cash only

[georgina]

Let me preface this by saying that I am starting to be on the tail end of the Bummers, 77 years old, and I cannot understand the hanging on to the cash thing. I have $20 in my wallet just in the event that I run into someplace that only takes cash, but those places are getting fewer and fewer. I haven't written a check or paid with cash for anything in over 10 years. It is so much handier and so much easier to keep track of using credit or debit cards. You can go online a see exactly how much you have spent in real time. It is so much easier and safer.

The places we most often use cash - 1) street performers we walk by on the weekend, 2) tips for tour guides on group travel and dive crew for DH's dive trips around the world. And for those we have to go to the bank and request new-ish, unmarked 20's, because a lot of places in the world won't take torn or marked US bills. Sometimes we can get local currency out of an ATM, sometimes he takes US cash.

Was in Africa in August and the front desk person in Zambia asked if I would exchange some of my nice US bills for some she had, that had been given to the staff for tips, but they were unable to use them because of their condition. Street sellers in Zimbabwe also took US dollars.