Why Don’t We Pay Less in Cash?
17June 9, 2014 by Aleksandra Łuczak
This post has been prepared by Jakub Markiewicz from Kozminski University
I’ve just read that Poles are reluctant to pay by credit cards and money transfers. What is the reason of this situation?
Payments in cash are not registered and of course they facilitate taxpayers to avoid taxes. Surveys show that Poland is a European leader in cash payments. Polish community prefers to pay by “tangible money” rather than by e-money even if at the payment spot it is possible to pay by credit card.
Such problem forces National Bank of Poland to prepare changes in law. Most probably in the nearest future cash payment limit will be decreased from 15,000 until 1,000 euro. After exceeding this limit it will be necessary to pay by credit card or money transfer.
In my opinion it is much better to pay by credit cards, especially now when we are able to use pay pass. This is really a very comfortable and useful method of paying. You have no problem with change and whole operation takes only around 15 seconds. Another advantage of paying by credit card is that you do not have to carry money with yourself. You are not in danger that in case of robbery, you will have no possibility to get your money back. If you lose your credit card, you can immediately block it so that nobody will be able to use it. I try to pay in cash only if electronic payment is unavailable.
Which form of payment do you prefer? Have your say!
Category legislation, money, Poland, Taxes | Tags:
I prefer paying by debit card. It is much easier these days. Most of the shops are able to accept this method of payment. You can also be sure that you will not lose your money somewhere. Of course there is a problem with losing a debit card but the only thing that you have to do in the situation like this is to call your bank and tell them to block your card so that nobody is able to use it.
I think this method of payment is easier and much more confortable than paying in cash.
It depends on each of us. I’d rather pay in cash, because when I have only a plastic card in my wallet, I can spend all the money, because I have it ‘virtually’. When I have some bill in my hand, then I can see how much can I spend and that’s right.
Of course, I’m not saying that pay pass is wrong. It is really useful when we are in rush.
Altough, in my opinion there is a long way before Poles start to use only electronic cards and pay passes.
I think that Polish community prefers paying in cash, because we are senescent community. Elderly people don’t trust electronic methods, they think that it’s too hard for them to learn how to use a credit card or how to make a bank transfer. When they use cash, they know exactly how much many they have left, how much they spent on something. Young people, for example me, prefer paying by credit card, because is’s much easier, quicker and less dangerous than paying in cash. We just need to remember PIN and buying things becomes very simple.
Cash will always be cash! It has its own original and beutiful graphics, remarkable smell, and something that card don’t have – a value! Not only material, but also psychological! It’s much harder to pay when you see this value disapearing, going from you! People give more affection and love to material not virtual money. Moreover when someone pay in cash, they see that they are giving back money bill, and sometimes regret. They think twice or even more before they pay! You don’t have that kind of feelings paying by card.
Not only cash is endangered. I read about a case of people who created special machine, which was used to steal money from paypal cards. They were going to crowded places, such as buses or trains, they put their machine to people bags or pants and in that way they were stealing money. I think it’s more profitable, easier and faster way of stealing than trying to rob someone.
I think that this situation is caused by few reasons.
First of all, in my opinion peaople in Poland still do not trust banks. Maybe it because we still have a lot of people who remember communism years in Poland. When they have cash in their hands they feel more comfortable, than when they see numbers on a computer screen. Next reason is privacy. I much prefer to withdraw money from ATM and spend it, than pay with credit card in shops. For example, i do not like fact that my bank will know where i eat, what i wear, what i do in my free time. Is credit card more comfortable? Propably yes, but I do like my privacy too much to use credit card.
Paying by debit card can be easier for young people, or those you can use internet accounts. Our parents or grandparents’ generation do not trust electronic money. Even thou it’s easier to just pay by pay pass, it can be tricky. Our transaction aren’t usually imidiatly put on our statements, so especally in weekends or if we do shopping in the evening, the bank don’t always take our money right away, but after few days. That can cause much more spending, because if we have cash – we can see how much we have. That simple. MateuszG said that most places accept paying by debit card – yes, but usually they put minimum ammount you have to pay, no such thing with cash 🙂
Since the introduction of Pay Pass technlogy, I’ve become a big fan of paying by debit card. It’s simple, takes short time (I think it’s faster than granny paying by cash), generally very comfortable. There is only two disadvantages. Firstly, because of how simple it is, you might run out of money similarily fast. Secondly, it’s technology. And it likes to cause problems. That is why I prefer carrying some cash in my wallet.
I myself prefer to deal in cash. It seems to me a more convenient way. You always know how much money you have in your wallet and how much you can spend, and the money stored on the card is a kind of protection in case of cash in the form of material is over. I do not deny how to pay by credit card but it is always better to have your “real” money with you.
Personally, I prefer to pay in cash. Sometimes I laugh, that i choose this method because “cash leaves no trace” but honestly, I prefer to have it this way because I always know how much money do I have left. Of course, when it comes to “bigger” transactions I’d rather use my credit card, but on a daily basis I feel like I’m more in control when I got money in my hand and not on my virtual account. Also, altough that e-payments are becoming more and more common, I still can think of places where cards are not accepted or the use of them is limited to only one debit card company (i.e. restaurants, where they accept only Mastercard or only Visa). Cash – like it or not – is accepted everywhere so it makes me feel more comfortable to pay with it.
I prefer to pay in cash, because of that i always know how much more money i have so there won’t be situation like my friend who went on shopping spree at the beginning of month and next day she discovered that for the rest of month she had to live on 80 zl…
As we see technology is developing, now is more convenient to pay by credit card it’s faster but is it safer?
Technology is also developing in other direction there already devices created to steal even from credit card by paypass. It’s kinda funny that we are probably safe from this devices because Poland is still bit backwards…
In my opinion paying in cash has some adventages. First of all it is more reliable, there are still some places when you can’t pay in cash, for example food trucks or some small restaurants.
It is much easier to control amount of money which you spend if pay in cash. Although there is a commercial of new debit card which shows your account ballance, such cards are still in minority.
Another very important issue is theft problem. We can read in newspapers about special devices designed to abuse paypass technology, and steal our money.
In my opinion people don’t like “virutal money”. The
simplest explanation of this is fact, that we
don’t see how much money we are spending, it could be very
treacherous for our wallets. By using pay pass people don’t
feel how much money they are wasting for thing that they
don’t need. If we will pay the appropriate amount, we won’t
spend more than we want to. Also polish people don’t like to
use credic cards because of interest rates on it, nobody
likes to give money to the bank for free, we are very frugal
people.
To tell the truth I prefer paying by credit card because it’s easier and more convinient but on the other hand when it comes to paying in cash there is no fear of being robbed by special devices which are made to bypass your credit card.
I use credit card mostly of times but I know it’s mistake because of that I’m spending sometimes too mutch and I’m not tracking my spendings.
I think that paying by debit card is more comfortable. Im getting angry when there is no terminal for cards in shop. Of course i have some kind of fear of being robbed by special programs made by qulified thiefs.
I always know about my balance, couse i can check it in Internet, so i dont have problem that i can spend too much and dont control it.
I think that paying by cash is popular in elderly people society. They have never used that kind of method of payment, and as we know they are not soo excited for technical news !
Paying by credit card or money transfer is in my opinion a very good option nowadays. I prefer it myself. I think that there is still such a big amount of people using “paper money” because they didn’t have an option of paying by card when they were young. Also some habits from communism still exist, and people like to pay often “under the desk” to prevent from paying taxes. It is very common that people don’t issue invoices to avoid paying income tax and any other kind of taxes.
Nowadays we can see more and more people paying by credit/debit card for the things of little value. Few years ago most of us paid via plastic only while doing bigger shopping. Now, thanks to pay pass technology using card can be event faster than cash, and most of shops do not have a down limit for non-cash transactions. Another reason for us being leader in cash payments is that in many family shops we couldn’t use plastic. Also in Biedronka, biggest retailer in Poland paying by credit card was not possible. But everything changes, even Biedronka, so i think we are slowly catching up to the rest of Europe.
For me, this situation is completely alien. Whenever there is a possibility I pay by card. I can not control the money that I carry in the wallet – they simply disappear. Annoys me when shop owners unlawfully restrict card transactions from 20 zł. This is inconsistent with the Civil Code. My mom has a pharmacy and no one asks her if she wants patient’s to pay by card for medicines, which cost 5 zloty. This is the law and we need to apply it. I think the problem relates to cash transactions in most of the older generations. There is a belief among them that the banks do not trust. Young people like the convenience of mobile banking and in my opinion, because of the time the problem will start to disappear.