I did a series of radio interviews yesterday.
It’s for a site named Cash is Cool which, as the name suggests is pro-cash as opposed to credit cards.
Although in theory people can use credit free (if they handle it right) the majority of people, being human and not Vulcan, don’t. Most people end up paying more on credit, they pay charges for misusing it and they lose track more easily with credit cards than cash.
So, being generally in favour of giving people choice, I tend to support the idea of rejecting a cashless society – because that would mean that you couldn’t choose to budget with cash if you want to. Incidentally, I’d also be against abolishing credit cards, they can be useful and convenient. But I don’t like the Big Brother idea of compelling everybody to do the same thing, when each person is different.
The stuff I was talking about was based on a survey of 2,000 people (for which I helped design the questions). The full results of the survey are going up on the site, but basically they showed that people in the UK are probably smarter than the authorities and “experts” give them credit for.
People seem to realise that it is easier to budget with cash, that if they have a credit card they are more likely to overspend with it and that they get hit for charges such as minimum spends, missing a payment deadline or having an outstanding balance.
I did radio spots with
The Bee
2BR
106.5 Central Radio
(all of which are around Lancashire)
The Bay (which is also North Lancashire and S Cumbria)
BBC Radio Humberside
Kingdom (Fife)
Sun FM (Sunderland)
Swansea Sound 1170 MW
Cheshire
Only a couple were live (Swansea and Humberside) so the rest that were pre-recorded may go out at any time over the next week or so.
We also did a pre-recorded general piece that may be picked up on other stations.
