Should the BOE issue a £100 note?

As I mentioned in another thread about cashless society.

I worked in collections for a bank for the credit cards. Those customers who had their accounts regularly transferred to collections would take out a couple of hundreds of pounds in cash from their current account. 99% of customers with a credit card also had a current account. As if some money was left in their current account - bank could transfer it to the credit card. Plus withdrawing cash gave little digital footprint.

I remember a female customer who spent £110 at a hairdresser when her credit card bill was £1000 then she complained that she’s skint. If you are skint - you don’t spend £110 at a hairdresser! That’s 5 visits for me
 
Narj said:
More fool you not being offered a discount on trades. ;)
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It's not really a "discount" if you're still paying more than the shoddy work is worth. Better to use your card to buy the materials/tools and DIY, might actually get a decent job done then!

Hate using cash, notes are OK, but as soon as you spend them you end up with a pocket full of bulky, heavy, rattly metal.
 
Yes I agree a £100 note is essential but only after hay stations on roads for horses and more shops selling Betamax video tapes!
 
Haggisman said:
It's not really a "discount" if you're still paying more than the shoddy work is worth. Better to use your card to buy the materials/tools and DIY, might actually get a decent job done then!

Hate using cash, notes are OK, but as soon as you spend them you end up with a pocket full of bulky, heavy, rattly metal.
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Hah, yeah there are tons of charlatans out there, but people aren't careful enough with who they employ. I've never had a dodgy tradesperson. :)

Good luck putting RSJs in or re-doing your roof with help from a few youtube tutorials :)

Agreed with the jangling of coins though - I wouldn't mind getting rid of coppers, those are annoying but you just know that every retailer would round up and not down to the nearest 5p. :/

Sad to see so many people happy to lose the freedom of cash. Where are you going to swipe your card at a strip joint? Oh.. hang on! :D
 
Martynt74 said:
I'd have preferred to see the £50 being more commonly used. It's stupid that people are suspicious of it and it feels like a novelty to hold one for the first time.

The €50 note is just as common as any other notes.
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Most places in Europe don't seem to bat an eyelid paying with large denomination notes, here they look like they want to call the police. :p
 
On the odd occasion our contactless system goes down- along with other shops in the area.

Customers whinge about they don’t know their PIN. Every so often their bank insists on a chip n pin payment. It’s a combination of money spent and number of transactions. They whinge about they don’t know their PIN is. Sometimes during the latter, customers have another card which they pay on. The next time they want to pay on the first card- it will automatically want chip n pin.

It is the customer that needs to know what their PIN is. You don’t need to keep the PIN allocated by the bank. Can change it to a PIN to one you can remember. Go to any ATM and select PIN services. Most banks will not accept 1111, 1234 etc as PINs.

How do they cope if they spend over £100?
 
Another problem with a cashless is the business that you’re buying from especially if it’s local small independent place. All those little fees soon add up! Sure we get a bit back in cash back but long term it’s just going to lead to further price increases.

Mixture of both is the best way, CC for big purchases for the added protection and shopping locally with cash is the way to go. Helps everyone.
 
Q: Should we have a £100 note?
A: No, most people don't even use £50. They were talking about phasing out the £50 because crims use it. There may be a day when we need a £100, but it isn't now.

Q: Who uses cash anyway?
A: I did last week, because the card machine in Costa was broken. I keep a little cash on me to cover situations like that. I keep a few hundred at home in case my bank has some IT mishap, after seeing other banks have issues and people not able to access their money for a few days.

I believe that when cash is totally gone we lose something in terms of privacy, security, agency, etc - the cash-scrappers seem to not care about those things, which is short-sighted of them imo. I also believe we're on a one-way trajectory, cash-use is reducing and will eventually reduce to such a low number it's seen as not worth printing cash anymore, but that might take my whole lifetime.
 
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Tell all those people in Tesco last week that couldn't buy their shopping because the card system was down that cash is dead. Those with cash in their wallets were able to buy what they needed and get out again, whilst the card people queued and struggled.

I always carry cash around with me even if I use contactless for 99% of transactions having a bit of cash can always still be helpful, want a portion of chips open, pay the chippy in cash, so they don't have to cover the card fees for a £2 purchase.
 
Some replies are focused on people not using notes anymore or only using them for small transactions of a few £... that's somewhat insular, they're clearly still used by some people (lack of use is more a reason to not print as many notes and not a good argument for not having a larger denomination note), that you personally can't envisage situaitons other than your own is moot. As for small transacitons of a few £s at most, why bother with £50, £20 or £10 notes in that case... just have coins and £5 notes right? But again that's not true for all and is more a reason to not print as many notes in general rather than not accounting for inflation.

Scotland and NI have £100 notes, the US has $100 bills and has done for many years (inc when it exceeded the worth of £100 today), the Eurozone not only has a €100 note but also €200 and €500 notes too.

Our money is worth a lot less than it was a decade or two ago but the notes issued by the BOE simply haven't kept up, aside from the £1 note being phased out we have the same range of notes as we did in 1981 but all of those notes are now worth substantially less.

On a related note... I'd also be in favour of phasing out 1p and 2p coins... the 1/2p coins went but now 1p and 2p is worth so little that it's pointless to have them, make retail price things in multiples of 5p.

Martynt74 said:
I'd have preferred to see the £50 being more commonly used. It's stupid that people are suspicious of it and it feels like a novelty to hold one for the first time.

The €50 note is just as common as any other notes.
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Most of it's naivety or hangovers from the 1990s and indeed pre-polymer notes. Given the price of a pint or even a bottle in London these days then paying for a round with a few friends can easily involve multiple notes if paying cash... it's less of an issue these days as the contactless limit has increased to £100, pre pandemic the contactless limit was only £30 so notes were more convenient. In some places they still are really as there's maybe some naff card machine that takes ages or one between a few bar staff etc..

The £50 essentially is the old £20 these days which lots of people still aren't quite used to.
 
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Reuben klang said:
Another problem with a cashless is the business that you’re buying from especially if it’s local small independent place. All those little fees soon add up! Sure we get a bit back in cash back but long term it’s just going to lead to further price increases.
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Cash isn’t typically free from expenses for small businesses. You’ve got to cash up at the end of the day, take it to the bank, have float on hand, etc.

And that’s before you consider the possibility of losing the cash or having it stolen (either by a member of the public or staff).

Most of the small businesses near me are cashless for this reason. Perhaps it’s different in other parts of the country where you can’t get away with charging £5 for a doughnut though.
 
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