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Ask Slashdot: Why Do So Many of You Think Carrying Cash Is 'Dangerous'?
An anonymous reader writes: Recently, I asked Slashdot what you thought about paying for things online using plastic, and the security of using plastic in general; thank you all for your many and varied responses, they're all much appreciated and gave me things to consider.
However, I got quite a few responses that puzzled me: People claiming that paying for things with cash, and carrying any amount of cash around at all, was somehow dangerous, that I'd be "robbed," and that I shouldn't carry cash at all, only plastic. I'm Gen-Y; I've walked around my entire life, in all sorts of places, and have never been approached or robbed by anyone, so I'm more than a little puzzled by that.
So now I ask you, Slashdotters: Why do you think carrying cash is so dangerous? Where do you live/spend your time that you worry so much about being robbed? Have you been robbed before, and that's why you feel this way? I'm not going to stop carrying cash in my wallet but I'd like to understand why it is so many of you feel this way -- so please be thorough in your explanations.
However, I got quite a few responses that puzzled me: People claiming that paying for things with cash, and carrying any amount of cash around at all, was somehow dangerous, that I'd be "robbed," and that I shouldn't carry cash at all, only plastic. I'm Gen-Y; I've walked around my entire life, in all sorts of places, and have never been approached or robbed by anyone, so I'm more than a little puzzled by that.
So now I ask you, Slashdotters: Why do you think carrying cash is so dangerous? Where do you live/spend your time that you worry so much about being robbed? Have you been robbed before, and that's why you feel this way? I'm not going to stop carrying cash in my wallet but I'd like to understand why it is so many of you feel this way -- so please be thorough in your explanations.
I was robbed by a millennial looking to raise money for a gender reassignment operation
If a thief can tell from a distance whether you are carrying cash or credit cards, well, you are holding it wrong.
To the people who think carrying cash is dangerous: cash never fails to complete a transaction.
https://arstechnica.com/business/2014/10/slow-credit-card-verification-lands-florida-man-in-jail/
When your card gets declined, in some circumstances, you may get arrested. So there's another form of "dangerous" when relying solely on plastic as a form of payment.
Limit the amount of cash you bring into the nudie bar, 'cause you won't be leaving with any.
Protip: The Bundy Dollar...
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I don't feel comfortable if I go out with at least a couple hundred in cash with me. Always have. If you get robbed throwing a significant roll and running the other way is the safest thing you can do. Thieves hate it if they only get five bucks. Of course I forgot to mention that I also carry a gun. ( Legally with a concealed carry license ).
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Like any decision, it isn't just cost, but cost/benefit. If I basically never need cash, why carry it? The risk is really small, sure, but the benefit is small, too. Second, I misplace things.
Pretty soon, enough weak-minded people will believe this and plead with the government to please come and take their cash and replace it with something that leaves an audit trail.
Have gnu, will travel.
...at least of cash like you're talking about..
I've also always heard people say it was dangerous to carry cash, but I don't think it is that much.. At least for robbery.. I know myself though, and I'd be sure to accidentally lose it if I carried cash.. Nobody to blame but myself, but it's still "dangerous" for me to carry cash.
My dad always carried cash though, and one time in the early years of his dementia he got lost (forgot where he parked) and ended up wandering around town. He's diabetic, and his blood sugar got way off exacerbating the situation. Some good samaritans stopped to help him out when he started looking like he had a real problem, and ended up searching his wallet to try to figure out how to help him (calling family or whatever).. When it was all said and done, at least three different complete strangers had dug through his wallet in their efforts to try to help him. When we met up at the hospital later and security passed his belongings along to us, we found that he had a little over $1000 dollars in his wallet still. Now, I have no idea for sure what he started with, but I'm pretty sure it was exactly what he still had in there at the end of the day.
The whole incident really made me rethink that whole "people are always trying to steal from you" mentality that we get pounded into us by the pessimists of society. I think generally people almost always do the right thing when given the chance, which I guess includes not robbing you of your cash in your wallet.
I carry cash when I need to spend it, not simply to have something in my pocket, and not once has anyone, anywhere, ever tried to rob me.
Those whiners who think carrying cash is dangerous are the same ones who will whine about how dangerous flying in planes is when there's a crash. That completely ignores the 10,000 other takeoffs and landings which took place that same day without an issue.
What is dangerous is carrying a cell phone. Between running into objects or distracted driving because you're engrossed with whatever text message you're trying read/send, having a cell phone is orders of magnitude more dangerous than carrying cash. This doesn't even include people robbing you of your cell phone which then gives them access to your accounts because you've conveniently put all that information on your phone.
The question becomes, which is worse: losing the few dollars you had in your pocket, or giving someone access to all your bank accounts?
I'm not afraid of carrying cash in smaller amounts; but, if you carry large amounts of cash and are pulled over and the police find out about it, odds are they will confiscate it and you will never get it back. It's the new highway robbery. I'm not gonna do the Google search for you but there are plenty of cases.
You could put your whole life savings in a backpack, and if you didn't let anyone see that your backpack was full of cash, you'd be in no greater danger at all than carrying an equal volume of anything else in your backpack. But what if someone just randomly stole your backpack? The odds of this happening weren't any greater than if you packed the backpack full of dead weasels, but you would've just lost your life savings.
So I usually don't carry more than $200 in my wallet to keep the risk down, but there's nothing inherently dangerous about carrying cash, unless you let other people know how that you're carrying a remarkably large amount of cash. Flashing large amounts of cash is dangerous.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Maybe I would be concerned if I was carrying around a larger amount of cash, but I almost never do.
I am more worried about losing my only card, which is both my debit card and my ATM card, as my bank is making it difficult for me to have multiple cards tied to the same account at the same time.
If I get robbed of a little cash but have my card, I could still withdraw some more.
I don't keep cash and cards together. The common recommendation of what to do if you get robbed is to throw the money on the ground and run. Then the robbers will go for the cash and not you.
If all you have is a card, then the robbers will stomp on you until you give them your PIN number, and they will hold you down while another robber withdraws as much as he can from your account.
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
I know someone who was the victim of a purse snatch. Purse found in a back alley just a few blocks away, and all the perp took was cash. I also know a family member who had his debit card stolen and about $1,200 of purchases racked up on it in 24 hours. (Yes, he only had $50 in liability, but he said the time spent on jumping through every phone call and piece of paperwork was a pain.) Your money is just as much at risk in either scenario.
As for me, I hardly ever carry cash. Not because I'm afraid to, but because it's a lifestyle choice. If I have cash in my pocket, I'm far more likely to spend it, as well as spend it on unnecessary things, and not keep track of how much I have left. Though, I know many who say the same about debit cards.
So, I guess, to each their own.
Robbed on the Metro. They can spot foreigners and know that foreigners carry cash because only idiots travel without cash. Got hit in the ribs and lost $900. Got beat for a bike once. I don't mention the nice things I own to people; one of their menace kids gets wind of it and they'll dwell on it for years, watching for an opening. Saw this happen twice to my father, once to an uncle and also a former employer.
If you're a healthy young male living the dream on the posh side of town during daylight hours no one will mess with you. The minute you venture outside your little safespace or appear vulnerable at the wrong time they'll jump your ass. Flash some cash in a liquor store some time. You'll find out. You claim experience in "all sorts of places" but I'll bet that anyone goofy enough to pose this question on Slashdot hasn't got clue number one.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
You carry a card around that can reach into your bank account?
Let that sink in for a bit. If you are going to use plastic, the only rational choice is credit cards.
"His name was James Damore."
100 years ago, there was no such thing as plastic and checks were untrustworthy. To buy most things, you had to carry cash. Worse, banks were not open 24/7, and was inconvenient. Say you go on vacation. A good vacation now a day can easily cost you $1000 a week, plus transportation. Say $2,500 for a two week vacation. Family of four, double that to $5,000.
Would you walk around with $5,000 in your pocket today? If everyone around you KNEW that you are holding that kind of cash? In a warm, tropical country where people could live for a year on that kind of cash?
Before the modern financial methods - credit and checks, walking around with cash WAS dangerous. Very dangerous. That was why travelers checks became popular. Eventually other methods caught up and became just as trusted and accepted. So you don't have to carry a lot of it.
But 100 years ago, walking around with cash was freakin' dangerous. Now, it is pretty darn safe because we carry much less cash, and the potential muggers know it.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Of what used to be a halfway decent excuse of a tech website.
Having a few hundred in your pocket is nothing compared to the $1000 phone, $1000 tablet, $3000 computer, etc that we're all carrying around with us and display very visibly.
I don't know.. perhaps they see you buy something with cash? Or you're thumbing through your wallet for some reason.. or any number of other ways they might notice.
But the way you can look at it is not "having more cash makes it more likely to get robbed," but "if I get robbed, having more cash will mean a bigger loss." If someone steals your credit or debit (and I mean physically robbing you of course, as they would do for cash) you just call up your bank and cancel it. Even if the thief has managed to use it, those companies insure against theft (especially the CC companies) and you generally get refunded. And their usage of it also makes it easier for the police to track them down if you're privileged enough for the police to care about you.
Whereas if the robber takes a couple fresh hundred dollar bills, you will definitely never see that money again.
Remember, risk is not just probability of an event happening.. its probability of it happening multiplied by the incurred cost.
I have never been mugged or forcibly robbed. While vacationing in Washington DC, however, my pocket was picked. My wallet contained about $150 in cash, driver's license, Visa card, Medicare card, and some cherished family photos. By the time I contacted Visa, the pickpocket had exhausted my credit limit. Yes, Visa cancelled the card and sent me a new one, but they did not cancel the bogus charges for several days. Thus, my new card was worthless. We had to put our hotel bill and charge our meals on my wife's Master Card. Before the new card arrived, I went to a credit union that was on the same Service Center network as the credit union where I have an account and was able to get $200 from my checking account without having to write a check. (The Service Center concept is like going into Wells Fargo and making a withdrawal or deposit for a Bank of America account.) For me, cash is always available while plastic might have a delay several days if there is a problem.
I always try to keep at least $40 in my wallet. If I get that low, I visit a no-fee ATM (also a credit union feature) and get $100 to $120 more. On the other hand, my wife rarely has more than $20 in her purse. She writes many checks for less than $10.
As for the pickpocket having my Medicare Card, I had already used a hole punch to remove all the digits of my Medicare number. After all, my Medicare number is also my Social Security number. A California driver's license does not contain a Social Security number. Thus, I was protected against identity theft.
We traveled from Washington DC to Chicago via Amtrak. While still in Washington, I notified the travel agent through whom I had booked the trip. To fly home from Chicago, I had no ID -- no wallet -- for airport security. My travel agent had notified the airline; and I cleared security more quickly than did my wife, who had her driver's license for ID. I was not able to replace my stolen driver's license until I returned to California.
As requested by Visa, I filed a crime report with the Washington DC police department. The pickpocket had charged some $7,000 for merchandise at an electronics store. In many jurisdictions, this is grand theft, a felony. Since this was apparently a local independent store, I thought the police might actually be able to identify the culprit. When I mailed a letter to the DC police department several weeks later asking about the crime, I receive no response.
CorpGov wants to track everyone. Everywhere. Always. Cash is difficult to monitor. With your Personal Tracking Device in your pocket, and your identify-linking electronic purchases absolutely tagged to you and you alone, CorpGov feasts. They get to do whatever they want with everything you do that they can track, and what is more definitive and commercially valuable than what you buy? And where? And when? So of course CorpGov is doing everything it can to sow the seeds of doubt about the safety of carrying cash, which they cannot so easily track. As if they held your interests in mind at all, let alone paramount. 'Cash Is Dangerous' is true to the degree that you are Sheeple.
Twice as crazy as I would be if I was half as crazy as I am.
cash is dangerous because visa and mastercard don't get their cut of small transactions like buying a coffee, nor can they track your location and spending habits to enhance the value of the data about you that they sell.
so they force paypass/paywave on everyone by making it impossible to get even a debit card without them, and then spend a lot on advertising to let everyone know how dangerous and scary and inconvenient cash is.
If you have a lot of cash, that's "evidence" of drug crimes, even absent drugs, and the cops will take your money, put it on trial (cash is bad at defending itself and does not get an attorney), and buy boats, pinball machines and hookers with your money.
^ None of that is an exaggeration.
http://dailysignal.com/2015/10...
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
You want to carry some cash, like $40 or something, in case you actually do get robbed.
Someone hard up for cash that is desperate enough to walk up and mug you will be even more aggressive if they get nothing out of it.
Having some token cash to turn over will satisfy their immediate need and usually end the transaction without physical harm.
Yes, I have been robbed. But I don't have even the slightest fear of carrying cash. I think I'm safer carrying at least a couple of 20s -- you never know when an emergency happens, and cards don't work for every situation, where cash does.
Here's the thing -- criminals don't know if I'm carrying cash or not until they rob me, and if I'm being robbed, losing my cash would be the least of my problems. Losing my ID, phone, and various important cards in my wallet are much, much larger problems, and that would happen whether or not I have cash.
Why? The only difference in liability is what a company decides. In many countries you are no more lake for fraud on your debit card than fraud on your credit card.
Think you're safe because in credit you can reuse to pay the bill? Well in the good old US of A your credit rating is far more important than you bank balance.
Cash is also a good limit on your spending. If I only have $10 left, I will not be buying that expensive lunch, I'll put the souvenir back on the shelf, etc. Having to run to the ATM to get money does keep one frugal. Still a serious problem in the US are younger people who quickly get into credit card debt, despite just about every school trying to teach financial responsibility in civics classes. It keeps the repo guys in business I guess.
While budgeting and purchasing it makes sense to treat it like your money. But when you buy with a credit card, the bank buys the product, and you owe the bank.
So if your card is stolen and charges were put on it. You are not responsible but the bank needs to deal with the theft of their money. (Normally they have insurance)
Now having to prove off those charges is annoying but it is possible. Vs having your cash lost where your money is gone for good.
Now a lot of time you may lose your cash without the typical robbery.
Someone at the store could see you are distracted and skim off some change.
You can lose your wallet/purse by many means. And someone can just take the cash out of it.
Or you can just have cash fall out. Haven't you found a fiver on the ground before?
Then those pennies that you put in the give a penny.
Cash is just not safe, other payment options at least have some safety features in them.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.