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AppleGuy
Premium Member
join:2013-09-08
Kitchener, ON

AppleGuy to dirtyjeffer0

Premium Member

to dirtyjeffer0

Re: Passport office *doesn't* accept cash?!

said by dirtyjeffer0:

who wants to walk around downtown with $160 in cash??...no thank you.

We're so different from Americans...and that sentence sums it up nicely. American's do walk around with cash, since their afraid of using debit due to all the issues and scammers in that country. Canadians, on the other hand, prefer debit over anything.

I rarely have more than $100 on me.
AppleGuy

AppleGuy to NCRGuy

Premium Member

to NCRGuy
said by NCRGuy:

There are many government services that can't be paid for in cash. Has been that way for a while. Keep up.

Except for the government office I work at, we don't take debit or credit. Only cash or cheque or money order. We're stuck in the 1950's.
AppleGuy

AppleGuy to PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

to PX Eliezer1
said by PX Eliezer1:

For that matter, I pay some state and US federal taxes and fees by direct electronic withdrawal from my checking account. It eliminates the 3 percent or whatever rakeoff that the credit card company would suck out.

You can do that in Canada too. Two ways:
You go to Canada Revenue website, My Payment, and use that if your bank supports it: »www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc- ··· eng.html

Or if your bank doesn't support My Payment, you can add Revenue Canada as a bill, and your account number is your Social Insurance Number (SSI #). Unlike the USA, provinces and federal taxes are merged when paying, so I can't choose to just pay the Feds or the province. You pay both at once. Only exception is for corporations that file separate returns.

ekster
Hi there
Premium Member
join:2010-07-16
Sainte-Anne-De-Bellevue, QC

ekster

Premium Member

said by AppleGuy:

Unlike the USA, most* provinces and federal taxes are merged when paying, so I can't choose to just pay the Feds or the province. You pay both at once. Only exception is for corporations that file separate returns.

We're more than free to pay only one of the governments over here.
NCRGuy
join:2008-03-03
Ottawa, ON

NCRGuy to vincom

Member

to vincom
said by vincom:

canadian money is legal tender in canada and cannot be refused as such, the govt is breaking their own laws

False.

AppleGuy
Premium Member
join:2013-09-08
Kitchener, ON

AppleGuy to ekster

Premium Member

to ekster
Quebec is not a province though. It's a nation. Not even part of the Canadian Constitution. I have no idea how things work there, but while I file, and pay, it goes to one entity: Receiver General of Canada.

Quebec has its own pension, unemployment and national taxes.

And pretty french girls.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1 to AppleGuy

Premium Member

to AppleGuy
said by AppleGuy:

said by dirtyjeffer0:

who wants to walk around downtown with $160 in cash??...no thank you.

We're so different from Americans...and that sentence sums it up nicely. American's do walk around with cash, since their afraid of using debit due to all the issues and scammers in that country. Canadians, on the other hand, prefer debit over anything.

I rarely have more than $100 on me.

We can carry cash because we carry the guns to protect it, too.

EUS
Kill cancer
Premium Member
join:2002-09-10
canada

EUS

Premium Member

I carry cash because I don't live in a shithole, and even without a gun am not afraid.

Ian1
Premium Member
join:2002-06-18
ON

Ian1 to sm5w2

Premium Member

to sm5w2
I think carrying cash is a generational thing. Us old farts don't want to pull out a debit card to buy a coffee at Tim's. I usually have anywhere between $80-$400 on me at any given time.
balur
join:2010-04-28

balur to sm5w2

Member

to sm5w2
I usually don't Carry Cash, my dad is the exact opposite, he sometimes carries upwards of $1000.

Last summer I met up with him and he payed me back $80 that he owed me for something. I hopped right into a bank to put it in my account, rather then carry it.

He felt this was ridiculous.

Ian1
Premium Member
join:2002-06-18
ON

Ian1

Premium Member

said by balur:

He felt this was ridiculous.

And he was correct.
zod5000
join:2003-10-21
Victoria, BC

zod5000 to Ian1

Member

to Ian1
I'm a bit of both. I carry a bit of cash on me for emergencies. Maybe 60 to 80 dollars. The thing is I can go for well over a month before I use it.

Generally it's if I need to pay a bar tab quickly, or at a friend we we order pizza or something. It makes it easier to split bills (allthough that gets harder when your friends don't have the same philosophy and you have to sit there for 10 minutes while everyone debits/credit cards their portion of a bill).

It also has the downside of the very odd time I'm somewhere and the debit/credit card system has issues, I'm generally the only one with cash on hand.

For the most part I pay with debit or credit. It seems much more convenient. Retailers also jack up their prices to compensate for how much credit card companies charge them. If you're not getting rewards/points back via a credit card, then your sort of paying more than people who pay with cash/debit.
vincom
join:2009-03-06
Bolton, ON

vincom to NCRGuy

Member

to NCRGuy
said by NCRGuy:

said by vincom:

canadian money is legal tender in canada and cannot be refused as such, the govt is breaking their own laws

False.

it states so on the bills as legal tender
if you brought it to trial you would win but no one would bother bringing the matter to court

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to sm5w2

MVM

to sm5w2
Personal cheques are pretty rare; you can't really use them anywhere (stores don't accept them), so in my experience they're mostly used for what the name implies, person-to-person transactions.

Personally, I've never used personal cheques. On the rare instance that I need to send a large amount of money to somebody, I just use interac e-transfers, and I eat the dollar or whatever fee.
balur
join:2010-04-28

balur to Ian1

Member

to Ian1
said by Ian1:

And he was correct.

It's not that we went out of our way for the bank... we literally walked by it.

Bender2000
Bite My Shiny Metal Ass
Premium Member
join:2002-05-06
J7W 8E4

Bender2000 to sm5w2

Premium Member

to sm5w2
well I personally find the use of cash annoying. I recently decided to use a snowclearing service in my area. I received the invoice by mail about a week after I called them. Payment was to be me sending them a cheque. I don't own cheques. Just don't need them. I even pay my rent to my landlord via interac e-transfer. So, I had to go to the office for the snowclearing service to pay. I had the sense to ask them on the phone if they took debit. Nope, only cash/cheque. So I actually had to make a stop at the bank to pull money out! Felt dirty

Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON

Gone to Guspaz

Premium Member

to Guspaz
said by Guspaz:

Personal cheques are pretty rare; you can't really use them anywhere (stores don't accept them), so in my experience they're mostly used for what the name implies, person-to-person transactions.

We accept cheques and actually prefer them as they are the second cheapest financial instrument for us to deal with (Interac is cheapest) without the security implications of cash. Got a handful of them that are going in the bank today, even.

LazMan
Premium Member
join:2003-03-26
Beverly Hills, CA

LazMan to Ian1

Premium Member

to Ian1
said by Ian1:

I think carrying cash is a generational thing. Us old farts don't want to pull out a debit card to buy a coffee at Tim's. I usually have anywhere between $80-$400 on me at any given time.

I believe paying for a large double-double by debit should be a criminal offence, punishable for stoning with day-old timbits.

I'm in my mid-30's and generally have 50-100 on me... I'll bust out the plastic for bigger stuff, but coffee/lunch/bar tabs are always cash...

OP: I renewed my passport yesterday - I was surprised at the no-cash policy, too - but I get it. No theft, internal or external; no making change; no counterfeit concerns... Just 'cleaner' from an administration point of view.

Plus, given the volume some passport offices handle, we could be talking substantial cash to process... That means secure storage on site, armoured car service, guards... Just additional complications, and overhead.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1 to AppleGuy

Premium Member

to AppleGuy
said by AppleGuy:

We're so different from Americans...and that sentence sums it up nicely. American's do walk around with cash, since their afraid of using debit due to all the issues and scammers in that country. Canadians, on the other hand, prefer debit over anything.

From a 2010 US article praising the Canadian banking system:

In the 1930s, when 9,000 U.S. banks failed during the Great Depression, not a single bank in Canada failed.

When almost 3,000 American banks failed during the Savings and Loan (S&L) Crisis, only two small Canadian banks failed in 1985, and those were the first bank failures in Canada since 1923.

And while almost 200 U.S. banks have failed since the start of the global recession in early 2008, Canada remains the only industrialized country in the world that has survived the last two years of financial and economic stress without a single bank failure.

»www.american.com/archive ··· g-system

These differences matter, and they reverberate. We learn the habits of our parents and they learned from [their] parents.

Most Americans are not comfortable having at least [some] cash around.

And in a time of credit fraud, natural disasters and climate change, terrorism, social unrest, etc, etc, this all gets reinforced.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to Ian1

MVM

to Ian1
said by Ian1:

I think carrying cash is a generational thing. Us old farts don't want to pull out a debit card to buy a coffee at Tim's. I usually have anywhere between $80-$400 on me at any given time.

It's far faster to pull out a debit card and wave it over the wireless reader (beep!) than it is to pull out the right amount of cash, wait for the cashier to get the correct change, and then put it all away.

I use my VISA for everything possible, except for small transactions at small stores. I don't feel guilty about a giant mega-chain getting stiffed on transaction fees for a small purchase, but I feel bad about doing it at a small store or franchise. I buy my $3.18 breakfast in cash, for example, but my $11.90 lunch on VISA :P
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1 to Bender2000

Premium Member

to Bender2000
said by Bender2000:

well I personally find the use of cash annoying. I recently decided to use a snowclearing service in my area. I received the invoice by mail about a week after I called them. Payment was to be me sending them a cheque.

We had a big snowfall a few weeks ago and my wife and I were very, very happy when 3 young fellows who were probably from Mexico showed up and offered to shovel our long driveway.

(And yes, we have many folks from Mexico in this area).

So they wouldn't have wanted a check or a credit card, fortunately we had the $60 cash on hand to pay them. They may not have grown up with snow, but they did a great job.

Ian1
Premium Member
join:2002-06-18
ON

1 recommendation

Ian1 to Guspaz

Premium Member

to Guspaz
said by Guspaz:

It's far faster to pull out a debit card and wave it over the wireless reader (beep!) than it is to pull out the right amount of cash, wait for the cashier to get the correct change, and then put it all away.

Perhaps. Don't think my bank (BMO) cards work on those though. Plus, the bank charges me based on number of transactions. If I did that for everything, I'd be hit for $20 a month in fees.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz

MVM

It's true, BMO doesn't. Currently, only Scotia, RBC, and TD support it. I presume eventually all will.

However, BMO credit cards likely support PayPass/PayWave, so you could pay for your tims with that without transaction fees.

Ordinarily I'd feel bad about small VISA purchases, but Tim Hortons are the ones pushing the contactless credit card payments, so I probably wouldn't feel bad about using a VISA there.

When I was eating at Tims daily, I used to have a tim card that I configured to auto-recharge from my VISA whenever it got low, although that was because Tims accepted VISA online but not in-store.

My avoidance of cash, though, probably has more to do with the fact that the only conveniently located ATM to me is for a different bank, so I usually have to pay fees to get cash, unless I want to spend an extra 20 minutes to go out of my way to get to an RBC ATM.

Raptor
Not a Dumptruck
join:2001-10-21
London, ON

1 recommendation

Raptor to dirtyjeffer0

Member

to dirtyjeffer0
said by dirtyjeffer0:

said by Kardinal:

said by dirtyjeffer0:

who wants to walk around downtown with $160 in cash??...no thank you.

Really? Is downtown London that bad?

well, maybe not that bad (it depends on what you compare it to)...either way, i wouldn't want to walk around downtown with that much cash on me there...it's no Detroit, but it's far worse than it was 20 years ago.

I'm not even sure how you would even consider using Detroit in the same sentence as London when it comes to crime. "I'm not saying I'm racist, BUT...." "I'm not saying you're fat, BUT...." Awful preface.

I think you may be getting to that point in your life where everything is better "back in the day". If having $160 in your wallet and walking around the City of London even causes a neuron to fire with "oh gee, I better not, I might get robbed", well, I don't know where you hang out, but it's not in normal places.

Only goes back to 2002, generally flat or decreasing, certainly not FAR WORSE: »police.city.london.on.ca ··· tics.htm

Bit of a fluff article, but generally mirrors the general consensus that crime is down, it's down virtually everywhere, the only difference is in today's era is that it's blasted in your face 24/7 on the news when someone j-walks: »www.lfpress.com/2013/07/ ··· iving-it

Build more prisons! More Omnibus crime bills! etc etc. The sky is not falling, at least not in London. I'm not afraid of cash in my pocket. Besides, whether it's in my wallet or not is irrelevant to your chances of getting robbed. Better to just stay in your house if that's the line of thinking.

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues to Gone

Premium Member

to Gone
said by Gone:

said by Guspaz:

Personal cheques are pretty rare; you can't really use them anywhere (stores don't accept them), so in my experience they're mostly used for what the name implies, person-to-person transactions.

We accept cheques and actually prefer them as they are the second cheapest financial instrument for us to deal with (Interac is cheapest) without the security implications of cash. Got a handful of them that are going in the bank today, even.

The problem with accepting cheques is they are made of rubber.
elwoodblues

elwoodblues to Ian1

Premium Member

to Ian1
said by Ian1:

said by Guspaz:

It's far faster to pull out a debit card and wave it over the wireless reader (beep!) than it is to pull out the right amount of cash, wait for the cashier to get the correct change, and then put it all away.

Perhaps. Don't think my bank (BMO) cards work on those though. Plus, the bank charges me based on number of transactions. If I did that for everything, I'd be hit for $20 a month in fees.

Time to change banks

Ian1
Premium Member
join:2002-06-18
ON

Ian1 to Guspaz

Premium Member

to Guspaz
What I think we should move to is the "cash card" concept like in Europe. The Canadian Mint is working on one. A card you can load up with money, and use, presumably anonymously (as in.....like hell... ), until depleted and re-charged. Heck, we had those for making photocopies when I was in University in the early 90s.
Ian1

Ian1 to elwoodblues

Premium Member

to elwoodblues
I actually thought about going to Ing, but their cheque scan app doesn't work on BB7 for some reason.

Any suggestions? TD is near me, but their checking account also charges if you go over 25 transactions. Which would be easy to hit if you paid for coffees and lunch with a debit card.

Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON

Gone to elwoodblues

Premium Member

to elwoodblues
said by elwoodblues:

The problem with accepting cheques is they are made of rubber.

Maybe up there in the Big Smoke they are, but in four years I've only had three, and all three were rectified with red faces and apologies within 24 hours.

Thane_Bitter
Inquire within
Premium Member
join:2005-01-20

Thane_Bitter to Raptor

Premium Member

to Raptor
One of the biggest reasons people don't go downtown (in London):
-Parking, people are lazy and expect to walk a few feet from their car to which ever store they are shopping at, the thought or concept of parking a distance away and walking is inconceivable to them.
-Shopping, while there are still a few interesting little shops and certainly a number of good restaurants the core area shopping experience is infinitesimal to what it was decades ago.
-The Gross factor, its loud, dirty and full of people. The noise and stench from the public transpiration system is enough to keep people away.
-Lack of public space, aside from Victoria park and a few other greenspaces including the micro square in front of the Market there are few pleasant places. While the river is nearby little thought or planning has gone into making this area usable or accessible. The plans currently pushed by Joe Fonata (current Mayor, and hopefully soon to be convicted fraudster) would see what little public land there is be packed over and blocked out into treeless expanses, with all the charm of a parking lot.