Spare change please!

[Tabonga | 2,533]

This is interesting:

https://azbigmedia.com/business/first-toilet-paper-now-theres-a-national-coin-shortage/

I haven't relied much on much cash for a very long time - running on credit cards is simpler (as long as you pay them off every month) and we get a bit back (which can add up on those cards that have bonus categories) - so I have not noticed the coin thing. We did see that Walmart's self checkout did switch to credit cards only this week.

We used to each take a small amount of cash ($60) out each week for small purchases/sundries - mine would typically be spent at thrift stores or buying sodas while out driving around.  I rarely used all of the $60 and would only get enough to top it off  each week.  Since the virus I have only taken out $20 once.

Whatever change we had generally lived in  two glass jars - one on the sink in our bedroom and one on the wash machine.  When they got filled we would take them to the credit union where they have a machine that counts the change and dumps it (as it were) in our  account.  We still have a partial jar on the wash machine but haven't taken it in since the credit union lobby has been closed for a long time.

The upshot is that we are now pretty much neutral on coin usage - we aren't taking any in but we aren't putting any back in the system.  

How is your change usage these days compared to before the virus? 

(This is not meant to be a discussion on the virus per se - just this spin off  phenomenon.)

Edited July 18, 2020 by Tabonga

[Reed Rothchild | 9,918]

I don't use cash unless absolutely forced to.  Everything goes to one of my cards for the rewards.

Nothing is worse than breaking a $10 or $20 for something that cost like $3.21.  It may as well have cost $5.

[MrWunderful | 2,932]

Love paying cash. Until Corona hit, I paid cash for everything, and enjoyed getting change and stacking it in my safe. Probably have quite a bit by now. 
 

Now I just use Apple pay because of my apple watch- makes everything quick and easy. 
 

Hopefully I can go back to cash at some point. 

[Code Monkey | 2,129]

I pay for everything in cash, absolutely everything and I always carry a few hundred dollars in my pocket in case I want to buy something more expensive while I'm out. Because we have $2 coins in Canada, I also can have up to $20 in coins in my pocket as well, it's kind of annoying and always falls out in the car I just recently got.

I work for myself so I always have to pay quite a large amount in taxes at the end of the year and up until recently I was able to go to the government building downtown to pay in cash. I would stop at the bank, take out $20,000 and then head over to the government building to pay. Now they have closed that department so I have to pay electronically but I since hired an accountant that takes care of it.

One day I was in Chapters (huge national bookstore) and the lineup was probably 20 minutes long, stretching right to the back of the store. The power went out and they announced they could only accept cash. Everyone groaned and I walked past everyone to the front, paid and walked out. Nobody else in line had cash.

At one point it go so bad with my debit / credit statement arriving completely blank every month that I tried using my card a place that only accepted plastic. It didn't work so I had to call my bank and ask them what the problem was, they informed me they had frozen my account because they noticed strange usage on it. When they got back to me with more information, it turns out the fact that I was actually using my card had flagged their computers as unusual activity and automatically frozen my account.

I have $0 in credit card debt, $0 in debit fees and I don't own anything that wasn't fully paid in cash, except my house and my second car I just got. My other car is fully owned outright by me.

So to answer your question, nothing has changed and I still use cash / coins everywhere I go.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,122]

I use cash most of the time. I've seen places with signs asking for exact change because they don't have any to give. 

[RH | 5,206]

3 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

I have $0 in credit card debt, $0 in debit fees and I don't own anything that wasn't fully paid in cash, except my house and my second car I just got. My other car is fully owned outright by me.

 

There are debit fees in Canada?  My wife and I hate using cash because of the small transactions we always forget when we log info.  We keep a little bit of cash around for emergencies or, as you mentioned, when power goes out in a shop or there system is having issues, we can buy what we need to buy but generally we avoid cash like the plague.

We've never lost a lot of money, but it's so easy to even misplace a bill or loose change every now and then, and when you track every dollar down to the penny, it can add up.  But, that's just the way we live.  We love plastic (debit card only though) while my wife's parents use cash anywhere they can and it's feasible.  A $20k payment in cash would never happen, but for those bigger purchases, it will be made with a check.

[Code Monkey | 2,129]

2 minutes ago, RH said:

There are debit fees in Canada?  My wife and I hate using cash because of the small transactions we always forget when we log info.  We keep a little bit of cash around for emergencies or, as you mentioned, when power goes out in a shop or there system is having issues, we can buy what we need to buy but generally we avoid cash like the plague.

 

There's a fee per transaction, I'm pretty sure the USA has it too. You can pay about $7 a month to get unlimited transactions.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,122]

1 minute ago, Code Monkey said:

There's a fee per transaction, I'm pretty sure the USA has it too. You can pay about $7 a month to get unlimited transactions.

I was going to ask about debit fees. I haven't had those in probably 20 years.

[Estil | 1,291]

Exactly what coins are in short supply exactly?  Surely not pennies.  Not-so-fun-fact: It actually costs more to make the pennies and nickels than their face value.  And this year is the 55th "anniversary" of when circulating coins no longer had any silver in them.

I know most everywhere else discontinued their one penny/pence/etc coins several years back but Illinois will all but threaten to succede from the Union if anyone tries to take away their Lincoln cent!

Edited July 18, 2020 by Estil

[RH | 5,206]

32 minutes ago, Estil said:

Exactly what coins are in short supply exactly?  Surely not pennies.  Not-so-fun-fact: It actually costs more to make the pennies and nickels than their face value.  And this year is the 55th "anniversary" of when circulating coins no longer had any silver in them.

I know most everywhere else discontinued their one penny/pence/etc coins several years back but Illinois will all but threaten to succede from the Union if anyone tries to take away their Lincoln cent!

The easy solution is to drop the penny and create a new $2 coin with Lincoln's face on it. Hahaha.  But that won't happen.  This is Murca.  We still use the empirical system for measurements and probably will forever, so it should come as no surprise that neither people nor businesses are going to let them round off some change on purchases. Nope!

[Estil | 1,291]

37 minutes ago, RH said:

The easy solution is to drop the penny and create a new $2 coin with Lincoln's face on it. Hahaha.  But that won't happen.  This is Murca.  We still use the empirical system for measurements and probably will forever, so it should come as no surprise that neither people nor businesses are going to let them round off some change on purchases. Nope!

Yeah the only way the $1 coin could ever work is we must get rid of the dollar bill...but I guess it's such an American icon they didn't even do any redesigns of it like all the other bills.  I don't think it'd make sense for Lincoln to be on a $2 piece if he's already on the $5 bill.

As for the empirical system of measurements (we did make a semi-half hearted attempt at metric conversion in the 70s but that went about as well as New Math from the decade prior) it would be awfully strange to hear "so and so team gets the ball at their own meter line" or a "so and so meter field goal attempt."  Not to mention in baseball the bases have always been 90 feet apart, basketball (at all levels) the foul line is 15 feet from the basket and the basket rim is 10 feet off the ground.  Not to mention the saying "0 to 60"...all of these have been staples of American culture for over 100 years.  So if the rest of the world insists we're a bunch of weirdos for not using metric in everyday life then I guess that's just how it must be.

[Link | 2,878]

I’ve let too much accumulate. I had a gallon jar more than half filled. A year or two ago, I started using it for my public transit farecard. And a friend who owns a small shop can use the pennies. 

Nowadays, if weather prohibits me from riding my bike I will walk instead of taking the bus or train, so that’s out. But my friend wants quarters too. So I’m halfway to a solution. 

[captmorgandrinker | 1,654]

2 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

There's a fee per transaction, I'm pretty sure the USA has it too. You can pay about $7 a month to get unlimited transactions.

Most banks here waive them as long as you meet whatever requirements they have (direct deposit, having above a certain amount in your account, etc)

[Code Monkey | 2,129]

50 minutes ago, Estil said:

Not to mention the saying "0 to 60"...all of these have been staples of American culture for over 100 years.  So if the rest of the world insists we're a bunch of weirdos for not using metric in everyday life then I guess that's just how it must be.

It's actually 0-100 kilometres per hour which is and always has been 0-62 miles per hour. I cannot figure out why you guys always say 0-60 and drop the extra 2.

[Daniel_Doyce | 491]

2 hours ago, Estil said:

Exactly what coins are in short supply exactly?  Surely not pennies.  Not-so-fun-fact: It actually costs more to make the pennies and nickels than their face value.  And this year is the 55th "anniversary" of when circulating coins no longer had any silver in them.

I know most everywhere else discontinued their one penny/pence/etc coins several years back but Illinois will all but threaten to succede from the Union if anyone tries to take away their Lincoln cent!

50th anniversary, 51st if you don't consider mint set coins to truly be circulated.

[phart010 | 1,779]

4 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

It's actually 0-100 kilometres per hour which is and always has been 0-62 miles per hour. I cannot figure out why you guys always say 0-60 and drop the extra 2.

I’ve seen translations from other languages into English and 100km/hr had 60mi/hr right after it in parentheses so always just went with it..

Never had a practical reason to actually verify that it’s not right

Edited July 19, 2020 by phart010

[Estil | 1,291]

4 hours ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

50th anniversary, 51st if you don't consider mint set coins to truly be circulated.

1965 is the year silver was taken away from dimes/quarters...Kennedy halves and later Ike Dollars are seldom circulated.

[Daniel_Doyce | 491]

32 minutes ago, Estil said:

1965 is the year silver was taken away from dimes/quarters...Kennedy halves and later Ike Dollars are seldom circulated.

Only proof Ikes ever had any silver, but, up until about 1990, I definitely could get a few rolls of Kennedys from my bank once every few weeks and get a few silver coins out of them and then spend the rest in change. Most were '65-'69 halves since a lot of people didn't know they were 40% silver. I even got a few Franklins.

Around 1990 the banks only had new rolls, but I ended up with a decent haul of silver for very little effort.

 

[Estil | 1,291]

15 minutes ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

Only proof Ikes ever had any silver, but, up until about 1990, I definitely could get a few rolls of Kennedys from my bank once every few weeks and get a few silver coins out of them and then spend the rest in change. Most were '65-'69 halves since a lot of people didn't know they were 40% silver. I even got a few Franklins.

And that's the key word...you could only get rolls (I wonder why they weren't in color coded rolls like the regular coins were red/blue/green/orange?) at a bank.  The reason the Kennedy halves were so seldom used was because they came out in 1964 (the last year for regular circulating dimes/quarters/halves having silver) and people kept them as collector's items and didn't want to spend them, and I guess the next few years they still felt like that and we just got used to not using halves.  The Franklin halves OTOH were in fact in their day in regular use IIRC.

And on that note, and felt this way ever since the program was first announced, that it would've made a lot more sense to do the Presidents program on the halves seeing as how they already have the Presidential seal on the back and would match.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Estil

[Reed Rothchild | 9,918]

9 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

I have $0 in credit card debt, $0 in debit fees and I don't own anything that wasn't fully paid in cash, except my house and my second car I just got. My other car is fully owned outright by me.

So to answer your question, nothing has changed and I still use cash / coins everywhere I go.

Just for a counterpoint, I've paid off every credit card balance I've ever had before the end of each month (never paid a fee or interest), pay probably about $10 a year in debit fees (to get stupid cash for my work's cafeteria and coffee bar), and have no debt aside from our mortgage.  So it can go both ways.

[JamesRobot | 6,026]

11 hours ago, Estil said:

Exactly what coins are in short supply exactly?

Seems to be quarters and dimes are in the shortest supply.  We order a bunch of coin at the bank mostly for car wash type businesses.  We typically order around $4k a week in quarters and have only been receiving about $400.  Not even a whole box.

We been having someone roll coin full time lately so we can try to keep up with demand.

 

[Splain | 2,688]

How is there a shortage? Are people just dumping their change at home and not carrying it around anymore... but still paying with bills? I don't get how this is happening. Where are the coins? In swear jars across the country?

[Makar | 2,062]

4 hours ago, Splain said:

How is there a shortage? Are people just dumping their change at home and not carrying it around anymore... but still paying with bills? I don't get how this is happening. Where are the coins? In swear jars across the country?

Looks like it's a combination of factors. 

https://fortune.com/2020/07/18/why-is-there-a-coin-shortage-in-us-nationwide-how-did-it-happen-when-will-it-end-what-to-know-kroger-walmart-cvs/

[Link | 2,878]

18 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

It's actually 0-100 kilometres per hour which is and always has been 0-62 miles per hour. I cannot figure out why you guys always say 0-60 and drop the extra 2.

I’m gonna say it’s 0-100 wherever you are, and 0-60 in America. 60mph is “a mile a minute” which is another expression. And you wouldn’t say 62 because it’s cumbersome. It’s an idiom, not direct equivalent. Same reason you drop the decimal in your conversion

I would also hazard the possibility that 0-60 came first. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_to_60_mph 
But 60kph is not really a force to be reckoned with, and 0-96 (and a ½)(or rather 96.56064) km is unwieldy and inconvenient. 

Edited July 19, 2020 by Link

[Estil | 1,291]

10 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

Seems to be quarters and dimes are in the shortest supply.  We order a bunch of coin at the bank mostly for car wash type businesses.  We typically order around $4k a week in quarters and have only been receiving about $400.  Not even a whole box.

We been having someone roll coin full time lately so we can try to keep up with demand.

That makes sense, seeing as how that's what's most often used in vending machines and (if any are still around) arcade games!  

As for the penny issue, even if we were to concede that it's never going to go away (I mean Illinois has got two Senators who WILL filibuster any attempt at getting rid of it; and maybe Indiana and Kentucky won't like it too much either?), why not (if they haven't already done so) drastically reduce the amount minted every year and encourage people to cash in their giant penny hoards to increase the circulating supply instead?

For any Canadians here (BTW, your Red Green Show rocks!), when you guys got rid of the dollar bill (1987-89) and later the penny (2012), were those two considered just as iconic as our US dollar bill and penny and thus many people did not want to let them go...or in both cases was the public just like "eh" at the transition?  I also wonder the same about the UK's (again the country, not the university) famous 1971 Decimal Day.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Estil