OT: Typically do you carry cash?
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It's amazing, isn't it? I frequently do just that in order to gradually accumulate quarters for my basement's washed/dryer, and get the most puzzled looks from cashiers whose registers automatically calculate change based on the amount owed and given..
The best is when the bill is $6.78, and you give them a ten, 2 singles, and 3 pennies. They look at you funny, and say, "It's only $6.78." You respond, "I know, I gave you $12.03." They shake their head and punch it into their computer. And then they exclaim in bewilderment, "How did you do that," as they hand you a five and a quarter.
Actually, having managed a retail store for 6 years, I can tell you that yes they do, and some of them worked for me.
I like to walk around with three stacks of high society at all times, cause you just never know. Ok, seriously, I usually have somewhere between $50 and $200 on me, unless I just won decently at poker in the casino, after which I'll carry around however many c-notes I cashed out for.
I haven't used a wallet since I was 18. Hate wallets. I carry one personal credit card, my work AMEX, my license, my medical card, and my prescription card, along with the cash in my front pocket - so much easier than a wallet.
One of the biggest reasons I carry cash is for eating/drinking out, which we do a lot. And most bars/restaurants love people who pay with cash, since they don't have to pay the 2-3% in various processing fees, plus their tips are off the books. And it's always good to have the help like you. Another reason to pay cash is philosophical - no record of the transaction.
I haven't used a wallet since I was 18. Hate wallets. I carry one personal credit card, my work AMEX, my license, my medical card, and my prescription card, along with the cash in my front pocket - so much easier than a wallet.
One of the biggest reasons I carry cash is for eating/drinking out, which we do a lot. And most bars/restaurants love people who pay with cash, since they don't have to pay the 2-3% in various processing fees, plus their tips are off the books. And it's always good to have the help like you. Another reason to pay cash is philosophical - no record of the transaction.
Nope. And I generally interact with dozens of "millenials" on a daily basis. Half of them are in STEM fields and I'm sure their basic arithmetic is just fine.
I certainly have seen cashiers struggle at times, but they're as likely to be 60 plus years old as they are Snapchatting twentysomethings.
Nope. I am saying your anecdote is obviously embellished or just plain made up. Nobody cares that you can do basic arithmetic.
Alright alright, all you old timers settle down. I'm just giving you a hard time and sticking up for the youth. We bow to your superior nickle reckoning.
I detest using cash.
My credit cards make money for me with cash back. Why wouldn't I use them?
There is one pizza and one sandwich place by my office that use only cash. Aside from covers at a bar, or a once or twice a trip a year to AC or abroad (and more countries are becoming credit friendly), I try to keep as little of it as possible on me.
And I use Venmo to pay friends, everyone my age uses it.
My credit cards make money for me with cash back. Why wouldn't I use them?
There is one pizza and one sandwich place by my office that use only cash. Aside from covers at a bar, or a once or twice a trip a year to AC or abroad (and more countries are becoming credit friendly), I try to keep as little of it as possible on me.
And I use Venmo to pay friends, everyone my age uses it.
Not a millennial thankfully. Carry petty cash for tips and such. Everything I can I put on Amex. Doesn't everyone use Venmo to pay people?
Yea, your average millennial can't do basic math without their iPhone. Is this really news?
Yea, your average millennial can't do basic math without their iPhone. Is this really news?
I haven't noticed the level of mathematical incompetence shift much over the last 40+ years. Have seen my share of complete morons struggling with fairly simple math for decades. And this is not a statistically valid sample, but about a year ago, I quizzed a bunch of my son's friends, who I happen to know pretty well, trying to see if these kids were really bad at simple math and they were at least competent at it (and I know for sure at least 3/4 of them were buzzed, lol).
The only time a "safe space" is even acknowledged or referred to is when trying to insult someone. Other than that, as far as I have observed it is a made up phrase designed for the sole purpose of conservatives bashing liberals.
I know it has become fashionable to bash anyone younger than 35 these days, but in my own experience, there has been a vastly larger number of times where some geezer with gray hair couldn't figure out how to make change without my assistance than someone closer to my age. What's funny is the people who can't do math in their heads are almost always the ones who automatically bash "common core" for trying to teach people how to do math in their heads instead of wasting time carrying the one etc.
I learned the "common core" technique in the 90s before the phrase common core existed and became politicized, and I'm amazed that other people don't know how to add this way. Sometimes I play darts with older guys and I find it sad that they need to write out addition problems on the chalkboard that I can do in my head in a couple seconds.
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Won't say for all, but most of the cash back CC I have looked at eat up a great deal of the cash back with annual fees.
I pay cash for privacy reasons. Don't need a CC company having info on my dining habits, and how
Then you tell them you went to grade school before there were calculators. Eyes get even bigger.
Cards that "give" you points that result in you getting cash back or that are redeemable for goods/services? You are paying for this, folks. Those "perks" are priced into your originally goods/services. Don't kid yourself.
Every time you make a purchase with a card, that transaction "costs" the merchant $.25 plus a percentage of the sale total, from 1.4% to 3%, for example, plus a batch settlement fee, a statement fee, a PCI annual fee, etc. Those costs are recovered by the merchant in the cost of goods/service.
Last year or so, laws were changed, allowing merchants to actually charge customers for those card transaction fees, openly adding them to your bill, for all to see what costs had been hidden. Few merchants do this, though, for fear of upsetting their clientele. So they just factor in that cost to what you pay.
And everybody does pay. The credit card processing industry (or "merchant services" industry) does not, though.
Every time you make a purchase with a card, that transaction "costs" the merchant $.25 plus a percentage of the sale total, from 1.4% to 3%, for example, plus a batch settlement fee, a statement fee, a PCI annual fee, etc. Those costs are recovered by the merchant in the cost of goods/service.
Last year or so, laws were changed, allowing merchants to actually charge customers for those card transaction fees, openly adding them to your bill, for all to see what costs had been hidden. Few merchants do this, though, for fear of upsetting their clientele. So they just factor in that cost to what you pay.
And everybody does pay. The credit card processing industry (or "merchant services" industry) does not, though.
people still use bill fold wallets?
Almost as bad as paying with your debit card at WaCheck
Men have card holders and wads of cash. Period.
Almost as bad as paying with your debit card at WaCheck
Men have card holders and wads of cash. Period.
You're making the case for why you should use rewards cards because you're going to pay for those fees anyway. As long as every place takes CCs, whether you use a card or not the fees are baked in according to you. Might as well get something back for it. Meanwhile the cash only people are subsidizing the cost for the CC users as long as the fees are applied across the board, which as you said is what's happening everywhere, save for gas stations.
Didn't say you shouldn't use cards. Simply elaborated on the real costs involved. The merchant services industry is the real winner.
Don't a lot of strip clubs have the Disney dollars system where you can swipe your card to get a stack of "funny money" for tipping? If so, cash is truly dead.
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I got one that I think is even worse
went to the movies once....the total came to $20.50..... I gave the girl a $20 and a $5 bill.... she thought I gave her a $20 and a $ 1 , so she gave me just 50 cents change.... when I told her the other bill was a $5, she had to use her phone calc. to figure out she owed me another $4
I think things like this happen because people of college age now have been using calculators since such an early age they either don't trust doing it in their head, or would not think of thinking it through....
Uh-oh. lol
I have a POS trifold nylon-like wallet someone gave me 25 or more years ago. The velcro wore down to nothing long ago. But it has a couple card holders and holds my wad of cash and works exactly as I want it to work. So I never replaced it (and haven't used the nice leather wallets I've been given as gifts over the years).
I got it before God invented card holders. So I'm grandfathered into the "he man" club despite having an old-school wallet.
Yeah, the ones in STEM fields aren't the ones behind the counter at QuikChek.
I'm at the very upper end of the millennial spectrum, but I can't argue that cashiers really struggle with basic math concepts far more often than they should. I also taught math at the 7th and 8th grade levels, and saw that there was a definite gap for students in that area.
Mostly it was due to an over-reliance on calculators in the elementary grades, which were allowed (and therefore encouraged) for standardized tests. There was definitely an erosion of basic concepts and mental math, though.
I am one quick to defend millennials in most areas, but as a country we've really failed them from an educational perspective in a lot of ways - specifically at the middle and lower ends of the spectrum. Too much shifting pedagogy, too much "teach to the test", too much of a shift of responsibility for performance from the student to the teacher, too much grade inflation / social promotion, etc.
And there's also a basic unawareness of some of our less frequently used denominations, especially among younger people who may not have been exposed to them (both due to fewer years of life experience and less frequent cash transactions). For instance, the article I linked above where the cops were called in Houston when a girl tried to pay with a $2 bill.
A few weeks ago during the whole Tubman Twenty news, a guy my brother in law works with couldn't name a single person who appeared on any of our paper money.
A few weeks ago during the whole Tubman Twenty news, a guy my brother in law works with couldn't name a single person who appeared on any of our paper money.
As the father of 3rd and K students, this is spot on.
I'd add the elimination of real grades and honor rolls as well. My 3rd grader's scale is "progressing to grade level, meets grade level and exceeds grade level." What they are doing to these kids in terms of feedback and competition is bordering on criminal.
I teach law students. For 30 years, they have been unable to do what I consider simple arithmetic (a woman gets $100 a month in social security, and $500 annually from farm rental. What is her income.). I joke with the students that now I understand why they went to law school -- to avoid math!
I avoid paying cash in stores because I don' t like carrying change. I use my CC even to buy a sandwich at Wawa's.
I avoid paying cash in stores because I don' t like carrying change. I use my CC even to buy a sandwich at Wawa's.
That is pretty much why I ended up in law school. Me entering undergrad: "I'm going to be an engineer!" Fast forward one semester: "I've always wanted to be a lawyer!"
About ten years ago, I was filling in for a few months for a 9th grade honors algebra teacher out on sick leave when a student asked me "What's 4 x 6?" I gave him a blank stare. This was honors algebra. Honors. I wouldn't tell him, and made him figure it out... about ten minutes later he asked me "What are the factors of 24?" Again, made him work it out (there are a lot of answers, but the polynomial we were factoring was looking for 4 and 6)... at which point he said "Oh, 4 and 6... duh".
He knew the concepts of factoring polynomials... he just didn't know basic arithmetic.
Why so sour? It is true that "the plural of anecdote is not data," but it's fun to tell stories on-line when there's nothing at stake. BTW, I did mention that my story is good for the last 30 years, so it's not as though millienials are especially bad. No one in law school can do simple math, which is really a shame in my view.
9th grader who could factor polynomials but doesn't know 4x6? I'm skeptical.
I'm pretty good at math, fairly straight B+'s and A's until college Calculus where I found out I'm not actually that good in math, but sometimes when working the register it does get a little confusing when people throw a bunch of pennies and nickels at you in order to get a quarter back.
To the OP, I carry a couple bucks in my pocket, somewhere between $5 and $30 typically, and use my credit card 95% of the time.
I'm pretty good at math, fairly straight B+'s and A's until college Calculus where I found out I'm not actually that good in math, but sometimes when working the register it does get a little confusing when people throw a bunch of pennies and nickels at you in order to get a quarter back.
To the OP, I carry a couple bucks in my pocket, somewhere between $5 and $30 typically, and use my credit card 95% of the time.
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