General Chat

Well, son got pin unlocked,so decided to try to access my accoun account againt,all set up with bank card and "reader" logged on and straight into account :-S :-)

We are very lucky, as we have a bank in the village which happens to be a branch of our bank. It's only open two days a week, but you work round that and everyone is used to it.

It has an ATM outside, and our Post Office also has one inside, where you can get cash either as cash back or without buying anything.

One of the other main banks has a mobile unit which calls once a week, so for a small village we are pretty well off.

You are lucky to have a post office still, Andy's Mum. Our main post office closed and the remaining services were moved into W H Smith. We lost at least two suburban post offices - one went into a newsagents which is, itself, closing and the other is no more as it went into a shop that has already closed.

This, in a town that is still managing to keep Barclays, Lloyds, Natwest, HSBC, Co-op, Virgin, Halifax and a number of building societies in business.

The post office system has gone to pot altogether. It's leadership must be seriously questioned. Nothing good has come from the changes as far as the public is concerned.

Cheltenham post office closed and is in Smiths but it seems to function OK in there. Gloucester main post office is supposed to be closing and also going into Smiths which is a shame as it is a beautiful old building. We have a post office in the village in McCalls and we have 4 ATMs in the village to my knowledge there may be more as our village is quite big with the 'old village and the new additions which has almost made us more like a suberb of Gloucester. (We are in the newer part, when we moved here couldn't afford property in 'The Village'.

Fading technologies. People tend not to be very keen on the lost technologies of their younger days which they imagined would go on for ever.

There is no actual need for cash, high street banks, physical newspapers, filling in hard copy forms etc. 20 years ago and more a sub-postmaster could make a handy living out of it (combined with a shop) but that is no longer true. Larger dedicated buildings have been replaced by mini counters in WH Smith and NISA. The glorious Bournemouth PO in Post Office Rd is now a Pizza Express.

I use my fingerprint for a good chunk of security. Quick n ez.

Every dog has its day

Cash. Postage stamps. Car tax disks. Fountain pens. Typewriters. Fax machines. Roneo. Carbon paper. Tippex. Plaster casts ( NHS use them 'cos cheap ) Internal combustion engines - the Greens have got your number, sailing ships, magnetic compass, paper maps, OS Maps ( except for fun), Teasmade, coffee percolaters, vinyl records ( except for fun), CD players, K7 recorders, 8 track players, valve and transistor radios ( except as a hobby ), Hollerith cards, baudot punched tape, hard drives, Fortran, COBOL, Strowger and mobile analog telephony, modems, AM Radio , bus, train and plane tickets, cigarette machines, telegrams.

We all get old the world stays young.

"Well I guess I'm standing in the hall of broken dreams
That's the way it sometimes goes
Whenever a new love never turns out like it seems
It's the feeling comes and goes"

No wonder people panic when they lose their mobile phones.

I do know of a couple of places that don't take cards though, so it does pay to carry a little cash.

You missed a couple of things that I can remember, Rollo - word processor and a Banda.

I still use Tippex. I still have 78s, 45s and 33s and a couple of fountain pens (admittedly they don't get much use now). Rather than use my coffee machine or one of my cafetières, I use my percolator - the ancient kind that you use on the hob because I like it better. And I have always loved maps so if I am going somewhere new I look at the map to get the gist of the directions before I use the Satnav.

I don't think I can be the only dinosaur on here. :-0

Two cans and a length of string anyone?

We LIKE to pay cash for our groceries, for our coffee at the coffee shop ...............

............... most importantly, I LIKE to leave a daily cash tip for the maid when we stay in hotels. I do it daily even if we are staying a week or more as maids do not clean the same room every day and have days off so tipping at the end only goes to the maid who does the final clean after we have left. That's unfair to the other maids who have kept the room clean and made the beds.

I LIKE to tip the Dining Car crew, the Lounge Car crew, and the Sleeping Car Attendant when we ride the trains here in Canada ................ cash only!

OH likes to add a tip to the cost of a drink bought in a bar .............. price and tip are cash only on the trains and in some bars.

Of course, that does not apply to anyone who does not tip for personal service.


As a sideline, Rollo would be absolutely lost if he ever condescended to ride the long-distance trains in Canada (and I think also the US) ........................ no WiFi available on many of them, or only for very short distances around towns and villages.

The only trains in Canada that I know have WiFi throughout a journey are the those in the Corridor, servicing the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec City area.

The Canadian train from Vancouver to Toronto ...... 4 days travel ...... can accept credit cards **(in the Dining Car for alcoholic drinks with meals and)** in the Lounge car, but no tap or slide facility. The crew have to use the "old" method of a machine that produces a copy plus carbon copy.

CORRECTION ............... ** it is cash only in the Dining Car, even if you buy a bottle of wine.

No WiFi or internet connections onboard

It can be very funny watching those who must be connected all the time trying to find a connection in the middle of the Prairies or along the Canadian Shield in northern Ontario and failing time and time again.

The rest of us enjoy the relaxation, and the luxury of not having to listen too other people's phone conversations .................. and lo-and-behold, people talk to each other at the dining table and in the lounges and Dome Cars.

What a surprise!

Yes, Joylouise, we are lucky. We are one of a string of villages a few miles apart, all of which ha d a post office, and we were "chosen" to stay open.

Our sub-postmaster complains about the people who run the offices that are now in shops, as they are not properly trained and can only do the basic transactions, whereas we can still do everything in ours. It is very well used by everyone, and not just the older generation.

Regarding cash, Sylvia, OH uses cash all the time, for just about everything except very large payments, like holidays, which are on a credit card for "insurance".

Cash, it's what you can give to the person down on their luck, so they can buy their little dog some food that day. It's what you use in the hotel if you want a packet of crisps from the vending machine in the middle of the night ( I didn't but I might have done). It's what you pay for the Christmas copy of 'The Big Issue' on the rare times you see a seller here.

More importantly, it's what someone who is housebound can give to her 'shopping person' when she wouldn't trust them with a card, when she hasn't got a computer to do online shopping, when she pays the gardener or slips a couple of quid to a nephew etc:-)

I like cash, there's nothing quite like counting the day's takings and feeling the notes between your fingers ;-)

Cash is what you use at school fetes and other fund-raising events.

What about small cost purchases such as a greeting card?

I do buy main grocery shop with a card, pay milkman with a cheque, but otherwise use cash.

Weren't we 'warned' that the cheque would become obsolete?

...yet still it's being used.....

We still have 4 cheque books on the go ............... mine, his, ours, and for a special savings account.

We use them only rarely ................ but do send cheques to our young nieces and nephews with their Christmas and birthday cards. I'm not about to send cash in the post, nor am I going to ask their parents for access to the children's bank accounts.

Several of our subscriptions still come with the option of paying by cheque, or I could pay my lawnmower man by cheque instead of cash ...................

Cheques still have a place in the world, as does cash!

I use the debit or credit card and cash .but there are some small business that don’t have card readers like my local hairdresser and the guy who does the annual gas heater etc maintenance

He takes cheques or cash .even cheques he has to pay to transact as its his business account

Hairdresser too but its always cash .i make sure I draw enough from the atm when I know I have the appointment coming up.
I can pay and tip in the same transaction

I have a manicure too at the same time aand pay my lady separately

The girls there are self employed and rent the chairs or treatment room so cash is easier for them

Wonder why banks assume everyone will have a mobile