Ye durty bastard
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Roll on the future.
I genuinely havenāt carried cash on me in about 3-4 years and itās been absolutely liberating. No more shrapnel jingling about in my back pocket.
Crazy how far behind us other countries are. Germany and France are still almost 100% cash based as is the rest of the EU. Only Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and NL are as cashless as us. Think itās absolutely nuts.
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This didnāt seem right so did a bit of a google. Data from 2019 apparently.
I mean obviously it was an exaggeration but France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece etc. cash is very much still king and thereās a lot of places even in the cities that wonāt take card/prefer cash and youāre totally fucked if you go out to the countryside.
Thatās just from personal recent experience. I always have to bring cash with me when I go to Eurozone countries but canāt remember the last time I used a note in Denmark or the UK.
Having everything in Google pay for instance is just so easy, all my store cards at a click, my bank card Iāve had for about 3 years now has hardly been used apart from getting money out to pay the car garage once a year.
Only downside is I donāt carry I.D and last night I went to buy an energy drink as I always keep one in the fridge if my kid has an awful night. Got funking deniedā¦it was 9pm Iām 100% over 25 and she was like sorry love you donāt look over 25 I was mind-blown.
Is there an app that has your drivers license on there on something? Haha
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This is the key here. A cashless society is very much a future thing. Our generation might use card all the time. But there are still a lot of people who donāt. To some people, Google Pay and contactless are a foreign language, so I donāt support people saying ācard onlyā just yet. Before Christmas I actually paid for an elderly womanās bread and cake in the bakery because they were doing card only due to COVID, and she only had cash. She was so flustered, bless her. She offered me the cash, but obviously I didnāt take it.
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Ah I forgot the fear of touching money. Thank goodness we are over that now.
I bow to your superior knowledge of the French countryside given that my knowledge amounts to watching the Tour de France 
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Its got a few places into the 21st century now as they were forced to get contactless in their business 
(my barbers being one)
Does the fact that they no longer take cash make a big difference to your life then?
I have been paying only by card for years, I always struggled to have cash on me and especially when Iād go abroad for a holiday I always ran into the problem
Of not being able to pay because they wouldnāt accept my card (for small transactions).
I am glad it moved forward everywhere and we can now pay contactless in most places.
Even at the traditional market here in amsterdam I can now pay with my card or phone when buying 3 apples for 1 euro 
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Much easier. That was the only place I had to go to a atm before going.
They havenāt stopped taking cash though lol that would be stupid you just have the option for contactless which you didnāt have before
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Confirmed
Fraudsters and thieves will be ecstatic
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Would you use a debit or credit card that had a biometric fingerprint reader embedded in it that would prevent abuse of a card?
There is no real evidence of large scale fraud related to contactless. If mine was stolen and used Iād have a notification a few seconds later and the card would be disabled a few seconds after that. Not everyone will be equally equipped of course but still itās not a big thing.
Anyway, you were probably not being overly serious. Carry on.
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This is assuming you notice it stolen and report it though, no? Or maybe if it was used somewhere unusual it would flag up.
I wasnāt being entirely serious. But there are numerous reports about contactless fraud. And experts have warned that this increase will make it worse. Though I know in most cases the bank will refund you if you notice irregularities.
No I have an app and get notified every time the card is used.
They could still use your card once before you are alerted though. But fair enough. Most people do not have such a thing set up. Many are pretty lax about such a thing.