Slashdot Mirror
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.
Privacy is great, but it also allows corrupt billionaire's from China and USA to store money secretly to avoid corruption and taxies. Positives and negatives of everything.
Because despite being known for banking, Switzerland hasn't been infected with the viruses of monetization and "big pig data," pushed by Wall Street filth. The Swiss actually know to mind their own fucking business, whether it's by maintaining neutrality or by not prying into the private affairs of their own citizens too much. A lesson that nations around the world would do good to follow.
The USA? Please. I'll believe it when the USA stops murdering people in the Middle East and Central Asia to prop up the interests of corrupt dictatorships like Saudi Arabia. Also, when the USA stops stigmatizing cash in the name of the moral panic of the week. ("War on Drugs/Terror/Crime/BlahBlahBlah")
A digital number in bank can be blocked by a US "investigation" looking for decades of US people using international banking services.
With Swiss banks open to any and all US searches having cash is a wise move.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I'm confused -- I thought you were FOR mass surveillance in other threads on Slashdot. Why the sudden change of heart?
You can recognize mass surveillance is inevitable, and even support it to some degree - while still wanting to support things that help maintain anonymity.
After all, mass surveillance only potentially gives information about where you were - but not for instance hat you did there in private.
Personally I am neither for nor against mass surveillance, I just recognize the inevitability of more and more cameras being everywhere. So then it makes sense to balance that out with anonymizing features the populace can make use of.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"Growth" and "Consumption" were old names for mortal diseases: tumors and TB. "Growth" is a disease that threatens to kill Mother Gaia.
For those wondering, since it didn't appear in TFS anywhere. The exact rate today is 1 SFr = $0.99, it's been sliding a bit over the past month.
By comparison, the US $1000 bill hasn't been printed since 1945, and although technically still legal tender, was officially withdrawn in 1969 (which means the Fed started destroying such bills turned in by banks). They're worth more than face value to collectors.
-- Alastair
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!
"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."
I should be able to withdraw 100% of my money immediately, no matter the amount, or else it's not my money.
Why is he modded as troll? What is wrong with that statement?
The Swiss saw what happened to banks connected to North Korea after US "investigations".
The US is now doing investigation of all Swiss banks to find all past and still in use accounts connected in any way to US citizens.
Should any Swiss bank fail to respond the Swiss know what the US gov will do.
Cash is better than finding a bank under US investigation and the digital accounts not working as expected.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Like Japan, Swiss is a safe country of very disciplined people, who tend to be more conservative, i.e. repeat the pattern of their elders. And both countries do love cash.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
And what makes you think that you, as an individual, are that relevant to call bullshit on the article?
Swiss citizen here as well. I pay as much as I can with cash.
Reasons:
(1) I value my privacy
(2) I prefer not to "donate" a few percent of the transaction value to MasterCard, VISA & co (and spare me the "handling cash also costs money". Yes it does. But that cost/value is generated locally, not remotely and by a huge financial player)
Swiss citizen. Expat?
Just 'cos they got one of them fancy-ass machines at Migros doesn't mean they're everywhere.
Get paid on friday, get $100 cash. Come Wednesday, when you're out of cash you quit spending.
or
Get paid on friday, put it in the bank. Buy everything with your credit card. Come end of the month, you can't cover your bills, end up paying 27% interest on your Starbucks double cappuccino mocha mint grande.
In America, Cash is King.
Swiss here. I typically carry cash for small purchases - why mess with anything else to buy your lunch? Cash is simpler. Second choice is a debit card from my bank (directly from the bank, not branded MasterCard or Visa), because this is free to me, and the transaction fee to the merchant is very small.
Apparently loved in the US, but not used quite so much here are credit cards. Credit cards are, factually, expensive. Those great point systems, cash-back, or whatever? Ultimately, you pay for those through higher prices, because the merchants have to pay whopping fees on the transactions. Why do that to yourself? Why do that to a merchant whom you actually like? I only use credit cards in cases where the fraud protection is important, mainly online purchases with vendors I've never dealt with before, or else with vendors silly enough to insist on payment by credit card.
Speaking of online purchases: most vendors here are happy to send you an invoice along with your purchase, rather than insisting on up-front payment. Just add it to the pile of other invoices you pay at the end of the month (via online banking). Cheaper for them (no credit card fees), simpler to order since you don't have to mess with a payment portal, and psychologically it's really nice gesture of trust. Of course, this only works in a society where most people really are that trustworthy, and will pay the invoice for goods they received.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Wow, I had no idea there were two people so laughably ignorant they'd never realised that: (A) they entered into an agreement when depositing money at a bank, and the agreement covers access, and if the terms were unacceptable, other banks are available, and you can also just put the money under a mattress or in a safe; and (B) that runs on banks are a bad thing, and banks take measures to limit them.
Not to mention the US's love of violence, both to their own people by the so-called justice system, and to other countries by its military thugs. The Swiss have a military for defense (other than the Swiss Guard) and incarcerate 1/20th as many people per unit of population as the USA, land of the "free."
20 years ago I always had a $100 note tucked away for emergencies. It is laughable just how much less that would do today than back then. While normally I use the credit card a lot, in the places cash is king the small notes start to get painful. Countries where the largest note is $30 can make it painful for big bills
Um, no, they don't. Different banks have different rules for how much cash can be withdrawn, notice periods, etc etc.
But I tell you what, if you don't like the rules, stop fucking whining, keep your cash at home, and if you're really bothered, go set up your own bank with a different set of rules, and see how you do.
If you go to an ATM, there is a limit for security reasons and because the machine has limited stock. The quoted limits are the defaults for ATM machines, you can raise or lower them, but within limits.
If you order the money in advance a day before or so, you can withdraw any amount you like from a branch office, although you pay a fee for withdrawing more than CHF 50'000 per month from a regular account. If you are a high-value customer, you can probably withdraw any amount they have on stock within half an hour or so at major branch offices and they will likely send an armored car with the cash for small ones, which may take a bit to arrive though. Your "immediately", is just uninformed here.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
and people believe that using it allows them to track their spending more easily [emphasis mine]
Uh, that's a really weird thing to say. Unless you don't know how to use a computer/phone or your bank's website is absolute shit or something.
That's rich! (pun intended)
We just recently voted in a new law that allows middle management at social security insurances like welfare, medical and invalid pension to have people receiving money put under surveillance by a private investigater. No judge necessary.
And this all for small and unrealistic hope that the services will become a few bucks cheaper.
No, no, no... we're not about privacy... we just do it because that's how it's always been done. Nothing more to it.
But cash provides a more immediate indicator and a source of pain. Those bills slipping out of your hands HURT a bit. Seeing an Excel spreadsheet is more like "meh, I might be more careful next year."
The Visa/MasterCard "Tax" is something like 30cents ... your post makes no sense.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
How on earth it is easier to track spending with cash? ... are you really that stupid?
By watching how your cash in your wallet is dwindling
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
That's not "tracking". That's providing a natural limit to transactions. It's equivalent of having a $200 checking account where money are automatically transferred to a different account for which you do not have a debit card. Completely different thing.
That's a DIFFERENT argument.
Sane people control their spending by looking at the price and thoroughly analyzing if the price is right. There is even a TV program devoted to that named just that: "The Price is Right".
Sane people do not do impulse purchases. They know exactly what they want when they go to Amazon website..
That's how you do it.
Swiss people are just brainless overhyped idiots who, like Americans, benefited from the geographical situation of their country when half of the country is covered by Alps.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
It is not your money. Your bank statement is a statement of debt, an IOU from the bank to you, and conditions apply to the way you can collect that debt.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
The tax is more like 3% which, in this case means $30. They actually bet on people like you who don't know what the actual charge is to make all their purchases with a card.
I should be able to withdraw 100% of my money immediately, no matter the amount, or else it's not my money.
Because that is nonsense. One steals your card, all your money is gone.
You are rich and want to withdraw 2,000,000 from an ATM, that is ridiculous ...
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Um, no, they don't. Different banks have different rules for how much cash can be withdrawn, notice periods, etc etc.
Actually with every bank I ever dealt with: *I* define how much money I can withdraw in a single transaction and/or over a course of a week/month.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
People in Germany will usually pay for their groceries either with debit card ("EC card") or in cash. Anything small, take-awayish is almost always paid with cash and people look at you funny if you ask if you can pay with credit card or other similar new fangled stuff. I don't know about the Swiss, but we Germany sure do love our cash way too much. I went on several business trips to Sweden and the difference in culture when it comes to paying for stuff is huge. A Swedish business contact related a story of how she ended up holding a weird piece of metal at the end of a business transaction and it took her a while of research to find out that was normal Swedish coinage that had been in circulation for years - and she'd never seen it because she and her coworkers never use cash for anything. It was as hard for them to understand our love of cash as it was for us to understand their love for cashless payment. I think the reason we love cash so much is two fold: for one we love us our privacy and hate if people keep track of our spendings (or anything else in fact) and also there's this sense that if civilization ends tomorrow, then cash is probably more use than phone-based micropayment systems. It's the bird in the hand, so to speak.
If a train station is a place where a train stops, what's a workstation?
thanks for that clarification, I never thought about that detail before-
The reason the Swiss National Bank introduced the negative interest rate is well known and very clear: in a time of weak economy when many look at the Swiss Frank to store value, countermeasures have to be put in place to avoid it's excessive appreciation and to ensure money gets invested instead of held in account.
An excessive appreciation of the Swiss Frank would be a problem since it would negatively affects exports. Furthermore, money held in SNB accounts is effectively not being invested as it could, which is not a good thing if you want the economy to ramp up again.
Basically, the Swiss are not being screwed: without that measure the Swiss Frank's value would get far too high. It's a controversial measure, but an effective one for the stated goal.
I prefer not to "donate" a few percent of the transaction value to MasterCard, VISA & co (and spare me the "handling cash also costs money". Yes it does. But that cost/value is generated locally, not remotely and by a huge financial player)
It's ridiculous to call it a "donation". Credit Card transactions have a fee for good reasons: first of all they do provide a service so it stands to reason for it to be paid for. Far more importantly, if you pay with CC you are covered by their zero liability policy. You just need to contest a transaction to have the money back right away, no questions asked. Basically, all your CC transaction are automatically insured against fraud.
Gun ownership there is very similar to the US. And they have a shitload of high-tech fighter jet bases in those moutains.
So much so, that 20 years ago any kid who got into conscription, was trained to fly a F-19 or similar.
No surprise, given that they are the home of all those banks and the Mont Perelin Society. (A huge lobby group, consisting of more than 500(!!) think tanks, operating "since" 1945, with three goals: To turn the world into a fascist libertarian "utopia", by replacing the people's government with corporations, removing any and all taxation on corporations (while still leeching on society), and removing anything resembling any form of social safety net. ... I wish that was a conspiracy theory. But they aren't even ashamed enough to be secretive enough to give blackeyers an argument. So you can easily research their entire structure.)
They know exactly what they want when they go to Amazon website..
Which is why they use cash to buy on Ama . . . Heyyyy. Wait a minute.
First of all, the amount of actual value they produce, is in the picocents. Any modern instant messenger message is bigger and actually better secured! Also, it is a fixed cost, no matter if that integer is at 5 cent or 5 billion cent. Taking a percentage, as they do, is completely unjustified. Having it be up to several percent, is just batshit insane usury, and hence flat-out criminal in an non-retarded/non-criminal person's book!
And all that is assuming, their service would have a point or added value in the first place! Over just having all the money in you pocket and at home.
Which it doesn't.
Instead, it comes with the disadavntage that you never can be even remotely certain, how much money you have left; that even that wrong current value is hard to obtain (compared to just looking into your wallet or into you safe); and the money is *proven* to not be kept safe, given that there is a *negative* interest rate, and given how insecure the whole payment system, online banking, and even at their servers, is set up.
No, nobody needs them. All they do is leech off massive amouts of money, and adding zero value to any product. It's not surprising that the inflation rate (aka the rate at which your salary lowers in value) is usually close to the rate that credit card companies take.
You just need to contest a transaction to have the money back right away, no questions asked.
Have you actually tried that? I have, and it failed miserably with American Express. I had a completely valid claim, and they flat out denied it.
Just another day in Paradise
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.
Which is OK if the Swiss do it, but eeeeevil if Americans do it.
You could be right, but I don't get this whole 'everything bad is because of money laundering' argument.
That's because you probably are a nice person who doesn't really spend much time thinking about how to screw your fellow human beings for monetary gain. Unfortunately enough people do spend time doing this that it's a VERY serious problem.
I have no doubt money laundering is widespread, but has it become any more widespread now compared to the days when drug dealers were hiding suitcases of cash around the place?
Accountant speaking here. TLDR version is yes it has become more common because technology has made it easier that ever. Why do you think technology like bitcoin is so popular for illegal goods transactions? Money laundering is nothing more than any series of transactions that makes it difficult to trace the origin of the cash. Think of it a bit like encryption - you can often crack it with enough time and resources but the point is to make it so much work that it isn't worth the bother in most cases. Cryptocurrencies are almost a wet dream for people wanting to launder money. You don't have to have untraceable transactions to launder money - you just need enough transactions of the right type to make tracing cash flows challenging.
The world did not fall apart then, as it will apparently do now if we don't crack down on all these money launderers.
I think you don't really understand the scope of the problems money laundering facilitates. Money laundering is critical to financing, among other things drug dealers, terrorist organizations, dictatorships, illegal trade, circumvention of sanctions, human trafficking (slavery), theft, fraud, extortion, racketeering, and the list goes on for some time. The drug dealers you use as an example are merely one case among many. It's quite clear that lack of controls for money laundering would result in substantially worse world to live in.
If they have made the money from a legitimate business trade, then since when did the west care about enforcing domestic CCP capital control laws?
Those statements have nothing to do with each other. First, there is a LOT of trade that looks like legitimate honest trade on the surface but really isn't. Ever heard of a front organization? Those are super common and they rarely exist for reasons positive to society as a whole. No the west doesn't care about Chinese capital controls except insofar as they affect the west but they don't need to to have a legitimate interest in combating money laundering. You can't stop money laundering completely but like many things it's not a good idea to just sit back and ignore it altogether either.
It has become ridiculously hard to deal with even smallish (10's thousand) sums of money internationally these days. I run an international business and have to regularly justify to my bank what I'm doing. Every time I deal with a professional or financial service I have to prove where my funds have come from.
Assuming for the sake of argument that that is true, then you are probably doing it wrong. Yes banks are required by law under know your customers laws to understand the nature of the transactions banking customers are conducting and this is entirely reasonable. That said, I'm among other things a certified accountant and I do a lot of international trade for the manufacturing company I work for today. It's not nearly as challenging as you are making it out to be. If you are being asked a lot about your business then you need to get a better relationship with your bank and learn how to actually do things properly. When I hear people complaining about it, it's almost always because they don't understand what they are doing adequately.
And when you started coughing out blood at the people around you on the tramway, it was called "conspicuous consumption".
Ezekiel 23:20
Not to mention the US's love of violence, both to their own people by the so-called justice system, and to other countries by its military thugs. The Swiss have a military for defense (other than the Swiss Guard) and incarcerate 1/20th as many people per unit of population as the USA, land of the "free."
And if the US was populated by almost 100% Swiss, we'd be about the same.
True, but if the US was as expensive as Switzerland it might still have a $1,000 note.
"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."
I should be able to withdraw 100% of my money immediately, no matter the amount, or else it's not my money.
That's at a cash machine, dipshit. They have a limited amount of cash in them at any given time. Plus, the daily ATM withdrawal limit is a safeguard to mitigate loss if someone compromises your card. If you go into the bank and talk to a teller, you can take out as much as you want, and even liquidate your account and close it, if you wish.
It's still your money. Technically, it is owed back to the Federal Reserve, if you are dealing in American dollars. But in everyday practice it is your money.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
The Visa/MasterCard "Tax" is something like 30cents
Credit card fees are 3%
You're both half right. The credit card processing fee is 30 cents per transaction plus 3 percent of the total. For a $1 transaction, this totals 33 cents, which is why some shops that deal in mostly small transactions don't take plastic. By contrast, debit card processing fees on the ATM networks (Cirrus/Maestro for Debit MasterCard or Interlink for Visa Debit) are on the order of 30 cents.
Funny fact: the biggest share of that transaction fee is by far interchange, which don't go in the pockets of Visa/Mastercard at all but in the pockets of the card-issuing bank...
Yes, and they did the refund immediately. They cannot deny it: you don't even need to justify the claim: you just need to say "I want this transaction refunded". Of course if it's a bogus refund you are getting it's then your business with whoever was expecting your money to sort out.
As far as I know the only reason they can refuse this is if you are too late with the request: you have 1 month after you receive the monthly statement with the transaction in question to have it refunded.
Subject to limits the bank itself sets. You're not going to be able to walk in and withdraw $100,000 in cash on a moment's notice just because you set the limit that high.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Okay but ignorant statements are by definition not trolls. It isn't whether he is right or wrong, the issue is moderation abuse.
'"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."
I should be able to withdraw 100% of my money immediately, no matter the amount, or else it's not my money.'
Whether you agree or not is beside the point. This is not a troll and highlights moderation abuse. Mod points aren't for silencing those you disagree with.
That's an interesting viewpoint, and matches well with the FDIC account insurance limits. That's $250,000 per person per bank--anything over that is subject to loss if the bank fails completely and no buyer will take it over. That was one of the administrative wonders of the Great Recession, that the Fed managed to get so many failing banks to get bought by others with little (and I think actually no) loss of account value instead of failing outright and accounts being subject to FDIC coverage. I'm not sure if the Fed or FDIC buffered it at all with any form of direct cash infusion to offset asset differences of failed banks (ignoring quantitative easing, which was a related goal but different mechanism).
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
It is more like half that, and then that's only for small retailers who can't negotiate better rates. If you are turning over a million a year, and $1000 transactions suggest you would, I would be amazed if you didn't have credit card processors banging on your door offering 1.4% and lower. So I'm with angel'o'sphere, the ggp doesn't pass the sniff test.
The 1000 Frank note has some geographical info in silvery micro font. Yes, I have one, got it from a regular ATM last week.
The 10 Frank note has swiss tunnels with their length.
The 20 has distance in light seconds to heavenly bodies, Luna, mercury, venus, Sol, etc, ending with CMB at 430 000 000 000 000 000 s.
The 50 has Swiss mountains, just listing them.
Coolest/nerdiest is the micro writing on the 200 Frank note, it has the events after the big bang in scientific time notation. Planck epoch from t=0 until ~10^-43s, then inflationary epoch until "?", then Electroweak Symmetry Breaking until 10^-11s, then the quark epoch until 10^-6s,... It ends with 13.8x10^9 y Now.
Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any link that shows it.
aRTee
And Hitler was a vegetarian!
Congratulations for non-sequitur of the week.
In case it's escaped your attention, you are not obliged to use the services of any bank. Rather different from your relationship to an Assad as a Syrian citizen, for example.
Why choose between ignorance and malice when you can have both in one fine AC?
Oh you're one of *those*. Okeydokey. Now we know where we stand. Knee deep in bigoted bullshit conspiracies.
If what you claim is true, then how could they do what they actually did do to me? My response was immediate. Now, it's possible that the laws have changed because my situation occurred back in the early 90s, but other than that I don't see how you could possibly be correct.
Just another day in Paradise
This is a nation which values privacy and doesn't like being told what to do.
Unlike those who crow endlessly about digital payments, etc, who love being told what to do.
And how to do it.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
we all know they're doing it. It's not hard to follow the money. Sure, it might not be 100% sure it's in a Swiss bank instead of the Cayman Islands, but does it really matter?
I guess what I'm saying is, all this corruption is right out in the open and we pretend it's not. We're not trading privacy for billionaires being able to stash cash overseas. We could have both any time we want. We just don't seem to want to. We've got other priorities.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Yes, but if you walk into a local bank and demand to walk out with $250,000 of your own money it will be highly unlikely that they have that much lying around.
It's ridiculous to call it a "donation". Credit Card transactions have a fee for good reasons:
I might believe this if it wasn't for all the perks and cash-back that cards offer. When you're giving people airline miles or a flat 1.5% back on all purchases, just how much of the merchant fees are going to support that?
I don't have a problem with credit cards per-se, but I do think businesses should charge a fee on customers who want to use them. When I pay with cash I despise the fact that I'm subsidizing credit card companies by paying the hidden passed-on merchant fees.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
AC the Swiss would also recall what happened to Greek banks and capital controls that limited cash withdrawals.
Also what Cyprus did to bank accounts.
Lots of good reasons to understand what different nations can do to all digital bank accounts.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
"...people believe that using it allows them to track their spending more easily."
Not for me, it's so much easier to keep an eye on your spendings when you use your card. A quick look at the app or website and you have a nice list of what you were spending your money on. My bank even allows to link accounts to a type, so i can see in an instant how much this day/week/month i spend on bills, food, hobbies, etc.
Try that with cash, sure it is possible, keep the receipts (ugh) and note it all down in a spreadsheet in the evening or instantly on your phone. just extra hassle i just don't have the time for. Not to mention that you can never pay the exact amount of money, so you end up with a pocket full of coins, which you'll dump in the coin-jar at home. That money is basically lost because you don't really use it, except on some rare occasions you know you'll need to pay 'little money'. But all those coins add up, you'd be amazed how much money actually is in that jar (which would otherwise just be readily available on your bank account for you to pay with your card).
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Obviously. As an ATM has not such money stored. Thanks for pointing that out.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
That's not tracking spending, that's tracking how much money you have left.
That is exactly what a laymen means with "tracking spending".
To people who don't use cash, tracking spending means knowing how much you spent on eating out, gas for the car, groceries, books, alcohol, etc. That is much easier to do with a credit or debit card than with cash.
Obviously, but I know no one doing that. Do you?
For most people it is a kind of shock to realize it is the 25th, only $50 in the purse, and the ATM gives no money anymore: why? That is what "ordinary" people mean with tracking of spendings.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
If you own [a mobile phone in the first place]
We do.
Even children?
Why would I carry around a flat phone?
Because it wasn't flat when you removed it from your apartment.
What's a flipphone, are you talking about the Galaxy Fold?
No. I'm talking about cheap, basic phones with a comparatively tiny flip-up screen and a physical numeric keypad that can only make calls, receive calls, send texts, receive texts, and edit contacts. You may have heard them referred to as "burner phones." Parents buy these for children because service on a flip phone is cheaper per month than service on a smartphone, or because parents don't want children installing and running apps that could get them in trouble.
Well just use a normal debit card.
How would a child go about getting one of these? I thought a debit card required a bank account, and a bank account had to have a grown-up's name on it.