Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by throwaway22032 1175 days ago
Tons of people use cash. I used to work for Deliveroo. I got cash tips approx 30-50% of orders.

I always tip in cash. I pay in cash for orders that accept it. Why would I use card unless forced?

edit: this is a rhetorical question, I don't literally need to know why physical objects are cumbersome to you, this is HN lol

3 comments

Cash is friction.

I would prefer it if I could pay in cash fractionally, without having to give or get slips of paper, file that paper in a portable filing cabinet in my pocket, keep up with how many slips of paper of what denominations I have in my filing cabinet, and periodically run out of slips of paper just at a time when I most need them.

The worst is giving somebody one slip of paper and receiving in return multiple slips of paper and several bits of metal. Then I need to file the bits of metal too and remember how much in my pocket they add up to, or, more likely, keep them at home and never use them for anything.

Cash is friction.

Says someone who's never had to wait in line for 15 minutes waiting for the valets and customers ahead of them to figure out which apps they each have in common so they can exchange $5. Something that can be done in under four seconds with cash.

Sounds for a ripe opportunity for government to enforce interoperable bump-to-pay. GooglePay<>APplePay<>Venmo<>Meta<>CashApp<>Zelle<>PayPal<>WesternUnion<>MoneyGram. A lack of interfacibility and the rise of silo'd private institutions vs public standard protocol caused this.

ACH was that. Instant distributed settlement would be nice.

People dislike cash to the degree that they're willing to juggle a bunch of apps to avoid it
Dislike!=friction/harder.

In other words people will jump through hoops to make something already frictionless into multiple orders of magnitude more steps to make the last step easier.

Banks did their utmost to perpetuate the idea that cash is harder. They make it harder.

The only thing you have to do with cash is add/subtract it yourself. Feel the need for an app? Calculator can do that!

It's not banks that convinced me to avoid cash: it's the annoyance of carrying it around, making rounding concessions all the time, and getting change back.

How much is this drink? $1.65? Okay, lacking a dollar, I can pay $2.05 and get 4 dimes back (no help) or pay $2.15 and get 2 quarters back (that's better than getting 3 dimes and a nickel), or just pay with a $5 and get back (in Canada) a toonie ($2-coin), a loonie, 3 dimes and a nickel.

That's a lot of metal bits I have to carry around for the next 8 or 9 hours to justify a drink of something in the morning.

I'd rather just beep my card, and it's not banks that convinced me to do it.

A few % discount and the ability to get your money back if an uncooperative business shorts you?
I've started paying in cash for pickup orders so I don't have to cross out the "tip" line on the stupid receipt right in front of the clerk.