As a European, seeing 1.5 USD for a donut, having the cash ready, and then learning that I have to pay 1.78 because there is a hidden tax different everywhere is ridiculous.
Gone the advantage of having 1.5 ready, I need to look for the ... euuhhh ... 28 cents, or give a 2 and wait for the .... euuuhhhh ... 22 cents back.
At least here when I see 18 € for a meal, I know that this is 18 €. Not 18 + some tax + some tip = holly molly, this is an expensive meal!
For example, pulling in to buy petrol because they're displayed price is good. You don't know how much you have available in the transaction account, but you have cash.
I have a bank app. It's simple and works.
Before that, they had a website. It's easy to check a balance in the morning and use that to guide you.
Before the internet was widespread, banks had a number you could call to get your balance. Heck, I think my current bank still has this, despite me being in a different country now.
Once you are in a situation where these aren't as helpful, you are probably in a bad life situation (speaking both from experience and observation of folks I know).
Kinda funny, I use my credit card for daily transactions because I know it's never declined. On the other hand, I might not have enough cash on me at all times.
I don't do banking on my phone, and non-US currency where you can see what you have from the colour of the visible portion of the notes without opening the wallet.
Also unlike a phone I won't get fined for looking at my wallet while stopped at the lights.
Odds are pretty good that you've got more value in what you have on you than you'd have on you in cash anyway... phone, smart watch, laptop / tablet in a bag, etc.
Perhaps, but they all have to be exchanged for cash to be of real value to a thief. Unless they just really want a laptop, etc. And all those things are traceable - granted, odds of getting caught when trying to sell those are small, but not zero. Cash is hard to trace.
...yeah but it is a pain in the ass. i end up with a percentage of unspent money every week that i have to coalesce into new bills of useful denominations. that leftover screws up my accounting system and takes extra work to put to use. i'd rather have every transaction i make tracked by visa to make my accounting cleaner and not need to futz with the whole process. the downsides you list i've never really encountered since 1992, you need better evidence of failures (unless you live in some underdeveloped nation?).
I was working in a grocery store (after the turn of the millenium) when the CC processing went down. We could accept debit or cash, but no Mastercard, Visa, or AmEx. I didn't get (or don't recall) the backstory, but I wouldn't call Canada an under-developed nation.
Cash makes my budgeting easier too. I find it harder to overspend cash I don't have on my person. The cost is more tangible (as every debit/credit tap "feels" like the same amount). Consumers have been shown to spend more when using electronic payment methods too. As to the coins, those get tossed in a jar to be rolled later, then eventually taken to the bank and to a rainy day fund.
Hmm. When I worked in retail (probably like 2008 or so) when the network went down we could still take credit cards, we young folks just needed a couple minutes tutorial from the more experienced cashiers on how to do the imprint machine.
This was well after chip'n'pin, suggesting the value from the additional sales would have been offset by any fraudulent transactions the store could (possibly) be held to.
There aren't enough network outages for this problem to matter to me.
"What if the network's down?" is a problem solved by buying things another time on the rare occasions it happens.
Which I would posit is slightly better planning then having cash on hand, since it means you've kept a reasonable stock of whatever basic necessities absolutely can't wait.
It's that cash is the simplest thing that might work.
No declined cards.
No network delays.
No broken electronics.
No waiting on transactions to clear.
...And even better, it segments the market against people who want demand more than doughnuts for dollars.