Should we get rid of pennies?

[goldenquagsire]

hi congratulations for being the least-liked customer for everyone who works in retail ever. this is kind of a rude thing to do because naturally a checkout operator has to either a) sit there and watch you count it to make sure you get it correct or b) count it again ourselves. both of these things hold up other customers and it also holds up the checkout operator from getting any other work done. sure, they will probably act as amused as you when you dump a fistful of coins on the counter, but they're probably seething under that façade. I mean go ahead and do it - it's legal tender after all - but just because you can, doesn't mean you should!

well stop setting all your prices at £X.99 and then maybe we won't have as much useless small change clogging up our wallets all the time. :P

Use a debit card that directly withdraws the money from your bank account. Over here cash transactions are used less and less in favour of just swiping your debit card through a little machine that allows you to wire the money directly from your bank account. No more fuss with having cash.

We've been doing this for years.

I can see the advantages in this, but tbh I prefer using cash whenever possible. at least for me, it helps with budgeting if I can physically see money. paying for everything by card just leads to the temptation of "oh it's fine, I can afford to blow an extra few pounds on this".

not to mention the situations where you just don't want to pay by card, whether it's an issue of convenience (for example, in a crowded bar you really don't want to encourage people to pay by card)* or privacy (what if you don't want your spouse's birthday present to come up on the joint account's bank statement?).

*unrelated story: when I went to my local pub with a friend last week, we had two airheads in the queue in front of us trying to pay for £3.80 drinks with a credit card. the poor bartender had quite a time explaining to them the £5 minimum rule...

 

[ultraviolet]

well stop setting all your prices at £X.99 and then maybe we won't have as much useless small change clogging up our wallets all the time. :P

... we don't (AUD sales round to the nearest 0.05), and that really doesn't have anything to do with the fact that people think it's hilarious to use a handful of 5-cent coins to buy something. There's quite a big difference between adding a couple coins in your wallet towards your payment and turning up to a shop with a jar of pennies; the latter is kind of a dick thing to do (take it to a bank, it's their job to count money).

and uh generally cashiers have 0% of the vote when it comes to pricing but yeah

 

[goldenquagsire]

... we don't (AUD sales round to the nearest 0.05), and that really doesn't have anything to do with the fact that people think it's hilarious to use a handful of 5-cent coins to buy something. There's quite a big difference between adding a couple coins in your wallet towards your payment and turning up to a shop with a jar of pennies; the latter is kind of a dick thing to do (take it to a bank, it's their job to count money).

and uh generally cashiers have 0% of the vote when it comes to pricing but yeah

The ":P" meant it was a joke. :P

 

[Tailsy]

but the joke doesn't make any sense when you see uv's explanation, thus it's not really a joke!

 

[Music Dragon]

It's still a joke, it just sucks.

 

[Tailsy]

and yet again, music dragon saves the day.

 

[Coroxn]

I think the general gist of the argument is that a penny costs more to produce than $0.01 (resulting in an overall loss), and that they're pretty superfluous anyway. if your argument for keeping pennies is 'I like them', then you can kind of see why a lot of governments are pretty keen on getting rid of them: there really isn't much of a reason to keep them other than sentimentality, which will increase anyway when pennies are phased out.

Oh. Well, if they're actually costing money then get rid of them. I didn't know there was any downside, and thought people were just getting rid of them for the sake of efficiency. If this negative aspect about them is true, burn, Penny, burn.

 

[goldenquagsire]

but the joke doesn't make any sense when you see uv's explanation, thus it's not really a joke!

it still makes sense if you bear in mind a few things:
a) for the sake of the joke, cashiers represent the organisations they work for. it's easier than saying "your employers set the prices ridiculously".
b) it doesn't matter if there's a difference between reasonable use of change and excessive use of change. hyperbole is one the foundation of humour.
c) I'm not Australian, but my joke can be modified to whatever currency you feel like using (since setting stupid non-round prices seems to be a pretty universal constant, I'm sure there's some economic theory which explains it...)

tl;dr how to not take jokes literally

It's still a joke, it just sucks.

 

[Phantom]

the US needs a $1 coin and probably a $5 coin - at the very least, the US needs more note differentiation! That they're all the same colour is irritating, but the same size? How do blind people pay for things?

Actually there is a one dollar coin, and it's actually pretty common. In fact in my pocket right now I have about four, from the vending machine at work. They've got quite a few different kinds, the Liberties, and now they are running through all the presidents. I've got a Liberty, two Washington's, and one Madison.

There are ways for blind people to figure out how much each dollar is; like folding the corners down on ones, folding fives in half, folding tens length wise, and so on. There are even braille wallets.

Also they are changing the designs on the dollars already, slowly but surely. All the new dollars.

Five
Ten
Twenty
Fifty
Hundred

They are redesigning the one dollar too, I hear.

 

[Tarvos]

not to mention the situations where you just don't want to pay by card, whether it's an issue of convenience (for example, in a crowded bar you really don't want to encourage people to pay by card)* or privacy (what if you don't want your spouse's birthday present to come up on the joint account's bank statement?).

correct, the establishments for which cash payments are common are cafes, restaurants, catering services that have sit-down areas. That's where cash is used but if you checkout at any supermarket or shop the first question shopkeepers or sales assistants ask is "wil je pinnen?" (you want to PIN?)".

if you are concerned about privacy coming up on your bank statement - don't get a shared bank account. it's that simple! and also, most of these bank statement notifications are pretty undecipherable anyway. furthermore, nobody in the Netherlands gets paper bank statements anymore - almost all of the banking system is done electronically. Web shops are operated using iDeal - you basically log in online to wire money to the vendor directly from your bank account - no more messing with credit card fees and such, just a straight payment directly from your bank account corresponding exactly to the stated tariff. if you want to know your current bank statement you log into the bank's website (the bank who has sold you the account) and you can see it directly. you use a particular type of code (TAN codes they are called as I remember) as verification when you send money.

All bank transfers within the country are wired within a day. Most in-country bank transfers are actually wired pretty much the instant you hit the send button and will show up mere seconds later on your online bank account.

Tax returns are rarely done with forms, it's all done electronically.

I barely if ever use cash for that reason so if I have cash on me it's because I intended to take out a girl for lunch/dinner or I'm getting drunk at the pub - neither are super frequent occurrences but they happen every once in a while. (if I buy food at uni I use my chipknip, which is basically a prepaid section of your PIN card - I hope they'll phase that out soon as it's not very popular but it's used in company/university establishments and it avoids having to type in your pin code all the time)

I used cash a lot more in Belgium though because Belgium doesn't understand iDeal and not all the machines take foreign ATM cards directly (you have to check if they use Maestro, which they do often but not always - and the fucking train ticket vending machines didn't). So in Belgium I always had to use cash for the things I would buy online or using PIN in the Netherlands.

The American way of paying for everything by credit card is something I do not and never will understand - I only use credit cards for hotel reservations (as a proof of identity) or because I cannot PayPal/iDeal my particular webshop the money (they are probably foreign in that case). If you own a lot of credit cards in the Netherlands that means you're a yuppie nouveau riche upstart who's interested in being way too fancy for his own good, and if you own one single card that is just because you want to have that hotel reservation sorted properly.

 

[Shiny Grimer]

Actually there is a one dollar coin, and it's actually pretty common. In fact in my pocket right now I have about four, from the vending machine at work. They've got quite a few different kinds, the Liberties, and now they are running through all the presidents. I've got a Liberty, two Washington's, and one Madison.

I don't think I've ever had one. I've seen other people's, but I've never had one. :c

 

[Sypl]

A video on the subject.
Pennies need to go.

 

[Dannichu]

I can see the advantages in this, but tbh I prefer using cash whenever possible. at least for me, it helps with budgeting if I can physically see money. paying for everything by card just leads to the temptation of "oh it's fine, I can afford to blow an extra few pounds on this".

Good god, this. I shouldn't be allowed to shop online ever. My mind rationally knows that there's a difference between spending actual money and things like neopoints, but when I'm just clicking buttons and typing in a few numbers, what damage can it really do?

And I never saw dollar coins when I was in the US. I just used my accent to charm the checkout-person while I drowned in scrap silver and identical banknotes, eventually handing a bunch of money over, from which they'd pick out the correct change and ask me about the Royal Wedding.

 

[goldenquagsire]

Good god, this. I shouldn't be allowed to shop online ever. My mind rationally knows that there's a difference between spending actual money and things like neopoints, but when I'm just clicking buttons and typing in a few numbers, what damage can it really do?

see also: nights out on the town. I always withdraw money before going out (York nightlife is bloody cheap so I can usually get away with less than £20 if you factor out predrinks) and then leave my card at home so I can't be tempted to take out more. I learned that trick from a friend who once spent £100 in a single night (which ironically is probably the standard budget for a night out in London lol).

 

[ultraviolet]

it still makes sense if you bear in mind a few things:
a) for the sake of the joke, cashiers represent the organisations they work for. it's easier than saying "your employers set the prices ridiculously".
b) it doesn't matter if there's a difference between reasonable use of change and excessive use of change. hyperbole is one the foundation of humour.
c) I'm not Australian, but my joke can be modified to whatever currency you feel like using (since setting stupid non-round prices seems to be a pretty universal constant, I'm sure there's some economic theory which explains it...)

tl;dr how to not take jokes literally

well okay to start off I was tired at the time so I didn't mean to jump down your throat or something, but honestly if the only thing identifying something as a joke is ':P', and also that thing about Sarcasm Over the Internet, etc. you see where I'm coming from.

and yet again, music dragon saves the day.

just one of the many reasons why having a sassy BFF is awesome

There are ways for blind people to figure out how much each dollar is; like folding the corners down on ones, folding fives in half, folding tens length wise, and so on. There are even braille wallets.

But that still relies on the blind person needing to have someone to tell them what their notes are worth in the first place, which sucks. There are so many ways to make money accessible to the blind (AUD notes are different lengths and have different shaped windows, some places have braille on their money, etc.) that I'm always surprised that US money looks so identical (even the colours! AUD is a veritable rainbow of dollars in comparison to US dollars). Also folding money can suck because lots of things like vending machines or ATMS and sometimes banks will refuse notes if they're very worn from being folded a lot.

 

[see ya]

Would this mean the end of the douchebag who pays for a $5 order entirely in pennies?

As a former cashier, hell fucking yes then.

 

[Dannichu]

see also: nights out on the town. I always withdraw money before going out (York nightlife is bloody cheap so I can usually get away with less than £20 if you factor out predrinks) and then leave my card at home so I can't be tempted to take out more. I learned that trick from a friend who once spent £100 in a single night (which ironically is probably the standard budget for a night out in London lol).

So very jealous. When I buy two drinks in Canterbury, I don't get much change out of £10. It's so expensive here, even the student bars.

So unless it's somebody's birthday, we stay in and play awful drinking games with Tesco value vodka and whatever mixers we find instead. #thestudentlife

But that still relies on the blind person needing to have someone to tell them what their notes are worth in the first place, which sucks.

Exactly, how does a blind person know that they've been given the correct change? Having better note differentiation would make everybody's lives easier, I think.

 

[Tarvos]

I believe they can feel the paper grooves and differentiate that way

 

[Music Dragon]

Yeah, and they use echolocation to find the cashier in the first place.

 

[Tarvos]

I believe the sides of Euro coins also have specific markings and grooves that allow blind people to tell the difference between coins (f.e. 1/2 euros, 10/20/50 cents)