Who Still Uses Cash?
Key topics
The article discusses the prevalence of cash usage around the world, sparking a debate among commenters about the benefits and drawbacks of cash versus digital payments, with some highlighting privacy concerns and others noting the continued relevance of cash in certain contexts.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
Discussion Activity
Very active discussionFirst comment
53m
Peak period
40
0-2h
Avg / period
6.4
Based on 89 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Nov 11, 2025 at 6:06 PM EST
about 2 months ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Nov 11, 2025 at 6:59 PM EST
53m after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
40 comments in 0-2h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Nov 13, 2025 at 2:37 AM EST
about 2 months ago
Step 04
Generating AI Summary...
Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
Want the full context?
Jump to the original sources
Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.
> You`ve browsed for a while—now unlock all features with a free account and never miss a post!
A while? This is my first visit to your random site.
I do think it's also somewhat generational. I'm at the older end of Generation X. I grew up paying cash (or writing checks) for almost everything, didn't really use credit cards until my late 20s/early 30s. There were a lot of places that didn't accept credit cards back then, such as most fast food restaurants. But I switched to cards mostly out of convenience as soon as most places accepted them.
I notice a lot of people older than me (Baby Boomers and older) still pay cash more often.
And lower income people use cash a lot, I presume because they are unbanked or can't get a credit card.
I have read that, if you tip with a card, the business gets it, and they may give it to the staff, and they may not. But if you tip by leaving cash on the table, the staff for sure gets it, and the business can't stiff them. So, yeah, the staff probably prefers it.
Tipping is about the only time I need cash. Outside of restaurants, most people I need to tip do not have an easy way to receive digital payments.
Perhaps you might engage your local government about that. Mine made accepting cash mandatory[0] in 2020 and the state followed suit this year[1]
As an aside, I use my debit card for many things, but use cash for many other things -- especially taxis (taxi drivers pay 5%/transaction when you use a card) and tips.
[0] https://rules.cityofnewyork.us/rule/31891/
[1] https://qns.com/2025/06/cash-payments-to-protect-unbanked-sh...
Also, to be pendantic about it, I've never actually seen someone spend hard cash, just fiat currency, which has much lower value.
I do keep a US Minted dollar handy, should the need arise for hard currency. Made in 1901 at the New Orleans mint
edit/clarify: Yes, a 1901 Morgan Silver Dollar, a coin with a current melt value of $39.64 according to coinflation
Anyway, I think we as a society should normalize using silver coins for personal wealth transfer, because they are a good size and weight for not too much value, and they are shiny and make a satisfying jingle sound when kept in a bag
Plus I can tip easily, split bills, not have to worry about internet connections, etc
This may be true for some people. Doesn't work for me at all. I see the money equally in digital and print formats.
Cash "just works" until you run out, or have too large denominations that people refuse. And there are more stores now that don't take cash at all.
I’ve had multiple places not able to accept credit cards due to internet issues.
Literally had that last week. (Library, they had to call me later for payment.)
In the US, if you have actually incurred a debt (e.g. you've already eaten your meal, or you've already had the repair performed, etc), the business can "refuse" payment in cash, but by so doing, they have effectively declared the debt void.
US legal tender case law permits businesses to refuse cash for non-debt-mediated transactions, but if a debt has been incurred, they have to accept it.
Of course not. I guess you haven't been to shops that say their network is down, so it's cash-only until it comes back online.
It used to be shops had those credit card imprint sliders to handle payments when phones lines were down, but nobody has those anymore (many credit cards don't even have the raised numbers anymore).
A number of random places will charge extra for a credit card.
Not a lot, of course. But something.
Although tips won't be taxed, that only affects federal taxes, starts 2026 and finishes 2028 (amongst other limitations).
I’m curious, how do you personally handle change specially small currency like pennies and nickels?
How hard is it to carry cash? You don't have to take coins; you just take your wallet which already has the bills. "various" doesn't make sense: you don't need to make sure to bring some 1s, a 5, 4 10s, etc.
Just put the change in your pocket and put it in a bowl when you get home.
Many of the local places (Seattle - Belltown & the Market) are cool with rounding transactions to the nearest dollar, so that helps. It might also be part of being an active participant in the local society.
I suspect the POS defaults to credit. But I've never looked at any of the interfaces.
I know US Postal Service somehow detects my card is debit and then requests a debit transaction because the credit card pad asks for a PIN not a signature. So maybe some POS have an autodetect option.
(See also my other comment)
How many shops actually use the fake bill checker device?
It is in fact cash that is decentralized and anonymous. If I go into a dark alley and give you a $100 bill, there is not a single soul other than you and me who knows about the transaction that took place.
It's not like tracking credit card or Venmo transactions, but if you take out $500 and give it to someone who deposits it, and if they read the serial numbers, it's clear what happened.
I think it would be pretty safe to carry cash in japan, male or female.
Also, Japanese people say they are slow to change, like from cash to cashless.
Also, this "cash is unsafe" meme is wild. Robbers do not routinely detect the presence of cash on your person using millimeter wave scanners.
But the reverse might not be true.
Just because it is not detectable does not mean people who feel unsafe would carry large quantities of cash.
If I was going into a bad neighborhood, I wouldn't carry a lot of cash.
But in japan, I've seen how people behave differently. for example, I saw a lady leave her purse on a restaurant table while she went to the bathroom. This kind of stuff is common in japan - people feel safe and there is little expectation of theft.
I wonder if there's something else they are not understanding, and that their exceptions of Germany and Italy are demonstrating the conclusion doesn't fit.
Penalty was 2x the local sales tax.
Some restaurants do not take cash, period - it adds a staff member. A few places like a massage parlour I even tried to offer cash instead, and they didn’t care which leads me to believe the fees are very low. Of course, it is China so there’s no privacy.
Sort of. It's difficult to track private transactions on WeChat between friends to actual goods being sold. From what I've seen, most illegal goods/services sold just have you add them as a "friend" and send the agreed upon amount. Somewhat informal but neither side tends to scam since the consequences of escalating (e.g. getting a WeChat account banned) essentially makes it impossible to live. I've also seen Taobao being used where they place an overpriced real product that you buy and the margin is what you pay for the illegal good.
I'm not sure if it's truly turning a blind eye or whether the scale is just too large for the government to do anything about it.
I'd think it would be hard to have $100k+ flowing into your account with no explanation.
I've been curious what most countries will do for these situations as they go cashless. Non-KYC'd crypto seems like a natural solution, but I haven't seen it used much outside larger organizations.
You get in contact with a connections guy and they give you a list of accounts to pay in yuan (usually business owners that makes profit overseas), they pay you in USD from their legitimate businesses for some made up invoice. Each transaction is under the limit for being scrutinized. Once money is out of the country, you can pay people off however you want.
Prostitutes would probably just take cash if close to limits.
Some relevant observations:
- Lower income customers used cash much more than higher income.
- Men used cash way more than women, with the exception of retirement-age women buying their smokes / wine / beer.
- Undocumented workers almost always used cash. Most were paid in $100 bills on Fridays, so they were probably paid under the table.
- Phone tap-to-pay was almost exclusively iPhone. In fact, I don't think I ever saw an Android user pay by phone tap.
- A surprising number of people didn't realized they could just tap to pay instead of running the chip.
- If the till ran out of pennies for change, no one gave a shit.
The tap zone is often not clearly marked. Some places (e.g., Walmart) it doesn't work at all (yes, even using a card instead of a phone). If you pull the card out anyway, I find that I end up having to use the chip about one time in ten. If that were, say, three times in ten, I'd just stick to inserting the card in the chip reader. Those rarely seem to fail.
I have several payment cards. Only one is tap-to-pay.
But good point.
How could you tell who was undocumented?
This could have been a standard bar chart, allowing all the text to be easily read. And the colors could have indicated something like the average income to make it easier to see the outliers.
Apparently debit cards support either debit or credit transactions, and (some/all/most) POS systems are defaulting to credit? I notice I'm often asked to sign, rather than receiving a PIN prompt. That's how I know if the charge is going to be debit (PIN) or credit(sign).
And it is only debit that incurs the near cash equivalence due to far lower transaction fees.
At a minimum buy all vice purely in cash. Bars, alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, and anything that could hint at a certain lifestyle. Also protects you in civil lawsuit and divorce.
I'd be a _little_ sceptical about how good their data is.
In the past year, the only times I've used cash are when travelling to Spain and Germany, and for entrance into one particular club night in Dublin who insist on it.
In such a short time we've gotten to total coverage of every act by every single person in America in very few databases, trivial to coordinate. I don't need anybody to know I always buy a bottle of water on the way to my board game night on Thursdays from one of the stores down the same road between the park I kill time at and the house where we have it. But then there's all these phones coming together, in that house, every Thursday. Even if I don't take my phone, even if I don't buy the water, they'll see I used my transit card to take the train to the park rather than to my apartment. It's horrific when I think about it.
They know when I turn on my computer, they know when I turn off my computer, they know when I turn on my television, they know when I turn off my television. With "smart" homes, they'll know when I turn my lights on and off, they'll know how often I cook, be able to guess what I'm cooking by looking at my shopping list. I don't have control of my phone, and it has a microphone in it. My car reports its location to the manufacturer. None of this is of any benefit to me.
The only barrier to total control is manpower, and historically the manpower has been easy enough to find. I'm looking to move counterclockwise on this circle. From 8:00 to midnight we're probably on the verge of getting questioned by the cops if they can see you but can't ping you. Let me go back in time.
When I visited, luckily I brought my ATM card because most of the places I wanted to eat were cash only.
I also keep some singles in my bass bag, to tip bartenders. Most venues provide free drinks to the band, but then there's no way to give a tip unless I bring some cash.
Cash payments virtually disappeared after Sarbanes-Oxley, but have come back. Also, bandleaders are mostly using Venmo or its competitors when the band isn't paid in cash.
1 more comments available on Hacker News