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Who Needs Cash?

27th Mar 2013
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About three months ago, the time seemed right to see whether it was possible to live without cash.

Many of us will remember the days when cash was king but soon it may only be a concept recognisable from history books, rendering the mint and possibly even the Bank of England (or least its deep vaults) redundant.

Similarly, it does not seem overly brave to predict that ATM cash machines will really just be replaced by holes in walls in many countries.

This article was originally written before the Cypriot banks closed for the duration and it will be fascinating to see whether British investors change their behaviour as a result.

Ignoring that, the initial impetus for this experiment came courtesy of yet another set of relatively expensive tailors who were completely unable to create trouser pockets that would not fall apart with unseemly rapidity.

Where pockets in jeans never wear out, those in suits appear to have almost instant built-in obsolescence. At the moment, living without keys is a problem but cash was a different matter.

Previously, it was possible to live by an unwritten and face-saving rule that anything costing £5 or more would be paid for using credit or debit cards and anything below in cash.

If nothing else, there was a sense that you would feel really silly buying a sandwich for three pounds with plastic. Gradually, it became apparent that the youth of today (i.e. anybody under about 30 or even 60) had no such qualms.

The results have been a revelation. At the time of writing, like a homage to the old comedy sketch, your columnist's pockets are graced with a £10 note and a £5 note that have been alone in situ for about a fortnight, without a coin in sight to keep them company.

It has become apparent that there is really no need to use cash in 95% of situations. Supermarkets even provide checkout machines to cover embarrassment at spending 52p on a potato (last night).

Their staff don't bat an eyelid either, while pub and restaurant prices are so inflated that plastic is perfectly reasonable.

The banks are trying to make life even easier too by introducing contactless payment systems, which don't even require a pin number or signature to spend a few pounds or pence.

It has to be said that even in a spirit of scientific investigation, your intrepid correspondent has not yet had the guts to try to pay for a bottle of water at the local sweet shop without a few coins (or in some cases notes) yet but that will only be a matter of time.

On holiday, this policy might be even more of a boon, particularly in the United States where several of the coins look very similar and every green note is identical to the untrained eye of a tourist, which must be great news for the cab drivers.

On the plus side, the pockets are remarkably healthy and could last for years. In addition, it is nice to feel that if by any chance a misguided mugger should creep up, all that he or she will get from this victim is one £10 note, one five pound note and a few hungry moths.

The inevitable conclusion is that like the groat, the farthing and the threepenny bit, the 10p piece, pound coin and even the fiver could well be consigned to history sometime in the next few years.

Try it for yourselves. It really works.

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