I pay accounts by Billpay, whereby money goes straight from my account to creditors. Limited purchases, Australia only, with a card having a low balance, not my main account. Never had a problem. But, no foreign dealings. Always get cash out for housekeeping and doling out for birthdays and Xmas.

A cashless society would allow governments too much control. Their last edict that all transactions over $10k have to be reported because of criminal activity was not believed by anyone. When Morrison was treasurer, he squeezed out and impoverished many part Age Pensioners who had saved a few bob to improve their standing of living a bit. Never for one minute think that Morrison is the battlers' friend.

I have to confess I did use the credit card for
car repairs recently. The cost was more than
I had planned for. But that does not happen very
often. Cash is still the preferred method of
paying.

Never had a credit card in my life, only Eftpos. I give myself my allowance once a month, both cash & for net purchases in the "other A/C", & that's it. If I ran out I would stop spending, hasn't happened yet, but I keep a tight rein until the last week. I usually eat very well that last week, but it has been baked beans a couple of times.

Fortunately with a number of cars, I can leave any repairs on one, until I get round to it.

ttbn be careful of that card with low balance if it is with the same bank as your other accounts.

I opened a separate a/c with my main bank for just that purpose. I used phone banking to check the balance of my main A/C, then asked for a balance on my other A/Cs. the computer ran through all my A/Cs, including the separate one.

Smelling a rat the next day I phoned but after a balance of my separate A/C, than asked for my other A/Cs. The computer gave me the lot.

I then contacted the bank wanting to know why the separate A/C was linked. They told me they couldn't unlink them. If someone had got my internet use A/C they had the lot. That's when I started an A/C at another bank.

Hasbeen,

The card I use for limited online purchases is prepaid: nothing to do with my actual bank account. I spend only my own money. Don't owe anything to anyone. Credit cards are bad news. This new pay-later thing or what ever it is called is sheer stupidity. Very old fashioned I am. Never buy a thing unless I have the money to pay for it up front.

Incidentally: I recently went to switch to a Google keyboard from Google Play store, to be told that the keyboard "could" record data, including credit card numbers and passwords! Amazing. Frightening.

Hey ttbn,
I have no problems being able to do things via the internet.
It's just that I don't want to rely on apps etc.
I like holding the money in my hand, and I don't make too many purchases via EFTPOS.
I do make a lot of online purchases though, it's just cheaper to buy things that way and have them delivered.
- And I also use Afterpay, as they offer discounts to use it.

"* Banks have full control of every single cent you own."

- No, they don't, they don't have control over bitcoin and cryptocurrency.
I could for example own a lot of bitcoin and cryptocurrency, and I could buy many things with it directly without banks and have it all delivered.

- But if I want cash for example, I've got to sell the bitcoin or cryptocurrency and then send it back to a bank account, and that's where you might run into problems, if your account is blocked.

A cashless society would only force me to have my normal currency in a digital form, but it wouldn't necessarily stop me from owning bitcoin or cryptocurrency neither would it necessarily stop me from trading or mining it.

Decentralized finance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_finance

Decentralized finance (commonly referred to as DeFi) is a blockchain-based form of finance that does not rely on central financial intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks to offer traditional financial instruments, and instead utilizes smart contracts on blockchains, the most common being Ethereum. DeFi platforms allow people to lend or borrow funds from others, speculate on price movements on a range of assets using derivatives, trade cryptocurrencies, insure against risks, and earn interest in savings-like accounts. Some DeFi applications promote high interest rates but are subject to high risk. By October 2020, over $11 billion (worth in cryptocurrency) was deposited in various decentralized finance protocols, which represented more than a tenfold growth during the course of 2020. As of January 2021, approximately $20.5 billion was invested in DeFi.