Recently visited a country where cash is very much preferred and it was such a breath of fresh air. I thought it would be annoying to have to keep up with the spare change and what not but it was fine and actually felt pretty good. I've since started using cash a lot more at home.

[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 20 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I recently had a trip to Japan and had more mixed opinions about it. Mainly because they have a large variety of coins and oh boy do you end up with a lot of them.

[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Coinage is the single reason why I'm tipped over the edge to prefer card. I HATE dealing with change.

I wish there was a card that was closer to cash where the money is stored on the physical card not offsite but that seems like a nightmare in itself... Idk

[–] Decq@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

We actually had that here for a while, called Chipknip. You could store money on it which you would need top off once it was spent. It disappeared when nfc debet cards became the standard though.

[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago

Ohh I gotta read about that now!

[–] tatoko556@reddthat.com 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

at least you have a choice wherever you live, use less card my pal

[–] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 2 weeks ago

Apple pay?

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

oh boy do you end up with a lot of them.

You just need more practice with the Japan Coin Simulator ;)
https://wendal.itch.io/japanese-money-simulator

Theoretically the most coins you should ever have is 15:

4x 1 yen
1x 5 yen
4x 10 yen
1x 50 yen
4x 100 yen
1x 500 yen

[–] swampdownloader@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Is 15 supposed to be not a lot?

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

It kind of is, but I love the 500 yen coin anyway. It's the 2nd most valuable common coin in the world (I think) after the 5 Swiss franc, (or at least it is for now as the yen continues to tank, currently worth about $3 USD whereas 10 years ago it was $4 and 15 years ago was over $6). It makes your change jar actually worth decent money (imagine if filling up a 2 liter bottle was worth a couple thousand bucks instead of a few hundred) and it's kinda fun to have a small change pouch in your pocket worth more than a hundred bucks.

Plus it's gold colored so you can collect a pile and feel like a pirate

[–] illpillow@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago

The pirate argument got me.

[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

On the flip side they also have the very low value 1 yen coin which feels like a cheap board game coin when you have it in your hand

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

Yeah but at least the lack of heft feels like the trash it is. US pennies are worth shit but want to pretend they're real coins. Also the 1 yen weighs exactly 1 g and floats on water.

[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Which country was it?

[–] hydroxycotton@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Greece

[–] djdarren@piefed.social 12 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Having visited Greece (well, Corfu) a number of times, and as much as I love the place and the people, the primary reason they prefer cash is because they're not big fans of paying taxes.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 weeks ago

Didn't they go through a whole thing where other countries were imposing shit on them to force repayments of national debt? Maybe understandable then that tax evasion is popular if a lot of what is paid in taxes isn't going towards improvements to your own country.

[–] UnityDevice@startrek.website 4 points 2 weeks ago

Well if they dislike taxes, they probably hate transaction fees even more.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

It might have had something to do with people waiting in line to withdraw 60 euros too.