Cash will always be king. Just ask anyone who's lost a card and has had to wait a week for a new one to turn up.
ATM fees shake-up may push Britain towards cashless society
Thousands of free-to-use cash machines could be axed from Britain's high streets due to plans to cut fees that fund the network, banking industry group LINK warned last week. LINK has a strategy to minimise the impact to consumers due to a proposed reduction in fees over the next four years from around 25p to 20p per cash …
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Monday 6th November 2017 13:46 GMT james 68
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
@TRT
If you can't scratch a window with it, I don't accept it.
So, say you bill someone £3,000 for your labours, you won't accept coins, notes or even pre-paid credit cards because you prefer it all in cubic zirconia or perhaps broken carbide steel drill bits?
I think you might be telling a little fib there.
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Tuesday 7th November 2017 09:35 GMT james 68
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
Heresy, I know, but I am of the opinion that the works of Douglas Adams are utter shite. I have read the majority of his books and they never failed to disappoint - much like Tolkien, good premise but bad execution.
But to each their own, different folks have different tastes and that's what makes 'em interesting. Being stuck in a room with people who have diverse tastes makes for much more interesting conversation than the conversational circle-jerk when everyone likes the same thing.
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Tuesday 7th November 2017 09:48 GMT Kiwi
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
Heresy, I know, but I am of the opinion that the works of Douglas Adams are utter shite. I have read the majority of his books and they never failed to disappoint - much like Tolkien, good premise but bad execution.
I'd demand you hand in your badge, but you don't yet have one! Here's an upvote to help you on your way then... :)
(I much prefer Lewis to Adams, and quite like Terry Pratchet as well. As to Tolkien, while I must read the 1st and 3rd of LOTR sometime, I found that the covers of #2 were a little too far apart. As to the Smilarilarion or whatever is is, I think even though I was trapped out in the country in an off-grid friends house for several days, try as I might, desperate as I was for entertainment, I simply could not get into that! Great book for insomniacs.
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Tuesday 7th November 2017 11:23 GMT james 68
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
Strangely enough I did have a badge, right up until yesterday, it was all silver and shiny too.
Makes me wonder if Mr Orlowski got a little stroppy because I commented that his latest HTC
hit piecereview sounded somewhat whiney and the admission that they're actually good phones was just tacked on the end.TBH it carries little to no meaning so I can't say I actually care.
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Wednesday 8th November 2017 10:17 GMT Kiwi
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
Strangely enough I did have a badge, right up until yesterday, it was all silver and shiny too.
Makes me wonder if Mr Orlowski got a little stroppy because I commented that his latest HTC hit piece review sounded somewhat whiney and the admission that they're actually good phones was just tacked on the end.
I thought his main thing was having every post on the thread moderated (so you can't get in and change those typos you spot as you hit submit (not sure if you can do it from the "my posts" page or not, must try some time).
As a guess I'd say you dropped below 100 posts for the year, which IIRC was the requirement for bronze badges remaining. I need to post much much much less to put that to the test though...
TBH it carries little to no meaning so I can't say I actually care.
How dare you rag on our badges! Have a slap upvoteside the head in the hopes it knocks some sense into ya! :)
(some of us who're more "socially awkward" can use them as a guide to how much we're pissing people off I guess...)
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Thursday 9th November 2017 10:26 GMT Kiwi
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
@Kiwi I have a simpler guide that works for me:
Have I communicated with anyone today? if yes then mission accomplished.
That always helps. Reach out and touch someone.
Though with some I communicated with today, I want to reach out and touch them with a "modified" cattle prod, set to "extra crispy" :)
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Tuesday 7th November 2017 11:50 GMT CrazyOldCatMan
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
As to the Smilarilarion or whatever is is
Given that I first read LOTR age 9, followed by Silmarillion age 10, 11, 12 (that's re-reads, not how long it took me) I very much disagree.
My local librarian (this was in the mid-late 70's) was quite happy for me to read the books from the adult Sci-fi/fantasy section even though I was technically underage. The fact that I was reading 6-8 books a week might have had something to do with it.
I did get a few restrictions after my mum read one of the sci-fi short stories and realised that it was about people taking LSD but, in the main, I could read uninterrupted.
I still read 6-8 books/week - although now they are epubs read on my Kobo. My battery life is a *lot* shorter than 4 weeks!
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Wednesday 8th November 2017 10:07 GMT Kiwi
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
I did get a few restrictions after my mum read one of the sci-fi short stories and realised that it was about people taking LSD but, in the main, I could read uninterrupted.
Mum couldn't keep up. In fact I think that's why they got me my first bike, so I could ride to the library myself and get books there. She also was an avid reader though. When I'm taking a break from electronics and those ape-shaped fleshy things that think "you should socialise more" I can get through 300 pages in a day no trouble. Might be 400, has been a while since I've done it (wonder if I can find a cheap tent for a weekend away)
I did try Silmarillion but just never got through it, probably not even the first chapter. But that said, like I said I was stranded and off-grid - staying at a friend's farm during a winter storm which took out a section of road and also power lines. No snow even. He only had a few books there. The situation was rather stressful which may've made the opening to Silmarillion a lot harder to get through.
(Actually it was where I got my intro to Narnia - had The Last Battle there which was what got me into reading the rest, also where I read The Two Towers - maybe a little long but OK - also liked The Hobbit as a kid (but absolutely HATED the movie, only looked at the first 45mins or so and couldn't get any further!) - maybe it's time I tried to get through them all again :) )
--> Icon - closest we have to "bookworm" in appearance.
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Monday 6th November 2017 14:47 GMT Rob Daglish
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
A friend of mine once did something very similar: He was a bus driver, and had a passenger who would get on every day with a £20 note for something like a 10P ride, so it used up most of the driver's change on one passenger (who would arrive the next morning with another £20, and no sign of the previous day's change...) Eventually my mate got totally hacked off, and got £20 worth of 1P coins from the bank - passenger gets on, he goes through the whole "do you not have anything smaller" routine for the umpteenth time, and was handed a couple of bags of 1P coins... And the next morning, he turned up with the correct change!
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Monday 6th November 2017 16:08 GMT TRT
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
I believe there's some shizzle about legal tender which is supposed to prevent this sort of thing. And IIRC, I believe the 20p or was it £1 coin was never included in the appropriate Act, thus making it legal tender to settle, say, Amazon's tax bill in coins.
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Monday 6th November 2017 16:58 GMT Tom 38
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
I believe there's some shizzle about legal tender which is supposed to prevent this sort of thing. And IIRC, I believe the 20p or was it £1 coin was never included in the appropriate Act, thus making it legal tender to settle, say, Amazon's tax bill in coins.
Any coin with a face value below £1 has limitations to the quantity that can be used as legal tender.
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Monday 6th November 2017 20:24 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I believe there's some shizzle about legal tender
Yes there is. I once sent a council a box of coins to pay a parking ticket. It was returned to me with a photocopied page explaining how it wasn't legal tender. Not only that but I'd now missed the deadline for the discount. Yes I am a ***
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Tuesday 7th November 2017 13:51 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Also, in an increasing surveilance society
Not quite. "Legal tender" is what legally HAS to be accepted to pay off a debt.
Since you pay before the start of the bus ride, the company can accept or refuse whatever it likes as payment..since no debt has occurred.
However, if you paid at the end of the ride, you have a debt to the bus company, and they legally have to accept what is defined as "legal tender" in addition to anything else they accept.
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Tuesday 7th November 2017 09:44 GMT Kiwi
Re: Bus drivers give change?
Here in the US, if you get on a bus with only a $20 bill, you either turn around and get off the bus or you get a $20 bus ride. [Unless one of the other passengers is kind enough to give you change.]
Same over here. I even got on a bus where the driver was saying "Exact change, get off, or get no change" - very loudly and not very politely (was evening rush hour, he was getting behind schedule, and the number of people giving him large notes for short trips was taking his little remaining change and costing him even more time)
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Monday 6th November 2017 19:24 GMT YARR
"cash back from what?"
Your shopping bill paid for on debit card. The amount of cash back you request is added to your bill by the checkout operator, and paid to you from the till. There is no extra charge for cash back, so it's the cheaper option if the only available ATM is one that charges.
It seems that "cashback" is also confusingly used for schemes where a % of credit card processing fees is paid back to the purchaser.
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Tuesday 7th November 2017 14:26 GMT Anonymous Coward
Cheques
"The UK doesn't still support those horrible paper "cheques" does it?"
The funny thing about those "horrible" cheques is they let you pay a third party large sums of money without them having to carry around and be registered for a card machine and without you having to have a wad of cash at hand. The only people who have a reason to get rid of them is banks because it still requires humans to process them. Anyone else who is ra-ra-ing for the end of cheques is either a Bank shill or a mouth breathing halfwit who's fallen for the Banks "cashless, chequeless society is good for you" spiel hook and line.
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Monday 6th November 2017 17:51 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: Cash just in case
"My local fish and chips establishment being the most critically important example for cash only transactions."
Mine takes cards noiwadays, and unlike many small shops, doesn't charge a 50p handling fee on top. While that 50p charge is allowed, I can't see us going cashless if all I want is a 70p chocolate bar that has a 50p card handling charge added to it!
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Monday 6th November 2017 20:22 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Cash just in case
I can't see us going cashless if all I want is a 70p chocolate bar that has a 50p card handling charge added to it!
You and I may not want a cashless society, but the payments processors do (because they'll take a cut), obviously the likes of GCHQ and HMRC do, but most of all so does government, because if they can do away with cash, then they believe they can collect the c£1bn of VAT that is evaded through cash-in-hand transactions, and they may even be able to tax crime (because crime will still occur, it'll just be laundered as some business transaction). Take the UK recreational drugs market - estimated about £4-10bn, so making that cashless, and forcing it to pay VAT when the money is laundered sees another billion quid of VAT for HMT to waste. Prostitution, trafficking, extortion, fraud - all of these would need to be cashless, traceable, and therefore disguised as some form of retail transaction.
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Monday 6th November 2017 17:40 GMT Boothy
Re: Link ATM?
My favourite level is the one that repeats a question already answered.
For example...
1. Services offered: Balance check, Cash with Balance check, Cash without balance check...(other services).
2. Select 'Cash without balance check', as I already know how much I have in the Bank.
3. Next screen: 'Would you like to check your balance? yes/no'.
4. Erm, is this a trick question? As I already told you I don't want a balance check!
5. Select 'no', can now enter cash amount and continue.
The designers of the UI really ought to get a basic handle on good interface design practices, i.e. don't ask the same question more than once, (except when it's something you can't recover from, like deleting an account for example, 'Are you really sure?').
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Monday 6th November 2017 18:20 GMT Yet Another Anonymous coward
Re: Link ATM?
Try US petrol pumps.
Insert card,
Do you have an air miles card Y/N ?
Would you like to sign up for an airmiles card Y/N ?
Are you sure, they are very nice Y/N?
Are you really really sure Y/N ?
Do you want a discount Red Bull Y/N
Car Wash Y/N
.
.
Still not as bad as the ones with a screen that start playing daytime-TV at full volume as soon as you lift the nozzle. It's a bit weird to be filling your car and have the pump scream "Hemorrhoids? You should try new xanthitikilax" at you.
I'm feeling better now, just need to have a little lie down.
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Tuesday 7th November 2017 10:26 GMT TRT
Re: own bags? My experience...
Sainsbury's self-checkout -
Do you have your own bags?
- Yes
Please place the bags into the bagging area.
*Places bag, waits*
Unknown item in bagging area.
*removes bag*
Please place your bag into the bagging area.
*Places bag, waits*
Thank you.
*scan, beep, put item in bag*
Unknown item in bagging area.
*removes item*
Please place the item you have just scanned into the bagging area
*places item in bag*
Unknown item in bagging area.
*removes item and bag. Places item.*
*Flashing red light and alarm noise*
Please wait for assistance.
Ffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..........
Every. Single. Time.
And experience has shown that once you've told it you have your own bag, there's no way back to the start to tell it you don't have your own bag, after you eventually decide that trying to weigh your own backpack that you're trying to load your lunch into is beyond the capability of the scales and that you'll just put them into the back pack post-purchase rather than AS you buy them.
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Tuesday 7th November 2017 14:36 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: own bags? My experience...
"And experience has shown that once you've told it you have your own bag, there's no way back to the start to tell it you don't have your own bag"
The whole weighing the items scenario is utterly pointless. If someone is going to nick something they'll already have hidden it in another bag or in their coat, they're not going to scan it then conceal it or just stick it in the bagging area unscanned so whats the fucking point?? The only time you need to weigh something is for fruit and veg and that has its own seperate scales anyway.
These self checkouts had a UI designed by people who apparently still have mummy shopping for them with code seemingly written by the cheapest 2 bit outsourcing firm they could find.
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Wednesday 8th November 2017 09:49 GMT Kiwi
Re: own bags? My experience...
The whole weighing the items scenario is utterly pointless. If someone is going to nick something they'll already have hidden it in another bag or in their coat, they're not going to scan it then conceal it or just stick it in the bagging area unscanned so whats the fucking point??
What really gets me with them (enough that I don't shop at Pak'n'Save any more, and never will enter another of their stores - yes these things DO matter!) is when I have scanned an item and put in down in the "bagging area", then my mate picks it up and puts it into a bag. Or I pick a full bag up to move it so I can get another bag. And the bloody machine basically accuses me of stealing, calls for assistance etc etc etc. If I wanted to steal the items I WOULDN'T HAVE SCANNED THE BLOODY THINGS IN THE FIRST PLACE!
(Thankfully not all companies are like this, and I usually prefer "the human touch" anyway, only using the automated systems when I have to or when the checkouts are heavily loaded or seriously lacking in eye candy...)
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Tuesday 7th November 2017 10:53 GMT phuzz
Re: Link ATM?
I was using a newer Link ATM recently and it seemed to be offering me UI customisation options. There was a queue so I didn't investigate further, but if I get a bit of time with that machine I'll have a look and see what it offers. In theory there's nothing stopping them from allowing customers to set some preferred default options like "withdraw £30 without a receipt or checking the balance".
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Tuesday 7th November 2017 16:43 GMT PB90210
Re: Link ATM?
Abbey Nat CASH machine - Instructions for use:
1. insert CASH card
2. enter PIN
3. select CASH
4. select amount of CASH required
5. select account to withdraw the CASH from
6. select CANCEL AND RETURN CARD as the machine has just figured it has no CASH
7. move to next machine
8. GOTO 1
You've got one job to do!!!... OK, balances... and payments... and cheque books... but you've just got one job!!!
(got a £25 'Sorry' from them after taking up half a page of their complaints book)
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
