Cash

[grandmoon]

Does any one else pay bill with cash??

The cashier at the Doctors made a comment as so few people these day paid with cash.

[cherry*135]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

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@am*3 wrote:

polks - The operator admits that cash customers sail through and are easier for them.

I think it takes less time to pay with card via paypass/paywave now that it does to pay by cash. For cash payment operator has to enter details in the till, drawer opens, puts cash in, gets change out, hands change to customer. Waits for receipt to come out.

With paypass/paywave - customer taps their card, approved comes up quite quickly, end of transaction.. wait for receipt to come out.

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Sorry, that's not the reality.  That's what we were told when plastic first was invented, but it is not so.  It is the other way around.  It is me who waits with arms folded leaning on the opposite counter, waiting, waiting.

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It's my reality, I go to the supermakert several times a week.

I find people paying with cash for groceries, often don't have enough out (say they have $80 in their hands and operator says that's $92)... then they start rummaging in their bag for another $12, trying to find the exact amount, not quickly flick out a $20 note.

Paywave/paypass is quite different from when eftpos cards were first introduced. They had to be put in machine, pin numbers punched in, took longer to come up approved, often the operator had to pull the card out and give it back to the customer... now its a few second job to tap it on the paywave thing and transaction is completed.

Used to be a nightmare when cheques were the payment of the day, and customers never even got them out of their bag until the total cost was rung up.. I always had the cheque written out ready except for the amount to be writting in.

[cherry*135]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

That's what I said.  It is free for pensioners... It is free for ALL customers where I bank

Not so many people live near their parents these days.

That might be true for some, but the reality is that oldies are often ditched.

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[lind9650]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

It costs pensioners nothing to withdraw their money from a teller.

I have no cards, I am trying to simplify my life.

It is me who has to wait at the supermarket checkout while the customer before me farts around with one card which doesn't work, then has to scrummage in her bag for another.   The operator admits that cash customers sail through and are easier for them.

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Polks, that is why I chnged from the NAB to a Building Society. NAB charged me $1.50 for every withdrawl over the counter. I have a Pensioners account.

And when it comes to direct debit for regular payments, every transaction costs between $4.- and $5.- that will be deducted once a month. Nothing is free as far as Banks are concerned.

Besdides, for a lot of older peole it is unthinkable to let someone else take money from their ccount. Those are the people who hhave lived through the war, through depression and jobless hardship in their younger days. If they have a little money now, they jealously guard it as privately as possible.

Erica

[cherry*135]

Linds wrote:  that is why I chnged from the NAB to a Building Society. NAB charged me $1.50 for every withdrawl over the counter

Was that years ago? As that is who I bank with and they charge no bank transaction fees at all.. including no withrawal/deposit fees for over counter transations for any customers.

I don't pay any direct debit fees either.. I pay insurance, mobile and internet by DD. I certainly wouldn't be paying $'s for each DD.

The NAB really do have no account transactions fees. No fees for overdrawn accounts either. I changed banks to them because of the no transaction fees.

[wilk1149]

Bendigo bank charges for over the counter withdrawals

[lind9650]

Thanks am*3.

Yes it was about ten years ago that I changed Banks. I told the NAB manager why I was changing and that I was appaled by the system. The Government forced us to receive our pension by Bank deposit and not by cheque anymore, but the Banks saw it as a profit making opportunity and slugged the pensioners with extra fees.

I know Banks have changed systems, but how much to the customers benefit, I don't know.

Erica

[polksaladallie]

A while ago, CBA and other banks were charging everybody for withdrawals.  There was a big stink about pensioners, so they made it 2 withdrawals each month, then they were told that in some months pensions were paid 3 times in the month, so they ditched any charge for withdrawals for pensioners.  

I do not know what other banks do regarding pensioners.

I will have to ask about direct debit charges.  I have two each month.  It appears that there is no charge, but I will ask.

[vicr3000]

Always worth carrying some cash outside of the big cities, especially the bush areas for when the card machines /

lines go down and you have just filled up with petrol !

Have seen it a couple of times, people just having to wait.

Plus road side stalls etc.

[icyfroth]

I tried to pay the Avon lady by credit card the other day.

She couldn't do it, and I didn't have the cash. Will have to get cash for her tomorrow.

[zanadoo_56]

I am computer literate - not mobile phone literate mind you - but definitely computer literate, but with my father and all his siblings getting Alzheimers I wonder if the next generation (ie mine) could potentially be facing the same issue.  I'm now in my late 50s and still working full time, but with computers and the internet we all are drowning in passwords to be recalled at a moment's notice, and if Alzheimer's strikes I'll be in big trouble.

As an example, someone whom I called 'aunt' (she was a friend of the family, not a blood relative) began to develop some kind of dementia...made all the more tragic because she was a worldly and articulate and very clever woman.  You could not imagine someone less likely to get it as she kept her mind sharp.  Unfortunately in the beginning it was not realised that anything was wrong....except for someone she knew who realised it and took advantage of her.  If she had done all her banking at the bank counter things might have been different, but she used an ATM and with the other person taking control of her she ended up withdrawing large amounts of money for various bogus reasons, which in her confused state she immediately gave to this person.  Eventually the truth came out but to this day we are not sure how much money was stolen from her.

It seems as though if you don't 'embrace' computers and the internet then too bad for you.  Personalised customer service is probably on the decline.  That's all very well but with the rise in Alzheimers and the like, contingency plans need to be in place.