DAN HYDE: Scrapping cash would mean sacrificing our 権利 to privacy and 手渡すing banks more 力／強力にする

By Dan Hyde for the Daily Mail

Updated:

Changes: Just 40 per cent of the payments we make are now in coins and notes

Changes: Just 40 per cent of the 支払い（額）s we make are now in coins and 公式文書，認めるs

One of my earliest memories of my late grandfather is standing with him and my dad on Bournemouth Pier feeding pennies into a slot machine in the forlorn hope of a small 勝利，勝つ.

Every Christmas in those days, Aunt Frieda would 手渡す me an envelope stuffed with 2p or 5p pieces that she had saved throughout the year.?

The whole packet usually 追加するd up to no more than £5, but to me it felt like all the money in the world.

Everyone seems to have a fond memory to do with coins from their childhood.

But while it would be a shame if children were 奪うd of these little 楽しみs, we must not let sentimentality get in the way of a serious 審議 about the death of cash in Britain.

Just 40 per cent of the 支払い（額）s we make are now in coins and 公式文書，認めるs, 負かす／撃墜する from 87 per cent in 1985.

Card and 動きやすい 支払い（額）s have overtaken them, thanks to the rise of internet shopping an d contactless 科学（工学）技術, which lets you tap-and-go without entering a Pin.

So few people now use 1p and 2p coins that the 政府 last week raised the prospect of consigning these denominations to the same dustbin of history as the shilling and ha’penny.

That idea has since been 解任するd by the 財務省 ― but for how long? If cash disappears from our High Streets, we will lose 支配（する）／統制する over the way we spend our money and any sense of choice we 現在／一般に have as 消費者s.

Pensioners on 直す／買収する，八百長をするd incomes, such as 70-year-old Jacky Hailstone, rely on 公式文書，認めるs and coins for their 週刊誌 予算. If a bank’s computer system goes 負かす／撃墜する and our debit cards stop working, it’s cash we use to 料金d our families and put 燃料 in the car.

Parents use old 巡査s and piggy banks to teach children about the value of saving. With a card, everything about your spending ― from your gas 供給者’s 指名する to how much you forked out at the pub on Friday ― is logged on a computer somewhere.?

Should the likes of 69-year-old Jane Dough, who hate that idea, be 軍隊d to give up their privacy?

Millions of newsagents, bu tchers and market 仲買人s might have something to say about it, too.

Every time you spend on card, your bank pockets a small 料金 from the merchant or retailer. No wonder bank bosses are so keen on 数字表示式の money when it means bigger 利益（をあげる）s for them.

There are 肯定的なs to scrapping 1p and 2p coins and 結局 going cashless, not least the stronger 消費者 保護s 申し込む／申し出d by cards and the convenience of never needing to visit an ATM.?

But make no mistake: scrapping cash 完全に would mean sacrificing our 権利 to privacy and 手渡すing banks more 力／強力にする to tell us how to live our lives.

年金 poser

Should you 受託する an 申し込む／申し出 from your 年金 company to 上げる your 基金 by 80 per cent if you give up perks that 保証（人） a generous income in old age?

It’s a 堅い question and, until we see the 詳細（に述べる）s of the 提案s from 王室の London, Money Mail remains 用心深い.

The 保証（人）d annuity 率 you’re 存在 asked to sacrifice will typically 支払う／賃金 an income of around 10 per cent from your nest egg ― that’s every year for life. In these days of low 率s, you won’t find a better 取引，協定 anywhere.

The downside is that if you die 早期に in 退職, you lose the whole マリファナ ― so there are arguments on both 味方するs and 王室の London 主張するs savers who don’t like annuities (there’s nothing wrong with that 態度, by the way) will get much better value thanks to its new 取引，協定.

My advice is to tread carefully and speak to a finan cial 助言者 (王室の London is 申し込む／申し出ing to 支払う／賃金 に向かって this) who will analyse the numbers. The same 適用するs for 類似の 取引，協定s from other 会社／堅いs.

Get this wrong and you make an irreversible mistake.

紅潮／摘発する 職業

Another ありそうもない source of good 顧客 service: this week, Southern Water.

After Diana Scholes 賞賛するd Plusnet last week, Money Mail reader Pat Webster tells me her 下水管 blockage was sorted out in 記録，記録的な／記録する time. She telephoned and was すぐに put through to a pleasant lady who arranged an engineer for the next day.

The man arrived before 8am, got on with the 職業 and then went to check other homes on her street. Pat says: ‘He even shut my garden gate 適切に!’ Keep sending me your stories of 最高の，を越す-notch service.

d.hyde@dailymail.co.uk

?

Some links in this article may be (v)提携させる(n)支部，加入者 links. If you click on them we may earn a small （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限. That helps us 基金 This Is Money, and keep it 解放する／自由な to use. We do not 令状 articles to 促進する 製品s. We do not 許す any 商業の 関係 to 影響する／感情 our 編集（者）の independence.

Most watched Money ビデオs

Comments 37

株 what you think

  見解（をとる） all

The comments below have not been 穏健なd.

  見解（をとる） all

The 見解（をとる）s 表明するd in the contents above are those of our 使用者s and do not やむを得ず 反映する the 見解（をとる）s of MailOnline.

We are no longer 受託するing comments on this article.