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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.
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.
"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!
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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