How much do you rely on cards for payment?

[sherman]

I am interested in the extent that people use debit/credit cards as their primary method of payment for day-to-day spending.

What brought this on was that I was at my local McDonalds this evening. While I was there their eftpos went down. For some reason it looks like they were cut off from the network.
It was intriguing to see how many people had to turn around and walk out the door because they had no other way of paying for a meal.
I felt that this highlighted just how much New Zealander's as a nation seems to rely on our eftpos network. A lot of people (myself included) hardly ever carry cash these days, unless we have a specific reason for it. The most I might carry usually is a few dollars in coins to pay for street parking.
In fact, we think nothing of whipping out our bank card to pay for purchases as little as $1.

I've been to the US enough to know that people are more likely to carry cash there, but I don't know how prevalent using debit cards is for day-to-day purchases is in other countries.


Note1: In NZ, the eftpos network is a nation-wide payment system. When you open a normal cheque or savings account (depending on your bank) you are issued with a card that can be used in ATM's and for eftpos transactions. Security is by way of a PIN number.
Finding a retailer without an eftpos terminal is almost impossible these days. Even the questionable takeout store on the street corner will have one...

Note2: Here, eftpos has become a brand name, and is written in lowercase. Of course those who know their acronyms will have probably guessed that it comes from EFTPOS, which stands for Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale.

[GeoffC]

Cash very little - usually a newspaper, car park fees etc - though I've occasionally used cash for petrol given that some petrol stations have been implicated in card scams.

Otherwise all purchases are using credit cards; paying off each month - that way I'll get at least some interest on my money each month whilst it's in the bank ....

[Sweetpea]

99.9%

And all shops are encouraging it. We use our debit card almost everywhere, like you. Credit cards aren't that much used. I only use it when I order something online and paypal (or our local version iDeal) isn't supported and when we're on holiday and have to pay for something big and debit cards aren't supported.

I do carry some change in my wallet, most of the times. But there are times when I'm too lazy to go to an ATM and get some money.

The only time I really pay with money is when I'm outside, and want to buy something from a mobile store (ice creams for example).

Paying for parking is done with a card as well. We have a PIN system and a chipknip system. This last system is most often used for parking, though some will take PIN, CC or cash. And a recent innovation requires the use of a mobile phone.

[HarryT]

It's not normal to use cards for very small purchases in the UK - in many small retailers you'll see a sign saying something like "Cards only accepted for purchase above £10". The reason for that is that if you're a small business, a card transaction normally carries a flat fee of about 30p, so the retailer would lose money if he were to accept a card payment on something with less than 30p profit!

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's not normal to use cards for very small purchases in the UK - in many small retailers you'll see a sign saying something like "Cards only accepted for purchase above £10". The reason for that is that if you're a small business, a card transaction normally carries a flat fee of about 30p, so the retailer would lose money if he were to accept a card payment on something with less than 30p profit!

They had the same here. But these days less and less shop have it, and it's often only below 5 euro...

One thing I noticed is that the people behind the register have more problems returning small change if you do pay with actual money!

[sherman]

In NZ, merchants are not charged per transaction. The fee is usually paid by the customer, although many banks now offer accounts without eftpos or electronic transaction fees.

[nomesque]

Lots. I'm a big fan of electronic payments, where they're free. I figure that being female, I'm probably more likely to be a target for bagsnatchers and the like, and why rely on sheer grumpiness to drive them off if I can limit the amount they can steal as well?

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by nomesque

Lots. I'm a big fan of electronic payments, where they're free. I figure that being female, I'm probably more likely to be a target for bagsnatchers and the like, and why rely on sheer grumpiness to drive them off if I can limit the amount they can steal as well?

grumpy ! ? You ? ....

[Javed]

IRL, I almost always use cash. Maybe once a week I will use the debit card.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by sherman

In NZ, merchants are not charged per transaction. The fee is usually paid by the customer, although many banks now offer accounts without eftpos or electronic transaction fees.

All PIN and (national) electronic transactions are free here. Though there are still a few (smaller) shops that do ask for a small fee, but they are becoming really rare...

A bit of searching gave me a number about PIN transactions in 2009: 1946 million transactions, on a population of 17 million (rise of 10,9% compared to 2008)

[Laz116]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's not normal to use cards for very small purchases in the UK - in many small retailers you'll see a sign saying something like "Cards only accepted for purchase above £10". The reason for that is that if you're a small business, a card transaction normally carries a flat fee of about 30p, so the retailer would lose money if he were to accept a card payment on something with less than 30p profit!

Wow, that's quite a lot.

In Denmark there's a fee of about 3p per transaction. There was an uproar a couple of years back, when they tried to charge the consumers the fee.

I seldom use cash. Probably once or twice per month in average.

[kindlekitten]

I use my check card for almost everything. when I started traveling for work all the time a couple of years ago, I had to. depending on banks was impossible. with that said, I always try to carry about $100 in cash, and keep about $1000 in cash at home

[alecE]

Trend for me over the last few years has definitely been to (a) move away from cheques to card payments and (b) to increase card payments to the point where I will only use cash for small purchases < £5.00. If I have to, I'll get cash-back as well so's the total bill comes to more than the minimum spend. - Just checked, I've got a £10 note in my pocket + £5.00 in coins. The coins have been there for over a week, I got the note last Saturday 'just in case'. I see I have written three cheques in the last 12 months.

[dmaul1114]

I use my Visa card for almost everything, and pay it off in full each month. Might as well earn cash back rewards rather than paying with cash, check or debit card and not earning anything for the same purchases.

Only times I use cash are for places that don't take card, very small purchases ($5 or under--and I'm starting to use the card more for those) or when eating out with friends and everyone is chipping in cash vs. putting the bill on multiple cards.

[happy_terd]

I generally use my debit card for everything. I do not have room in my pockets to carry around all that cash I be spending on the ladies.




By ladies I mean my wife and two daughters.