Maybe the UK is very different from the US but I find I use cash more now than I used to since I got into buying used items from private parties. This includes cars, farm equipment, mowers, camera equipment / lenses, and more. If you're at auctions you get a discount for paying cash (which honestly I think is a bit of a scam, but there it is), same for buying gas at a gas station. If you're at a swap meet or the like, or a yard sale - no one is setting up a square account or something, nor do they want to deal with your paypal or venmo or whatever. They want you to give them $10 or whatever and take the used item.

So - some of this I'm sure is the limits of the US banking system, but also no one wants to need to do extra IRS paperwork for a one time sale of something. Yes, a lot of it is "dodging taxes", but I also see the other side - if I'm selling my old books and that bike I haven't used in a decade in a once a year or less yardsale - it's a little ridiculous to need to do sales and income taxes on each $2-$50 item that would be required with digital payments.

Well. I rarely use cash in stores or restaurants, but I also see it for local chicken BBQs or little town fairs - the local legion or whatever doesn't have a portable card machine...

[–] lennier@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

No-one in Britain would even think about tax implications, because there is a generous tax allowance on sales of private possessions, and private vehicle sales are wholly exempt

Last time I sold a vehicle the guy paid me via a bank transfer and the money was in the account by the time I'd loaded by banks app to check. So yeah, very different. I haven't touched a note in at least four years

[–] riotrick@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Yes US is very different in that aspect. I live in the Netherlands. Most people here have an app from their bank, with which you basically can do all your banking with. For payments between people, you can simply create a payment request in your banking app, and send a link to it via text, whatsapp, whatever. When clicking the link it will open the receivers own banking app with which the transfer can be me. Just the bank accounts, and amounts are already preset. It's very easy to use, works with every bank, and everybody just uses the app from their own bank with all it's safety measures.

Personally I hardly ever use cash anymore. Just tapping your phone to pay is so much more convenient. Also keeping track of where you spend your money is easier.

Out here we used to have atm machines everywhere. Their number has declined greatly though. They are still around, you will usually have to check a map if you're in place where you don't know their locations. Cash usage has definitely declined a lot these last year.

That being said, I think getting rid of cash completely is a bad idea. Cash certainly has it's usage / advantages.

It also seems to differ from country to country by the way. For example Germany, still uses cash a lot more than we do here.