193
No credit card? No smartphone? No parking: Parks Canada ditches cash option at Rideau Canal lots
(ottawacitizen.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
193 points (99.0% liked)
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One: Using a card means all transactions are tied to my financial history. For better or worse, I don't want all my personal habits in a ledger somewhere.
Two: Fees. Merchants have to pay fees on credit transactions.
Three: Consolidating financial institutions between a handful of company's. (Visa, MasterCard, Amex, etc)
Four: Complexity. At least one side of the transaction must setup a system to interact with banks or credit cards. Cash is as simple as counting and handing it over.
Five: Budgets. It's been shown that people spend less when they use cash. When someone can see the money actually leave and what they have dwindles they are more responsible with their spending.
Six: Tax evasion. Sometimes, if the waiter/waitress is struggling tipping in cash means it's easier for them not to report that income.
Seven: It makes it much harder to make financial transactions that aren't "approved." Whether or not you like it, some people want to be able to buy drugs or something else that isn't legal. Or even worse, the whims of whatever payment processor they use. A private company shouldn't get to say who can be a merchant and what they are allowed to sell.
Eight: Gifts. Cash is just a simple, nice gift that Zelle or Venmo can't replace.
Nine: No chance of overdrafting and getting hit with bullshit fees.
I work in fintech, specifically in the payments industry for a company that has a huge vertical spread. And damn let me tell you, we (along with the big ones like MC, Visa, Amex) just skim the delicious foam off the top of everything... right into the pockets of the exec team who keep doing weekly stupid motivational videos from every corner of the world.
I think governments should start thinking about nationalizing the shit out of this instead of everyone paying these stupid nepomonkeys. I don't care if I'd be out of a job, I can find something else.
I used to work for a company that converted coin-based parking meters to contactless card payment. And I completely agree.
Payment by card/app saves the companies a ton of money because they donβt have to handle cash β the guy going around is now just a fact checker and the automated systems handle the cash.
Previously, some cash was βlostβ at each touch point (human handling the cash) in the chain; now this is replaced by higher fees, and a percentage going to fintech executives directly.
Oh yea. It's ridiculous that governments have let financial transactions be a private company thing.
Huh, that's actually a pretty interesting collection. A few I kind of don't really think hold any weight but some I haven't thought about before. Cheers.
Yea. I could go on and on about why I prefer cash a lot of times. Not always, but I always carry a couple hundred bucks on me. I also usually hide $20 or so somewhere in my car. Just in case I need gas and I forgot my wallet or the payment system was down or anything like that. It won't get me a full tank. But it will get me home.
The odds of getting robbed are slimmer than getting my credit card skimmed. I've had credit cards skimmed multiple times in the last few years. Last time I was robbed was over a decade ago, and that's cause I passed out at a party and someone told my wallet.
One could spend thousands of bucks before getting shut down (and thankfully I have good fraud protection so I didn't pay) while the other got 50 bucks.
Bartering is also a good one. It's easier to barter with people at stands or who make their own goods. Most handymen or trades workers will charge you less if you pay in cash. They probably aren't reporting the income, but they also aren't having to pay the payment processor 5% of the total. When you make a $5000 repair to your house, that's $250 just in fees the contractor/handyman has to pay. Cash avoids that.