firearms and military history related channels on YouTube, loves his iPhone, too, which he got later on his own. But, its mainly the online shopping and electronic payments he just has a hang up with.

Until 3 months ago, I was a branch manager at a bank, I left just as we were adapting to the COVID restrictions. We closed the lobby to walk-in traffic, requiring appointments. One of our elderly customers who came in several times a week to withdraw shopping money was fretting over what she’d do if she couldn’t come into the bank, and my head teller tried to be helpful and suggest that we could set her up with a debit card and overnight it to her house. She flipped out like someone had insulted her own mother or something. Wanted to come in my office and complain - what would I want with a debit card? Whoever heard of such a thing? Why should anyone use a debit card? I withdraw from the teller line, etc. etc. Massive chip on her shoulder, my dad isn’t all negative like that, its just something he’s never used and doesn’t feel comfortable with, but this lady was ridiculous. 

Discerning > Cé hé sin 06/25/2020 at 19:50

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You need to pay to get a cart at supermarkets? That sort of stinks. Is that pretty normal over there?

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > ranwhenparked 06/25/2020 at 19:56

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I got my Mom an IPad for her birthday a couple of years ago. S he was *really* excited by the prospect of Facetiming with the grandkids and highly motivated to learn how to drive it . It didn’t work out bec au se it turns out the accessibility tools on iOS are totally borked: it’s pretty much impossible to actually achieve anythi ng using only voice commands, and the large-text and other tools for the visually impaired only semi-work and require some pretty sophisticated multi-finger swiping (plus they have enough “can’t do that” holes to prevent you actually completing most useful actions ).

When I boug ht the thing, I decided just out of curiosity to try and set it up using only the accessibility tools: I couldn’t achieve it, and I’m a power iOS user so I know exactly what I’m tryi ng to do. S omeone coming in cold wouldn’t get far past turni ng it on .

It was a real eye opener to how badly the dis abled and elderly community are served by the tech sector: Apple are *good* at UX stuff, and quite clearly they’re totally phoning it in in this area.

ranwhenparked > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 06/25/2020 at 20:02

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You finished with exactly what I thought when I started reading that - Apple ARE the best, arguably, at easy user interfaces, so if they’re failing, what the hell is everyone else doing? Its a problem, we’re at the point where technology is so ubiquitous in daily life that you really don’t have the option of ignoring it anymore. Its part of what made shutting everything down for COVID even somewhat feasible, the fact that so much of daily necessities could still be done online. We never did anything like that for any other pandemic in human history, because, frankly, we couldn’t. Things like this should be a big wakeup call, if you can’t figure out how to handle things for yourself online - ordering groceries, web banking, video conferencing, time’s up, need to start learning now. 

Jb boin > Discerning 06/25/2020 at 21:20

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Yes it is in all Europe (but it’s not always the case anymore) but you get your coin back when you put back your cart and you can have plastic or metal tokens made for this purpose :

Longtime Lurker > Cé hé sin 06/26/2020 at 00:20

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I haven’t bought anything with cash since March. I did take out my monthly cash from the ATM at the beginning of April, the household has been using cash to transfer money among each other. So I’ve been paying my rent in cash, if I buy something like fast food or auto parts for the others, I get paid back in cash.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Cé hé sin 06/26/2020 at 01:06

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I’ve been pretty much cashless during all this here in the US as well. I had a $20 bill in my wallet from the beginning of March until the end of May. When the local coffee place  opened back up for to-go orders I stuck it in the baristas’ tip jar.  That was 4 weeks ago and I haven’t gone to the ATM since.  I think have around $1 in coins and a $5 bill stashed in my car and that’s it. 

duurtlang > Cé hé sin 06/26/2020 at 03:16

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I had been living almost cashless for 15ish years. Until I moved to Germany. They seem to be 20 years behind the times here.

Another downside here is that some EC card machines here don't accept foreign (still euro zone) bank cards. Which is especially frustrating when you had work done on your car, like I had yesterday. I had to pay cash...

Discerning > Jb boin 06/26/2020 at 08:23

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Oh, that actually makes sense. I wish they did that in the US. People here are extra lazy about returning carts. Too lazy to walk 100 feet to put it back. I bet that would change if it was a $1 fee essentially.

Cé hé sin > Discerning 06/26/2020 at 15:05

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You don’t pay as such, you use a coin as a deposit and get it back when you return the trolley.

Cé hé sin > duurtlang 06/26/2020 at 15:08

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Germans don’t like credit cards and by extension debit cards. I went there in the 2000s and the only places that would rou tinely take cards were filling stations.

Discerning > Cé hé sin 06/26/2020 at 18:24

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That’s not only reasonable, it sounds ideal. I wish they did that in the US. So many people don’t return their carts back to where they found them. I bet they would if there were consequences.