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Why the Swiss Still Love Cash (bbc.com)
gollum123 shares a report from the BBC: Last month, the Swiss unveiled a smart new banknote to stash in their wallets. The purple 1,000 franc bill was the latest in the Swiss National Bank (SNB) series to undergo a revamp. But this revamp comes as other nations are phasing out their high-value notes and as cash usage declines in European nations, albeit at greatly differing rates. In Switzerland, cash remains the dominant payment method. Here, there's an assumption everyone carries cash, even in an increasingly digital economy. Most don't get caught out buying a sandwich or paying for a haircut when the card payment machine is out of order. If you have to pay for a coffee with a 100 franc note, no need to apologize -- no one will ask if you have something smaller. And for those big-ticket items, some banks even allow you to withdraw up to 5,000 francs per day (or 10,000 a month) at the cash machine without advance notice. Buying a car that costs tens of thousands with cash is also not that unusual.
Why then do the Swiss prefer cash? Two simple reasons are that cash is widely considered to be part of their culture and people believe that using it allows them to track their spending more easily. In Basel, 53-year-old Chris Troiani confirmed this, saying many people she knows still prefer the reassurance of carrying big bills in their wallet. There's also the identity factor: the Swiss identify with cash in part because of how they see themselves. This is a nation which values privacy and doesn't like being told what to do. They see themselves as different to their European neighbors and closely guard those traditions which set them apart, such as languages, political system and currency.
Why then do the Swiss prefer cash? Two simple reasons are that cash is widely considered to be part of their culture and people believe that using it allows them to track their spending more easily. In Basel, 53-year-old Chris Troiani confirmed this, saying many people she knows still prefer the reassurance of carrying big bills in their wallet. There's also the identity factor: the Swiss identify with cash in part because of how they see themselves. This is a nation which values privacy and doesn't like being told what to do. They see themselves as different to their European neighbors and closely guard those traditions which set them apart, such as languages, political system and currency.
Better that you only lose 5000 rather than all your money if you get hacked. Besides, I think you can withdraw more if you speak to the teller insidem this is just for ATMs, where the risk of someone stealing your card and using it along with your birthday pin number is quite real.
EU (and Swiss via EEA) handed all the banking data over to the USA for "investigating terrorim". The USA in turn promised it would only be used under supervision by the US Treasury.
Look at Steven Mnuchin. He won't hand over the tax returns of Trump's companies to Congress IN DIRECT DEFIANCE OF US LAW, and yet a political player like that is supposed to a gatekeeper for European banking data.
You see the problem here? You let a bad actor have all that private data!
Or there's the technique I use - get paid on Friday, put it in the bank, buy everything with my credit card, pay the credit card at the end of the month.
Yeppers, I use credit cards for everything, and it's been literally decades since I came up short at the end of the month and had to roll over my credit card balance till the next month....
Here's the trick, by the way - know how much you can afford to spend, and don't spend more than that, even if you really, Really, REALLY want that neat new toy....
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