I got into a heated debate with a friend the other day when I tried to give him cash. He had covered dinner, and as I carefully counted up my notes to pay him back, he gave me a scornful look of disgust. “Don’t give me cash, what am I going to do with that?!”

No matter how hard I tried to convince him that it was legal tender, that most places still took cash, that I had the exact change RIGHT THERE, he refused to budge. As I dutifully opened my banking app to transfer the funds, I heard him mutter “the sooner we get rid of cash completely, the better”.

I’ve never understood this attitude. True, with COVID-19 making its debut, anything to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus has been put in place, and contactless payments have been a godsend. However, I truly believe that a lot of people have forgotten some of the amazing benefits of carrying some good ‘ol cash in your wallet:

• No consumer debt – Credit card debt is a massive problem in many households today. Using cash simply means that you can’t spend money that you don’t have.

• Psychological saving – This might be just me, but I find it harder to spend money on trivial things when I have to pay with physical cash. Tapping a card is all well and good, but handing over $100 in cash hurts just that little bit more, and makes you stop and think for a moment about your spending.

• Incidental saving – My partner and I have a coin jar by our front door, and it’s amazing how much you can save by just emptying the coins out of your pockets and wallet each day. Going to the bank and feeding the coins into the counting machine is a fun activity (or maybe we’re just weird).

• Less opportunity for someone to steal your credit card details – This is a big one for me, and is fairly self-explanatory. Cash truly is king in this regard.

Do you still use cash? Tell me why/why not in the comments!