Discussions

Fun topic to ponder since we're sort of in the middle of this transition between physical money and digital payments, though the trend seems clear which way things are headed.  
 
Tech definitely isn't perfect and so it helps to cover all bases and at least know what your Plan B would be. For myself, within town having a tiny wallet with about $30-40 emergency (or for the most part Garage Sale) cash tucked away but accessible does it for me..... then a main credit card with favourable rewards system and a backup credit card just in case something happens with the main one. Everything gets run through the card from a $1000 insurance bill to every $1 iced coffee and in the end through card rewards we get free return flights about once a year or so for the family. I kick myself for all of the $100 grocery bills I used to pay for in cash, throwing away $2 vacation cash every time.  

If we go out of town or on holiday I'll up the reserve a little bit more to account for the unknown, but more often than not that reserve sits untouched. But to each their own... everyone's going to have different comfort levels with what works for them!
 
We're quite thrifty overall and so I wouldnt say we spend a digital nickel more than we'd spend if we went the approach of carrying around more cash. You could actually make the case that having that emergency cash stash causes me to spend more at garage sales than I should, but I digress :)

Heheh I’d never fault someone for wanting to ask questions about privacy and making decisions about how to live their life based on the answers. For me it comes down to cost vs benefit and I can’t envision a credit card company doing anything with my data that would negatively impact the 50 or so years tops I have left on this planet relative to the experience I get out of the points. We were quite grateful to Big Brother for sending us to Paris on points last month and if he wanted to check in to see how we were enjoying ourselves I wouldn’t hold it against him  

 
I will admit that Air Miles is a little creepy when you buy a pound of say ground beef and then get a customized coupon in the mail a few weeks later for that exact item, but that’s probably pushing the scope of this thread!  
 
Now think about what “they” are doing with your DNA and fingerprint on your bill after you hand it over and leave the building ;)

Worthwhile read on the topic at the link below, specifically the movement of some businesses toward not accepting cash at all. Main reason given by businesses being that digital is much much easier from an accounting perspective. They also touch on some of the downsides mentioned in this thread:  
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4428655  
 
I know my business is a unique one compared to traditional retail or brick/mortar but I don’t accept cash payments on feature ad upgrades. The overhead associated with processing a higher volume of small transactions (making change, going to the bank to make physical deposits and just the time to do a transaction that isn’t automated) would add a lot of extra cost on my end, and so it’s all by credit card. It costs me money to the payment processor but that particular amount is worth it in these cases when you consider the whole picture. On the other hand for larger purchases of business ad banners I only take cheque because the amount is so large that the percentage the payment processor takes off the top isn’t something I feel comfortable giving. So a little from both ends I suppose but neither end involves physical money.  
 
This next link I found real interesting. Visa had (or maybe still has) a promotion that incentivizes retailers to stop accepting cash:  
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/m.huffingtonpost.ca/amp/2017/07/13/visa-to-pay-businesses-to-stop-accepting-cash_a_23028807/