Coping in a Cash-Only Society
Having a current account to help keep your money safe and pay bills is something most of us just take for granted. How easy it would it be to cope financially if these accounts were no longer available from banks and credit cards just simply didn’t exist?
First of all, imagine the problems it would cause when receiving your salary every month? Your employer would have to hand out large sums of cash to everyone, which you would then have to find a safe and secure place to store. Would you be happy to leave it under the mattress while you were out at work all day? There would also be the possibility of spending more of it on a payday night out if it was just sitting burning a hole in your pocket.
No current account would undoubtedly make paying your bills that bit more more time consuming and difficult. With no direct debits or standing orders coming out of your account automatically, you would have to rely on your memory to make sure you made the correct payments in cash each month.
Of course with no current account, overdrafts or credit cards available, you would have to ensure you kept an eye on every penny. If something unexpected happened near the end of the month, such as your car breaking down, there would be no option to borrow the money to cover the cost until you got your wages in cash again.
Going shopping or for a day out would require much more careful planning than at present. With no current account or credit cards to withdraw money from, ATM’s would be of no use whatsoever, so making sure you had enough cash readily available for your purchases or weekend family trip would be very important. No more impulse buys or stopping for a takeaway on the way home once you’ve spent what’s in your pocket either.
Going to the supermarket can be an unpredictable event in terms of how much it’s going to cost, unless you had all your food shopping meticulously planned out in advance, and the whole e-commerce market and online shopping wouldn’t even exist if everyone had to rely on cash to pay for their items. Sending money securely online is much safer than mailing money through the post.
It’s easy to see just how difficult life could be if the convenience of having a current account was taken away. Thankfully, there’s no chance of it happening in the future but this was surely the reality for the vast majority of people in the not-so-distant past.
Banking today has become almost unrecognisable from even 50 years ago, and with the progress made in technology, having an online current account has transformed the way millions of people deal with their day to day finances.
This article has been written for information and interest purposes only. The information contained within this article is the opinion of the author only, and should not be construed as advice or used to make financial decisions. Expert financial advice should always be sought and any links contained within this article are included for information purposes only.
