[Leon Della Bosca]

Big banks such as Macquarie, Westpac, NAB, CBA and ANZ, as well as Woolworths and Coles continue to limit access to cash, leaving vulnerable Australians stranded.

Macquarie Bank says it will soon phase out all cash services in branches, and Woolworths has announced harsh cash-out new limits.

The number of ATMs in Australia has dropped below 25,000 for the first time since 2006.

Australians continue to withdraw cash and want the right to choose cash as a way to pay. The RBA says that monthly ATM cash withdrawals remain between 29 and 30 million per month, not declining rapidly.

“Millions of Australians trust and rely on cash everyday,” said Jason Bryce, spokesperson for the Cash Welcome campaign.

“Now Aussies face more restrictions on accessing cash and new limitations on where they can use cash – our legal tender.

“All Australians need to be able get cash and use cash to buy their food and essential groceries, when they choose.

“Banks and supermarkets enjoy a central place in our economy and the high profits that go with that. They have a clear responsibility to ensure everyone can buy their food using cash.

“Some Australians rely on cash, understand cash and budget with cash.

“The cashless agenda of banks and supermarkets is cruelly leaving many Australians out. People in rural and regional communities are particularly impacted.

Mr Bryce has started a petition asking for a ‘banking and cash guarantee’.

Do you rely on cash as a payment method? Which payment method do you prefer?

[Sue Bailey]

Although I receive my pension thru direct credit, I pay my major bills – rent, electricity, etc by internet banking, I will ALWAYS withdraw my general spending and food funds from either the bank or ATM. No excuses!

I’m a qualified bookkeeper and keep an eye on my cash expenditure by using MYOB, a bookkeeping/accounting package. I refuse to have my every spend listed on my bank statement, as it’s none of anyone’s business what I spend my money on.

My bank account has no fees for anything (except for overdrawing the account), and also pays interest on the balance monthly.

Just so long as cash is ‘legal tender’, I’ll keep on using it!

[dabbbles]

I refuse outright to be bulldozed in ‘plastic payments’ and/or ‘bank-transfers, and on occasion have cancelled a ‘deal’ for that reason. (To date I can still get by by finding vendors who’ll take cash, though ‘on-line shopping’ makes that more and more difficult. Most recently the RACV which refused to take cash for an overpriced battery.) Although I find more and more businesses who are either expression a desire or requirement (!)for non-cash payment I am old enough to remember (fondly!) the days when most things in life (particularly the important ones, eg food) were more-or-less a matter of self-sufficiency and figuring out HOW to get where I wanted to, with ‘goods’ as well as services. (eg. I’ve built 8 houses over the years: all mudbricks with EVERYTHING else recycled from, mostly,demolition sites. Too easy, once one gets over the conditioned-in idea that one is incapable of transposing,say,an electrical system from a factory to a house. Ditto plumbing and all the rest.) Even the ‘rich people’had to count the pennies back then! But it worked! I can still put 200kg of meat into the freezer with a $2.50 bullet (having been shooting rabbits for the table from age 10) And incidentally, the freezer runs from a solar-system. Bottom line: convenience aside, I don’t NEED to pay a butcher, in plastic OR in cash,for my meat. And so it goes on and on. I’ve been paying the RACV for 30 years without once using its services, and have cacelled my account due to the ‘no-cash-payment’ thing. WHAT’S REQUIRED is that people REALISE that THEY HAVE CHOICES!: although that may mean rethinking their priorities and making necessary adjustments. AND acting en-masse to BOYCOTT business which DEPEND UPON THEM. (Including ‘governments’which should be dumped,(including their ENTIRE political ‘party’ unless they actually SERVE the requirements of the people. ie. Bill Smith is NOT a ‘liberal’ ‘labour’ or ‘national’ voter. He’s a bloke who’d rather vote for whoever suits him (and certainly NOT apolitician whose allegiance belongs to ‘A Party’), or NOT vote at all. WHEN did Australians become gutless enough to accept ‘mandatory voting’????
The bottom line isthat endless options exist: all that’s required to return to ‘The Good Old Days’ is ‘Good Old Brainpower and Guts.’ If that’s beyond my fellow citizens than I’ll be sailing off to some more sane and sensible country. Like North Korea!

[dabbbles]

A petition is a pretty weak approach. What’s really needed to put Australia back on the rails is People-Power; organised groups large enough to FORCE the businesses AND POLITICIANS TO DO AS THEY’RE TOLD by boycott of their businesses and elections. Time and again it’s been demonstrated that boycotting of businesses works. Elections are difference because the Great Unwashed have been conned into thinking that electing politicians to run their lives is a ‘GOOD’ THING! (‘Mummy knows what’s best for you; now do as you’re told or mummy will spank you!’) How GUTLESS and STUPID have Australians become in accepting ‘Compulsory Voting’?????? (Ever wonder what would happen if they held an election and NOBODY voted??!) They CAN’T spank EVERYBODY! Ditto ‘Taxation’ and all the other crap our country has been burdened with. STOPPITT!! Your kids and grandkids etcetc will come to HATE for your absolute submission to a perverted lifestyle.

[dabbbles]

PS. Anyone who wants to discuss the content of my mails is welcome to contact me directly here: [email protected] Bring your friends: weight numbers is the only real leverage people have these days.

[Dickb]

I thought that Australian cash was legal tender and had to be accepted. However the ACCC says that is not the case (see ACCC website).

https://www.accc.gov.au/business/selling-products-and-services/payment-methods

I know there used to be rules on how much smaller currency that businesses accepted as payment. This was to stop someone presenting with small denomination coins to pay a bill and the business having to count it.

I always carry some cash in case needed. I appreciate that phasing out cash minimizes the need to count it, deposit it, reduces the risk of employee theft and robberies but recently two businesses put a message out on Facebook telling followers to bring cash to pay for food and drink as the electronic card system was down.

Another day, Subway and the whole shopping complex had an internet outage all day and I was the only one of a few carrying some cash to buy food for lunch. The business lost possibly thousands of dollars in sales as even ATMs were down so no one could get cash out.

[Dickb]

I used to avoid ATM fees from the former Commonwealth Bank ATM outside Woolworths at Banyo (now ATMX with fees on most cards) by drawing cash at Woolworths when I shopped. They used to allow up to $600 at self service checkouts and $200 at the service desk. I thought it wrong but you could even draw cash without even buying anything. The other day, I tried to draw $300 at the self service checkout despite there being an ‘other amount’ option where you used to be able to request up to $600 and the error message came up you have exceeded the $200 limit and to change the requested amount to under $200. The assistant staff member said it was all changing so I suspect they were going to stop people using it as an ATM without buying anything and maybe working to phasing out cash.

[Rod63]

I use cash very rarely – usually only when there is a surcharge for using my card. And that is my beef. I don’t believe businesses should charge that surcharge. It should be built into the overall costs of running the business. Fortunately it’s very few that do.

[Maxine Wade]

I may be wrong but when I paid / bought anything with a credit card years ago, there were no additional charges to me. Now if I pay with a debit card, I get a surcharge fee – so now I pay cash in those places. What annoys me is that banks are closing everywhere – Lower North Shore, Sydney – and nowhere to actually bank any money, let alone get cash out – though IGA, Woolworths, Aldi and Post Office can assist – must go and count my $2 coin stash!

[KSS]

I refuse to be bullied into using cards /tap and go for small purchases. Yes I may be a relic but I still enjoy a real newspaper/magazine, the odd cup of coffee etc plus if I only need one or two items from a supermarket I will always use cash. So I always have some cash on me. And how many times has that been useful when there has been an outage rendering all cards useless?

I have no issue with supermarkets restricting the amount of cash you can take out; after all, they are not banks! I also have no issue with them now requiring a purchase before withdrawing cash, that seems a reasonable change to me.

What I do have issues with are goods and service suppliers refusing to accept cash and insisting on direct debit payments. I will never give access to my accounts to a third party.

I also have a major issue with banks telling me I cannot withdraw MY money in cash over the counter as Macquarie Bank has recently announced. Apparently, NAB is the next cab of the rank with this one. That is disgraceful.

And let’s not forget all the recent ‘poor me’ reports of people in their 20s and 30s who have been sucked into tap-and-go and afterpay arrangements. They are now unable to manage their money, run a bank account, there is no accountability for what they are spending and they have no concept of the value of money. Then comes the whinging about the amount of debt they carry! At least with cash, you actually see what you are spending and when the wallet is empty, the spending stops! Seems some ‘bright young things’ have discovered what we (or our parents) have always done: they are withdrawing ALL their salary then setting up envelopes to portion out their money into the respective bills i.e. rent, power, phone etc. Exactly what we did/have been doing for decades. Even Scott Pape has been talking about this for over a decade – the only difference is that he did it by setting up his ‘buckets’ in bank accounts.

[Rod63]

“and insisting on direct debit payments. I will never give access to my accounts to a third party.”

If you do an on-line transfer of funds, you don’t give access to your accounts.

Even if you give your BSB and account number for someone to transfer funds to you, you don’t give them access to your account.

These days you can also give your email or phone number if either is linked to your account and that can be used to transfer money to you. Then they don’t even need to know your account details.

[[email protected]]

A message to the Banks: It is our money Ralph, not yours, don’t forget that. We are trusting you with the savings that we have worked hard for. Perhaps we should only keep a small amount at the bank and if we can, transfer the balance into Super, Shares or other investments. We are slowly losing control of our lives and being dictated too. Perhaps it is time that we banded together and speak out without just letting this happen before we lose everything that we have worked for. Is this the start of things to come!!

[Author]

Posts