I don't quite understand it - It seems that paying cash for a purchase has become a thing of the past.

Clerks at the various stores look at you like you are just plain crazy if you pay with cash!!! Some of the young ones get that deer in the headlight look even. :lol:

It is so frustrating to me - it seems that most stores do not educate their employees on how to count change back to a customer - I for one miss that!!!! If it wasnt for the registers telling them how much change to give, some of them would be lost. Then they can't count the amount to you - they just hand it back or say 3.26 is your change (thats what the register says anyway) and they just dump it on counter or in your hand. I have made it a point to count it when I receive it because some don't even give the correct change when told how much to give you.

Call me old fashioned but when we were growing up, we didn't and couldn't use calculators in class. This mean't we had to think for ourselves and do math in our heads. Counting out change was routine and showed respect to the customers. I learned early on (started work at concession stand at the pool while I was in 8th grade). My husband helped in concession stand last night with our grand daughters softball team. They were 8 and 9 year olds and he was trying to teach them how to do the math in order to give change-not an easy task. Just saying. I am not bashing my grand daughter by any means - in many ways she is smarter for her young age than I was or can be on some subjects!!!

I have heard it said trends go full circle - like the 70's clothes are coming back in style and even some of the songs are being remade. Do you think the "cash" concept
will ever return???

I doubt it- but whenever I can I will continue to pay cash for my purchases. I dont like signing those electronic pads - where does my signature go??? Where do all my pin numbers go???? I guess I should ask my grand daughter - she would probably know this :lol:

Thanks for listening..I feel better now...will be off to the store soon with cash in hand!!!! cheryl

My almost 18 year old daughter can NOT read a clock unless it's a digital! I've tried and tried to teach her, but she's simply not interested. Incredible. She would be the one at the register with the deer in the headlights eyes. She's a brilliant girl, but these are functions of society that teenagers are not being taught well.

I almost aways use my debit card, carry very little cash, I just feel safer. It is a habit I got into when working in some very bad neighborhoods. Nothing to get robbed of. You hear about muggings and purse snatchings and stuff all the time. If something like that were to happen I just call my bank and cancel the card, I don't lose all the money I'm carrying.

I like cash too and only use the debit card when I HAVE to. Stores have to pay a service fee for each card taken. I would prefer cash if I were a business owner since all of the sale would go to the business and none going to the bank for the privlage of using a card. Guess I am old fashioned too.

I know what you mean about paying cash .. they ability to count back change seems to be a lost skill. Ever give them the penny or two after they have entered the amount tendered? That really confuses the heck out them.
I do use credit cards for many major purchases ... as my card offers an additional warrenty if their card is used for the purchase... so pretty much anything with a plug goes on the card.

I still frequently use cash.

I agree that counting back change is a skill that is often over looked. I'm 31 and it drives me nuts when they have to rely on the coputer to count back change.

One area I'm on the fence about is calculator use. I feel they should be able to do basic math without one, but now-a-days all businesses are using computers for everything, and we an all atest the younger they start using them the better they are at using them!

Just my two cents!

I am a cash kind of gal - then I don't owe anyone at the end of the month - but I'm not sure about debit cards - I have never used one - I would be frantically writing it down in my checkbook - I see people all the time using them and they stuff the receipt away - I wonder if they remember to record it. We were taught in school how to write a check and balance our checking acct - I think that is a lost art too.

Apparently many people that have garage and yard sales still prefer to be paid with CASH!

:lol:

I think a lot of people do not record their transactions-they just believe the bank or credit card company will get it correct. My hubby would not be able to sleep at night if he couldn't keep track of every bill and receipt we have. I can tell you that banks do make mistakes and he's caught plenty of them over the years, to our benefit and to their's! Credit card companies are very sneaky about their benifit claims and what you are soon getting~it pays to read the fine print and check what's happening each month or so. What a world we live in when it comes to dependability! I do love my home and neighbors, it's not all bad, thanks to God.

Cash is a good thing!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like using "cash" as in spending only the money you have, and not using credit for daily purchases. I am not really a "spender" though, so my purchases are limited to things like groceries, gas, the occasional haircut, now and again a fabric trip. :D All of these things are at LEAST $40-$50 a shot...and if it's the weekly trip to the grocery, over a hundred easy. I just couldn't walk around with that kinda money on me.

HOWEVER, smaller things like a pastry and coffee, out to lunch with friends, stuff that's $20 or less I would buy with cash. And I think it's more accurate AND good manners for it to be counted back.

My husband helped in concession stand last night with our grand daughters softball team. They were 8 and 9 year olds and he was trying to teach them how to do the math in order to give change-not an easy task.
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I worked as a car hop in my teens, and learned early and fast how to give change. You do NOT have to figure out how much is left, you simply start counting FROM the amount owed and go on to the amount handed you. Someone gives you 20 dollars for a seventeen dollar 55 cent purchase...start handing back 2 dimes and count ==65--75 (then a quarter) eighteen (NOW 2 dollar bills)nineteen== twenty dollars. Thank you for shopping with us, have a nice day.

If you work kids like that, using real change and bills, it'll soon become easy for them.

A month or so ago I stopped at a yard sale, gave a late teen girl a 5 dollar bill AND A QUARTER for a 4.25 cent purchase, expecting to get a dollar back because she had a mass of ones in her cash box. She stood there looking at that quarter and holding the 5 dollar bill in the other hand....an adult male from her house finally suggested she give me a one dollar bill. He didn't look any too happy, just looked at me and shrugged. I could see him talking to her in the rear view mirror...she didn't look like she wanted to learn either!!

And speaking about old fashioned paying...have you noticed that some stores, like Costco, have some of those very old fashioned vacuum pipes that you put cash in and it sucks it up to a hidden room? They had that working well when I was a kid, which was a LONG time ago. If it works, use it. It'll take the biggest stash of cash out of the way of criminals, they might get a smaller amount but the greatest haul is in a safe place till the armored cars pick it up.

Used to be the clerk wrote up your sale, added up the total and sent it off to the office. Where, presumably, they used a calculator that needed cranking? And if the clerk was off the total (wonder if she/he got mandatory math lessons before being allowed to count cash again?) the correct number was written on the tag and the correct change returned, which was then handed to the customer. In the mean time the clerk and customer..in our town most likely to be neighbors or kin folks or both...would be able to chat with each other or other customers, who would, in the main, be calmly looking around and doing some chatting themselves.

I agree but that's what we've created. Gotta love technology. One of the schools here in indiana has even taken cursive writing out the school, and replaced it with typing. Who can blame them. When was the last time you signed your name? Me about 2 weeks ago, the store was low tech and only ran debits as credits, so I had to sign...I found it annoying. See we make thing the way they are and then we complain. Really give this a ponder and we've no right to complain, we support this behavior by owning a computer and chatting on this board.

Not likely because people have bank cards now, I hardly every carry cash and just lost my bank card, and i feel awkward without it. Me personally if I carry cash, I spend too much, misplace it, or too often lose it so I don't carry it unless it has a specific purpose that I need it for. Cards just make things so much more convenient

when my son was inmiddle school and high school,he graduated 2000.he wasnt allowed to turn in hand written reports,they had to typed or done on a computer.teachers didnt want to have to try to read the kids handwriting.And I honestly thiink because of that his hand writing is terrible

when my son was inmiddle school and high school,he graduated 2000.he wasnt allowed to turn in hand written reports,they had to typed or done on a computer.teachers didnt want to have to try to read the kids handwriting.And I honestly thiink because of that his hand writing is terrible[/quote]
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Not necessarily so. When my youngest son was in kindergarten he got shifted part time to another class because he already was reading at 3rd grade level. They tested him as being gifted. But they did say that an intelligent kid is a nosey kid and his mind will most likely always work faster than his manual dexterity..which means that most highly intelligent folks will have horrid hand writing. And unfortunately, nowadays it is not really necessary except for signing contracts and checks.

And on reading his notes on BD and other cards, I can sympathize with teachers, they have masses of kids' reports to read and they simply do not have the time to teach each and every one of the class to write legibly by hand.

I use my debit card for most everything. I stuff the receipt. I also check my account the next day after purchases to see what has cleared the bank. It doesn't matter if I take the time to write it down at POS, I probably wouldn't do the math right then and there anyhow. At the end of the month or any point during the month, I can print out a pie chart or other form of financial breakdown showing me just where my money was spent.

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Not necessarily so. When my youngest son was in kindergarten he got shifted part time to another class because he already was reading at 3rd grade level. They tested him as being gifted. But they did say that an intelligent kid is a nosey kid and his mind will most likely always work faster than his manual dexterity..which means that most highly intelligent folks will have horrid hand writing. And unfortunately, nowadays it is not really necessary except for signing contracts and checks.

And on reading his notes on BD and other cards, I can sympathize with teachers, they have masses of kids' reports to read and they simply do not have the time to teach each and every one of the class to write legibly by hand.[/quote]

Made me chuckle! If it is true that horrid hand writing is a sign of highly intelligent folks, then I am brilliant. :lol: :lol:

this generation is the computer one if a machines says its so it is.....my gdd has no idea how to handle money or use read the dails on the clock I said what if all the power in the world went out what would you do without your ipod..............................

I just read online that the Treasury is not printing so much paper money, because of so many people not using cash.

No dc don't ever use one. Use cash, check and rarely cc.

I almost never use cash or checks; it's all debit for me with a rare credit card swipe for major purchases.

Kids don't know how to count back change because they don't have to count back change. If the register didn't tell them the amount (AND if people returned to using cash) they'd be as good at counting it back manually as older generations were.

Kids today are learning different skills from what many of us had to learn to get by in the society of the times. Now, if you came out of school unable to use a computer it would be a serious obstacle to going into most job markets, and entirely prohibitive for pursuing higher education. Those non-change-counting kids have to have computer skills to run the registers now.

Cursive writing is pretty, but is it truly necessary when we can block print or type communication? Paper forms are dying out, but even these now usually have a note to PRINT your name.

I'm not saying we should junk everything we were taught in favor of new things, but we should look seriously at what skills are needed and which ones are now only "nice to haves."

Made me chuckle! If it is true that horrid hand writing is a sign of highly intelligent folks, then I am brilliant. :lol: :lol:[/quote]
LOL

:P :P :P

Some businesses are now asking for your credit card. We were in a major hotel in Ontario last week and they weren't at all happy that I wanted to pay my bill with cash or Interac. I wasn't even carrying a credit card and they were absolutely incredulous that I wouldn't have one.

Very well said, Julie!! My kids and their friends are far brighter and more able bodied at the high school level than I am after pursuing two college degrees. Instead of bemoaning the fact that kids don't know what we knew we should celebrate that the youth of our nation are educated enough to keep up with the global technology of he world. Many, many countries can't say that!! There is absolutely no reason to teach them things that they will rarely if ever need to know when there is so much more that has to be learned and put to use effectively. After the seventh grade, I started learning from my kids...that's progress!

I use shecks alot & cashiers really don't like them any more....Too Bad..

I'm a cashier, so handle checks, credit & debit cards. Our check verification machine takes a long time for approval. In the meantime, the line behind the checkwriter is getting longer & people are getting impatient. I had 1 customer down the line ask "why the h*** do you take checks anyway?"

Credit & debit cards also take longer than cash sales. Sometimes when a card is declined, the customer gets mad at us & says they just made a deposit, it should go through, yada, yada, yada. Unless the deposit was cash, most banks won't release the funds until the next day.

I'm not trying to push cash, credit or debit--just trying to present the other side. BTW, I sometimes prefer using checks if I don't have enough cash on me and don't want to put it on a credit card. I don't have a debit card--it seems like too much bookkeeping for me.

Since I am on my soapbox, don't even get me started on rude/impatient/talking on their cellphone customers. Most of us behind the register are trying to do our best and be nice to even the nastiest of customers.

:-)

if it is under $10 I use cash. It frustrates the heck out of me that none of the clerks know how to cound back change.
Used to laugh at the kids in the store I worked in when the power went off - they could not make change. They used calculators, pads & pencils anything to "figure" the change.
To this day, when a clerk hands me money, I count it back to myself to make sure it is correct.

I generally use credit cards for most everything over $20 so I get $ back-pay it off in full monthly. Still carry about $200 in cash especially if we're traveling like now. Don't trust debit cards at all. Maybe I'm an old fogey, but at least with a cc my losses are covered if it's stolen and there is some warranty protection!

Just the other day, my order totaled $3.88. I handed the clerk a 5 dollar bill and before I could say that I had the 88¢ change, he had entered the amount tendered into the register.
I wanted to give him the 88¢ to lighten the load in my purse, so I did.
He gave me that "deer in the headlights" look, and stammered, Uh, so that would be like $2 in change, right?

I just winked and said yes. Alex, wherever you are...bless your little heart.

Amen!

Societies change. Unfortunately some of the "modern good", push the old ways out. I agree it's terrible kids can't read clocks. Then again I deliberately raised my kids with the old fashioned clocks in order to teach them to read and understand time. They only were allowed digital watchs and clocks once they knew how to read the old fashioned way. I worked full time but still managed to teach my kids the basics they weren't going to learn at school. Teach your children how to write cursively. Somehow we blame the schools for everything our children and grandchildren don't know. Aren't parents responsible for teaching their children things anymore? Ok, you may shoot me now.

Good for you, Cheryl! Your post speaks volumes about the educational system in the US today. I was at a small hole-in-the wall fabric shop the other day. The owners daughter was measuring out a few hundred yards of lace trim for me when a customer came in to ask for some rhinestone trim. One of the young women who was stuffing dolls behind the counter was asked to measure one yard for her. She asked, how much is a yard. The daughter responded, $15. The other girl said, no ... how much is a yard. Without a blink she said, oh, 36 inches. I almost fell over.

I was in mcmakingmetoofatdonalds drive through yesterday and gave the girl a $50 for my $6.89 order and she handed me a wad of money back thank goodness I counted it because it was only $13! I said I gave you a 50 and she looked at me and said oh I must of typed in a 5 instead ~ what? that makes no sense? anyway she opened her drawer and gave me a 20 and said there you go and shut the window! I had to knock on the window and tell her she was still wrong! Finally she figured out I needed another 10 and I was on my way but not before learning a good lesson to always count your change no matter how long the line is behind you ~ its your money dont lose it on a slow minded person!

I was a small business owner for 15+ years and we never took debit or credit cards. Our average sale was under $5.00 with very low margins. Most people were very understanding and we only lost one sale over that policy. That one sale certainly would not have made up for all those proccessing fees.
I tend to pay cash for my quilting "needs", but credit card for other things because of the cash rewards.
I hate that cursive is going away, but schools should be teaching for the present and future worlds, not our nostalgia. Sadly.

What a concept!!! Parents taking responsibility for their children's education.

Last week the electricity went off in the newspaper office where I work. A lady came in to renew her subscription. She had her renewal card with her, and was writing a check, so there was no problem, it could be rung up when the electricity came back on.

The young lady at the counter actually told her that she could not give her a receipt because the electricity was off. Of course we have printed receipt forms, which we used for many years until we got the new cash register that prints a receipt a few years ago. I handed her a receipt pad, and she looked at me like she thought I'd lost my mind.

Yes merchants pay a fee to processors for credit card/debit card transactions. They receive the benefit of more sales as some customers don't carry cash and they would lose those sales to other merchants. Merchants have to include this cost in their cost of doing business just like including the power bill or the rent or their employee's pay when pricing their goods and services.

What really irks me as a cash payer is that merchants pay a higher fee when a customer uses a card that has a premium on it. (you know, skymiles or some other such reward) so if you aren't also using a reward card you are subsidizing someone else.