Cash has to be one of my least favorite inventions of all time. I avoid using it as much as possible.
This year we had a whole slew of currencies to deal with… UK pound sterling, Euros, Polish złoty, Swedish krona, and Norwegian krone. And maybe Icelandic króna on a layover… Plus a few US Dollars…
Every time we were about to switch currencies it became clear these pieces of colored paper were doing nothing but occupying space in my wallet. So we decided to make a real go of it – could we go completely cashless?
Cash
If I only listened to my high school history teachers, I would think that cash and coins were invented because the world was stuck in place due to the difficulty of barter. (Not true, debt and credit were the way of things.)
Even though we spend a lot of time in a largely cash economy (Taiwan), ignoring rent for the moment I estimate at least 75% of our transactions and 90%+ of our total spending are digital.
(Taiwan has a huge cash economy but it is changing quickly – even 7-11 accepts Apple Pay now. Even so, we’ve gotten really efficient at major cash withdrawals. And we still get some paper checks in the mail (from so-called Technology companies) that I deposit electronically… )
Still, we could do better. My dislike of cash is multi-fold.
We track every penny we spend. With cash, there is no automatic transaction record. Digital transactions are auto-recorded in your tool of choice (mint or personal capital, usually.) With cash you either end up with a giant pile of torn and mutilated receipts, or no record at all.
The taxi guy never has the right change and always takes 5 minutes to get it right (cue Uber.)
When you do get change, it is always in the form of bulky and heavy coins. Nobody wants coins, especially the currency conversion places.
Speaking of which, currency conversion is a huge scam. I was once quoted $10 to convert a mixed bag of about $20 worth of Mexican pesos, Thai bhat, and Phillippine pesos into Euros. (Bills only, sorry.) Credit card transactions always have a reasonable exchange rate.
There is always an ATM nearby somewhere, but this credit card and Paypal are right here right now. “Do you take Apple Pay?”
When you lose your wallet (or it is stolen) the only thing not replaceable is the cash.
Credit card transactions cost exactly the same as cash transactions, but you earn points and get 30 days of free float.
Stores prefer digital too… my local coffee shop gives a discount (~11%) for using a card instead of cash.
I could go on and on…
Going Cashless
In Spain I withdrew 50€ from the ATM. One month and 5 countries later we still had most of it.
In Warsaw we stepped into a coffee shop to escape the heat of the day. It was a credit card only business (no cash, please.)
We entered Estonia (the “most advanced digital society in the world”) with 40€ in cash. We left with 40€.
Bus and tram tickets were purchased online or through an app, and cost half as much as paying cash with the driver.
Every restaurant and vendor accepted credit cards, and the transactions were quick and easy.
Cash wise, every country we visited seemed equally happy to avoid the paper and coins. Apple Pay was nearly everywhere.
It’s getting easier…
Near Misses
There were a few occasions where we (almost) needed to switch to cash…
In the middle of nowhere Norway, we stopped at a food truck for Thai food and Jr suddenly needed to use a bathroom… the public restroom had a subway style rotating security gate and a 10 kr entrance fee (~$1.25.) We had zero coins. Fortunately a Chinese tour bus had the same need and I used my limited Chinese to ask the tour guide to let us slip in with his group. (Ironically, per the guide, this gate had only been installed in the last week because of the Chinese tour groups…)
Elsewhere in Norway we needed to pay for parking. Cash was an option, but so was downloading an app and using Apple Pay. Another Norway challenge was gas pumps would only take cards with a PIN or cash. I opted for the debit card.
Vending machines – I tried to buy a bottle of water from a news stand in Stockholm, but it was cash only. I found a vending machine nearby that took a card and cost less.
Farmer’s Market – in Seattle a market vendor asked if we could pay with cash instead of card. But they didn’t have correct change for a $20 so used Square instead.
Street performers – anytime we stop to watch or listen to some street performers we give them a tip. Jr loves throwing coins into an open guitar case. Sometimes they sell CDs but we don’t have anything that would play one…
Taxi – in one case in Lithuania we paid cash for a taxi, because the driver was obviously a huge crook. (He was friendly enough, but “meter is broken”, “that street has heavy traffic”, etc… We used Uber and public transit for the rest of our stay.)
Tips – I prefer to tip with cash especially if the service is great. You never know how a restaurant treats its employees…
Charitable giving – if we are ever asked by somebody on the street for some change, I always give what I have. Sometimes that is food, but usually coins or small bills. No questions, no judgement.
Tolls – a toll booth in California was cash only (somewhere between San Jose and Sacramento)
Uncle Ike’s – some businesses are cash only for obvious reasons.
Rent – we still pay our rent in cash.
Getting rid of a currency – as we were getting ready to leave a currency (e.g. leaving the EU) we paid cash for some things just to get rid of it.
Final Thoughts
We made it through several countries this year without using cash, and avoided a couple ATM withdrawals and occasional excessive exchange fees as a result. We managed to skip some currencies entirely (Norwegian Krone and British Pounds.)
It’s definitely getting easier to go cashless, with more of our transactions and total spending becoming purely digital. This year was the first time I remember a business that was credit only. If we can move rent to online payments our transition will be nearly complete.
I would love to go cashless. In the U.S. I find that this is generally possible. There are very few moments when I need cash. In fact, I can remember a couple years ago when I took $100 out of the ATM for some reason, and months later that money was still in my wallet. Travelling abroad it is interesting to see which countries are embracing cashless and which are laggards. I was in Switzerland a coupe years ago and cash still seems to be quite prevalent, which is surprising considering the banking / modern / european culture there…
Aside from the California toll booth, I believe we were 100% cashless in the US this year (~30 days.)
I never use cash in Denmark. Only when I travel I sometimes find myself in need of cash. Even in countries like Germany and Italy some restaurants and hotels only accept cash, which surprises me every time.
Everything in Denmark is so expensive that you almost need to use cards or carry around a wheelbarrow full of bills (only kinda kidding – I think we paid something like $30 for a couple lattes)
Sounds like you’re talking about Norway. Denmark is cheap in comparison.
When I´m in a non-euro country I use multicurrency cards like Revolut or Transferwise to avoid exchange rate fees. But I remember having issues in some gas station because my postcode is not in the country’s format.
I don´t remember the last time I had to use cash in London in the last 6 months.
You’re still paying an exchange fee, no? 0.35% on GBPEUR or something thereabouts?
Yes, around 0.35% with Transferwise. With Revolut it’s free (unless you exchange more than 5k per month). Both use interbank exchange rates.
I love being cashless. I agree, more and more businesses are going this route. I hardly ever carry cash that amounts to anything and that’s the way I like it, maybe a buck or two. But you also know I’m “frugal”. I just wish more gas pumps would accept Apple Pay. Was on a trip to New Orleans and found two different stations that used Apple Pay at their pumps. Fantastic, It can’t get here fast enough for the rest of them.
Bob #2 gets frustrated with me when I don’t have cash. Any trip of more than a couple days, he instinctively wants to get at least a 100.00 out of the ATM. In most cases, we come back with most if not all it. I’m working on him. :) Great timing on this article.
When we were in the US gas stations were one of the 5% categories on the Chase Freedom, and I only had it on Apple Pay (not the physical card.) So I had to go inside the station to pay every time I needed to fill up… Apple Pay at the pump would be great!
Hopefully one day soon your need to get some Euros from the ATM :) Ciao!
I’m heading to Greece in October for the Chautauqua and I’ve decided to go a few days early to wander the city and get over jet lag. Apparently they don’t have Uber and the Taxis mostly only take cash. I’ll keep looking. I’m with you, I particularly dislike cash when traveling because I ususally use a money belt and puffs out!
We used Uber in Greece… (in Athens.) I recall them considering suspending service a few months ago but not sure if that changed.
I’ve had bad taxi experiences in Greece where they go the long way or don’t run the meter and ask for outrageous fees, so Uber is best. Or use a taxi app like taxi.eu rather than get into any taxi off the street.
In late February, this year, we had no problems getting an Uber car from Athens Airport to our Airbnb in Kypseli. It was late at night, after the last subway had already left the airport. Leaving Athens, it was daytime, so we just took the subway to the airport. Not sure if anything has changed since then…
More and more of what we buy is done on line so automatically we pay digital more and more. But for the times I personally buy something I actually prefer to pay via cash. But it is more like some people preferring vinyl over digital: habits formed when young and bit nostalgia mixed with it …
This is kinda the case with us too. Rather than go to a store we just have it delivered. Taipei even has same day delivery on most things.
I have zero nostalgia for cash though. It’s just a hassle
Iceland is basically cashless. Even the pay toilets took credit card.
Yeah, it is great. We also had a credit card accepting pay toilet in Norway, just the random one in the middle of nowhere was cash only
Glad to hear is was easy to be cashless in Spain as we plan to move there for ER in 2 years.
Whats up with all of the bathrooms that you have to pay to use? We came across this in Cozumel this past summer. So weird to me…
Free plentiful bathrooms is apparently a uniquely American experience. It’s included in the price of your shopping, restaurant, or leisure activity. Elsewhere it’s a la carte and you pay up (at least in much of Latin America and Europe).
Paid bathrooms are the best. In general (not 100% of the time) it means that the bathroom is clean, orderly, maintained, and well stocked. It’s also a natural defense against homeless people squatting in the bathroom, and other bathroom weirdos doing their weird things.
I was just in Boston Logan Airport, terminal B. Water from the automatic faucets runs about 2 seconds, and the paper towel dispensers give you about 4 inches of paper – not enough to wash or dry with any kind of thoroughness – and this is an airport, a place where you should be washing your hands! I would much rather pay 50 cents get nice hot water, good toilet paper, and nicer paper towels, and clean facilities.
Plus as a society why shouldn’t we have to pay the marginal cost of running bathrooms. Shit’s expensive if you catch my drift. like most things in the U.S we want everything to be free or heavily subsidized (clean water, clean air, public parks, etc.) But it’s not free and we should all contribute to the operation of the facilities that literally prevent disease and enhance cleanliness.
we do pay. Look at the taxes included in the price of your ticket
This is nonsense. You can pay someone to be an attendant in a free bathroom to keep things clean, and it would be paid by taxes as a social service, just like roads and trash collection. The nicest bathroom I’ve ever been in was free, in Copenhagen, in a slightly sketchy area. I expected it to be awful, but it was beautiful, clean and smelled nice. It had live plants, candles, and wood panelling! And an attendant with an office.
I’m speaking generally about bathrooms in the U.S. That bathroom in Copenhagen sounds nice, it also sounds expensive to run. I know GCC mentioned taxes, but the fact of the matter is the U.S. is, in general, one of the lower taxed nations in the world. As a share of GDP the U.S collects about 26% in tax revenue. Denmark collects 50.8% of their GDP as tax revenue. Less revenue in the U.S means lower or reduced services.
All I’m saying is in any place I have ever been the paid bathrooms are better. It’s usually seen as a business, or at least a public utility that pays for itself – it has a direct revenue stream. The problem with taxes in general is that public bathrooms are not seen as a priority. We have crumbling bridges, roads, schools, and a giant military to fund. Bathrooms in the U.S get funded last and it shows.
Sure, if I’m in Europe and there’s a great free bathroom it’s fantastic. But if I’m in Peru – or the U.S for that matter – and my options are a ditch (or what looks like a ditch inside 4 walls) and a 50 cent fee to use a real toilet – I will gladly pay the 50 cents.
Love it. I much prefer the ease of credit over cash. But it seems like 10% of situations still require cash, even in the first world. Or you suffer mild inconvenience and/or pay more or experience limitations on where you shop. We tried hard to go cashless in the first world in Canada, and hit a rock hard wall in Chinatown in Toronto. Half the places wouldn’t take credit, or were total assholes about it (oh no, you got American credit card, $5 surcharge! – because it was an American Airlines credit card lol).
I walked into a half dozen Chinese bakeries and none would take the card, or it was $20 min purchase or something crazy. Or the prices were 10x as much (priced like a cafe where everything was $2-3 each vs the bakery next door where it was 3 for a dollar for a lot of items).
I got tired of that pretty quickly!
So I broke down and withdrew $50 or $100 so I we could go out to eat wherever and shop wherever regardless of form of payment accepted.
End result: cash was more convenient at times. And in Europe, we’ve had to pay to use the toilet (times 4-5 with kids, don’t even get me started…). Those 1 euro coins were a lifesaver. Or at least a pants saver.
The Schwab/Fidelity no ATM fee cards are awesome for getting just $10-20 worth of local currency. Use your last handful of change on transit to the train station/airport out of town, or buy some snacks or drinks to carry with you on the ride to the next country. I’ve also used up the spare change at a grocery store or restaurant where I ask “can I give you these 26.20 pesos and you charge the other 152.30 pesos to my credit card?”. No change left over.
We’ve done the same cash / credit card purchase combo to get rid of unwanted coins and bills. It’s way better than showing up at the airport with a currency you no longer need.
The chinatown experience is similar in Taiwan… all of the really small shops that are owned by people older than 50 are cash only. I’m sure it helps with their taxes.
Cash only saves on taxes the world over. Local Asian businesses operate on same premise :)
Thanks for the update about traveling internationally as cashless as possible. I rarely exchange money before I get to a country. I have a habit of hitting an ATM as soon as I land for a small amount of cash and try to spend it up before I leave. I do as much as possible cashless too.
I lived in HK in 2009 and 2010. I found it an odd mix of retro and advanced. I had to fill out a form in person to intiate some kind of electronic activity. Almost made my brain melt. Before I left they were doing digital check deposits (a few years before US adopted it). I always did a lot of more in cash in HK.
I’ve gone back to cashless in the US but I keep a small stash of cash set aside for emergencies (ie a hurricane knocks power out for a week) or $20 in my phone case for when I forget my wallet.
Interesting that Apple Pay and credit cards are actually less expensive. Except here. I’m getting a 10 cent up charge for every time I use Apple Pay. So irritating.
Yeah we never exchange cash before we arrive. The ATM has way better exchange rates.
Taiwan has that same advanced/retro combo, but the retro stuff is moving out pretty quickly. Winnie has a Taiwan credit card from years and years ago, and she recently tried to update the phone number and address on it. But to do so they have to text her a code to the phone number on record… which she doesn’t have. Oh well, we just use the Sapphire Reserve instead.
Another reason for bitcoin. A universal, decentralized, government free currency, that is digital…. Can’t wait until it’s accepted everywhere in 3-5 years (longer in 3rd world countries). No more getting ripped off on exchange rates, paying fees, or having an extra few dollars here and there from every country I visit.
heh
Since March of this year I’ve carried a finite amount of “weekly cash” around with me. Just for fun. I make it a game. When the amount is gone, it’s gone. And I chuckle when I pull my Canadian funny money out at a cash register and the person behind the register says, “oh, cash”. I still use the convenience of credit for the big stuff like plane tickets and new bikes. Gotta get those travel points. But for the every day, it’s cash. This may sound trite, but for me, I find I spend less… just the amount I withdraw when I have cash on hand. I do have to admit to this going out the window a bit when I travel.
Are you spending less because you might decide to get a coffee but then don’t have the cash for it? Or is is something else?
Spending less in a deliberate and intentional way. I have a kind of spidey sense on when my finite amount each week is coming to an end. Oh, and I use the finite amount each week mostly for groceries and eating out.
We could have gone cashless in Iceland. I withdrew $100 just in case, but we didn’t need it at all. The only time we really needed it was for the restroom. And that was an honor system so…
We still like cash, though. The foreign coins and bills are so cool. Junior loves collecting them and showing them off.
We had the same Iceland experience.
Amsterdam tested this quite a bit for me. Not in the touristy city center, but out in the suburbs where the real people live.
The locals were cash only or credit only?
As someone who has to handle people’s sweaty money and watch them pick the change out of a wad of snot rags before they hand it to me I welcome cashless society with open arms
My favorite is the touristy beach places in Europe, when people hand over waterlogged cash and all they are wearing is speedos…
I still carry cash, but rarely use it. The same bills have been in my wallet for months (years?)
It is the little things like restroom fees and parking meters and tolls, and then I get stuck with coins which I never know quite what to do with. ;)
Back in the US I had a big glass jar of coins that I built up over years. It probably had $200 in it. I was going to take it to the bank to exchange it but then somebody broke into my house while I was away on a business trip… so that solved that little problem.
Loved reading this!
But I’ve been to one place where your ‘cashless’ idea won’t work.
In North Korea you have to take your money in with you – there’s no credit cards or digital access to funds. I took a mix of euros and yuan in with me.
The only time we even got our hands on North Korean won was when we went to the supermarket and we had to get some money changed to buy things.
But with regard to everyday living? I’ve had $100 sitting n my wallet, untouched, for the last 2 months. Yesterday it came in handy when my son needed a loan of $60 to buy petrol for his car. :)
Cuba was the same
I still buy all my drugs/guns/tricks with cash. Fewer needles in the data-mining/omni-surveillance haystack.
And please remember to tip your bartenders…
Same :)
We’re mostly cashless at home, but every time we need to travel to Japan we need cash. So many businesses there only take cash!
I was pretty impressed with Japan’s acceptance of foreign credit cards. 7-11 and Family Mart were happy to take our cards, as were most places except really small restaurants.
It’s amazing how quickly things change. A decade ago I remember visiting a small town in Germany for work. Cash was really the only option. My last few trips I regretted converting at all as I could have just gone cashless. One has to wonder if we’re heading towards a cashless society or if like newspapers it will hang on for a long time.
Yeah, it’s changed quickly. I remember 10 years ago taking a taxi home from a business trip, and the Seattle taxis having those old carbon copy machines for a credit card transaction.
It’s amazing how China is pretty much prolific cashless, but instead of Apple Pay and Google Pay, it’s WeChat Pay and Alipay. Even the smallest street vendors accept both digital forms. I’ve lived here for several months using essentially zero cash. In the USA, those digital forms are rarely used, but most places take credit. I prefer using credit cards over the other digital forms because of the cashback or points that you don’t get with the other forms. As you mentioned, I also track every cent, and tracking is easier with credit cards versus WeChat/Alipay.
The apps are getting popular here too, Alipay and Gomaji. I used Gomaji for awhile cuz a coffee shop was giving 2:1 coffees but now I’m back to using the card. I agree credit cards are much easier for tracking
Am 99.9% cashless in South Africa – only need cash for tips for car guards and for petrol attendant tips and never know where to find coins to do so, but otherwise everything is cashless for us, housing, food, petrol, restaurants, paying other people, getting paid.
Mostly cashless when we travel, some cash… unfortunately currency conversion fees for rands to USD/EUR are still around 1-2% of value, same for bitcoin conversion rates..
I just got back from a 2-week trip to Indonesia (it was amazing + the dollar really goes far there), and the majority of transactions were done with cash. I would say it was 90:10 cash so it definitely depends on where you are. In the States it is the reverse for me.
My wife and I visited Berlin last month, which is still a very cash-heavy society. Restaurants and vendors try to avoid cards unless they’re high-end shiny places. Good luck trying to pay with plastic at a beer garden or wurst stand. And with a foreign credit card it’s easier to use € coins at the platform machines to purchase transit passes.
It was the complete opposite of my normal life here in mid-Atlantic USA. I don’t like working with cash, especially in foreign currency. Always feels like I’m just throwing it around.
No one has yet mentioned my main reason for having a cash cache: Craigslist. Or has that gone digital in other parts of the world as well?
I think my last 2 Craigslist transactions we just used paypal. 1 in SF when we bough a stroller, and another in Seattle when I sold a bike.
While I do not use a ton of cash, my wife and I do probably go through about $100-200 in cash per month. This is used for things like haircuts (my barber is only cash) and also other local small businesses who offer cash discounts.
The big thing about true cashless is what do you do when power goes out. For instance, even though I live in OH, we got nailed by Super Storm Sandy (well it was an ice storm coming from the west and Sandy from the east) which knocked out power in many places for quite a few days which meant both ATMs and CC processing were down; even when stores were able to open up again after a day or two, many were cash only for another couple simply because the banking system was still all screwed up. If we did not have cash around, we could have been completely stuck. Now, I am not saying to hoard thousands of dollars but I definitely think it is worthwhile to have a few hundred just in case.
Well, in your hypothetical, everything would be cashless, so there would literally be no cash option, so… they’d make do. Barter, rely on battery back up, solar, something.
How do you figure that? In our storm, there were still plenty of people who had cash. As a result, it was only those who did not have cash who were out of luck. Now, we were only out a couple days so it was fine but if you were in a place like NC right now, it may be quite some time before all the infrastructure is up and running smoothly again so having cash would be very useful. Good luck trying to get your local Walmart/grocery store to barter especially when the person right behind you is holding $20s.
Like I said, 90/95% of my transactions are via CC or some sort of e-payment, but there is no downside to having a little cash around just in case.
Having been to China (Shenzhen) a few times in the last few years, I’m surprised how it’s becoming a cashless society. In fact, the locals said they can easily tell who isn’t from China by how people are paying. WeChat Pay and Alipay are extremely popular and people rarely carry cash around anymore.
I have found the credit card companies exchange fees are not great, in Taiwan i used my bank card to withdraw cash and just had to pay the rate at the bank, we took out about 5000 NT. I don’t trust street vendors and the night time markets with my Credit Card
In Canada, all transactions are on the cards. Scotia is pays 4%, Candian Tire 4% (in CT Money) and I have another that pays 2% on Restaraunts. They also have extended warranty bonus’s which I have used on broken electronics.
Pay off all at the end of the month, and your making money, just don’t overspend…
New York City is cash central. Very hard to go cash-free there, but the rest of the US seems pretty easy.
My wife has gone cashless… She does taxis groceries movie tickets everything by phone… Even Subway tickets … She also gets everything delivered from online it’s amazing… From the fire side of the planet…
You track every penny — and so does the government, your credit card company, stores you buy from etc. Cash is private so much better in my opinion. But this is obviously not a privacy-minded crowd :)
I just got back from South Africa, and their toll roads accepted South African credit cards only. I didn’t realize there would be discrimination against international cards. There are also self-appointed “parking lot attendants”, and it is customary to “tip” them with a few rand (or else they might damage your car). Other than a few instances like these, we were largely able to go cashless across the country.