Cash from bank counter

[Andrew]

I thought the PO had such an appallingly badly tested computer system about 15 years ago it lost transactions and the local PO staff were being acused of theft, when they were blameless.

[Andrew]

A tad extreme surely.

And does anything cost as little as 10p ?, curious.

[Brian Reay]

I doubt it.

I think you can get cash at the post office.

Some shops used to ask "Any Cash" or something similar when paying with a debit card but I've either stopped noticing (although I tend to favour a credit card which gives 'points') or they don't ask/do it these days.

I confess to being quite a fan of the 'tap and pay' and find I'm using less and less cash.

[Roland Perry]

In message <qj3tdd$gal$ [e-mail]>, at 16:23:18 on Thu, 15 Aug

2019, Andrew [e-mail] remarked:

I've bought a PAYG SIM in Tesco for 1p. Even the checkout assistant was surprised. I did wonder if someone had fumbled a price cut from £1 to

99p (which is what most of them cost).

When I got it home it didn't work (not called "Nothing Anywhere" without reason), but I couldn't be bothered to take it back.

I spent months intermittently trying to find something to buy at Tesco for 2p (I had a "price promise" voucher to redeem - whatever happened to those?) Eventually found something on a clearance shelf I think.

[Graeme]

In message <qj3t7r$gal$ [e-mail]>, Andrew [e-mail] writes

A very sore point for postmasters (even retired ones) and their staff. Not 15 years ago, either. A major court case is ongoing. I enjoyed running a local PO but dealing with PO Limited was an ongoing nightmare and there was always, and I mean always, the daily worry that, at the end of each day the books would not balance by some huge amount. I had plenty of small discrepancies, and a few larger (hundreds rather than thousands of pounds) but never a major disaster.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Have you never spent 10p in cash?

Yes, but I have forgotten what the item was. Long ago I had enquired in the shop, did they prefer cash or card payment, the reply was card - quicker and they don't have to count or take cash to the bank. I then asked if there were a minimum amount they would accept via a card and the answer was no, it makes no difference to them, how small the amount.

Since when, I use contactless card, but only when I forget my Iphone - for near every penny I spend. I'm not worth robbing, I only ever have at most a fiver on me in cash.

My guess - gone are they days when the retailers paid for card use on a transaction by transaction basis, so they must pay by some other method for the service. There is only one place I can think of, which doesn't accept card payments and that the local chippy. When we have F&C's, I have to go to an ATM for funds first.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Brian Reay brought next idea :

My switch to almost entirely cashless has been quite gradual. I began with all of my regular bills moving to DD, credit card paid off automatically. Then as card readers appeared I began to pay for some shopping with card and pin, some with cash. Now almost everywhere has contactless, what's the point of carrying any cash at all?

I have four cards on my Iphone, the same four cards in my wallet and so rarely do I need cash, that I have to plan ahead to use it.

[Martin Brown]

It is still a crock of the proverbial according to our post mistress.

About half the times I am in there the thing is only half working or unable to perform some of its functions or just plain dead in the water. Its a tiny post office kept going only to game the distance to post offices metric. They only have one terminal so when its down that's it.

Our "reliable" rural internet connection doesn't help things either.

[spuorgelgoog]

When I was on a shop till (not a post office) the thousand quid errors were easy to spot - someone rang up £1991.99 instead of £1.99 <department> £1.99 <department> and hadn't kept the slip, and we just had to find them on the audit roll.

Of course with a computerised system you're relying on the computer to retain an accurate audit trail, which seems to be part of the problem with the Post Office systems.

Owain

[Roger Hayter]

I had a very circular conversation with one of our local post office clerks unitl I realised that she was unaware that part of the island of Ireland remained a part of the UK. Makes a big difference to the Parcelforce charges!

[dennis]

That's true for cash backs in shops too.

Oh, the post office is a shop.

[dennis]

You will have to point out that using a smart watch is the modern way to do payments, phones are old hat. .

[jeikppkywk]

Yeah, that's the way with applepay too. The self checkouts in one of our supermarket chains dispense cash and even have a withdraw cash icon on the main screen, but you can't use applepay to do that even tho applepay is fine for paying for what you bought. You have to insert a physical card in the machine to get cash.

[jeikppkywk]

Not when you pay for everything that way and don't bother to carry any cash anymore.

Yep, some stuff still does.

Don't forget what that did to the cat.