(carried over from the other thread)
Having a limited income and no savings is not a choice.
Bletchleyite said: One does not require a large income nor savings to pay by card.
For someone with a restricted income and therefore a need to very carefully watch their spending, cards are off-putting because it is not straightforward to know how much is available to spend, which creates the risk of overspending. I quite happily use cards all the time, but I can do that without worrying that I might have miscalculated and actually have £5 less than I thought in the account, because I always have well over £5 more than any likely daily spending available. E.g. if a direct debit I had forgotten about goes out a few days early, that will not leave me going overdrawn through using my card for everyday spending.
For those for whom turning out to have £5 less than you thought you had can be serious, cards can appear risky, especially if some debits may not show up for a day or two after the transaction, creating the impression that there is more money in the account than their really is. In my earlier post, I described a friend who likes to get out cash, as then she knows she has enough money left in the bank to meet her bills (rent, utilities, etc) and she can keep track of her other spending by glancing in her purse and seeing what is there. If she had to use a debit card, she would feel she had to carry a notebook around to keep track of all spending to make sure she did not go overdrawn or eat into her bills money (or preferably have two accounts, one for the 'bills money' and one with the debit card, so she was at no risk of accidently drawing upon the money reserved for bills). That is more complicated and more error-prone than looking in her purse. There would still be the issue that a direct debit, etc, can make money unexpectedly vanish from a current account, but cannot make cash vanish from a purse.
For people on that sort of tight budget, this can be a serious matter. For them, being caution of cards has a rational basis, as above.
The points you make about cash acceptance creating problems are perfectly sound. I think we need a better way to make non-cash use easier and safer for those for whom it raises real problems. Just calling them "refuseniks" and being critical will not solve the problem, and I fear it is likely to drive people in that situation towards the far-right and the conspiracy cranks who keenly offer them validation.
Being ignorant of using the Internet or a smartphone is not really a choice either, especially in people who missed out on the early stages of their introduction and now face entering at the deep end with little support.
Bletchleyite said: It is not necessary to use the Internet or a smartphone to pay for a bus journey by card.
True in itself, but without either it is much more difficult to monitor how much is available to spend on any type of card, which takes us back to the issue above, of people who need to be sure how much they have to avoid overspending and know they have enough.
Most people will have a contactless card, for the very, very few who do not then you can buy - with cash a pre-paid credit card
This was being discussed in the other thread - the problems are that those charge fees and most require internet access to operate and reload them. Those without contactless cards are particularly likely to not have net access and not be able to afford fees.
