Paying cash? That'll cost extra

I sympathize with the people who have no choice but to carry cash but paper currency is becoming increasingly obsolete, especially in corporation to consumer transactions.

Cash is the only freedom some people have left in this country.

Once the cash is all gone, then Big Brother truly has arrived.

I don't like the idea of us losing the paper...but it does seem like that's where we're headed. It's really scary if you think about the worse that could happen though.
What if we do get to the point where paper money is obsolete and all of our hard earned cash is sitting in a bank waiting for us to use our piece of plastic and something happens. I'm not sure what could happen, but this is America... so who knows?! But what if this "something" did happen and everyone's money is wiped out somehow. Bank records...deleted. What will we be left with and what could we expect from our government to fix the situation. We all know we can't rely on our government, especially when it comes to our money. That is all they want from us anyway! I dunno, time will only tell on this one.

Are they trying to program us to think plastic is better than paper because they can't print enough paper for all the money they are spending?

Cash gives us ‘freedom’ to make purchases without oversight by anyone. The government can't track our purchases. Our employers can't track our purchases. Our insurance companies can't track our purchases. Our freedom to decide for ourselves could be wiped out with the swipe of a card, or a refusal to allow us to swipe the card. If they can track our purchases, will they be able to control our purchases? Higher insurance premiums because we bought that bag of chips?

Plastic over cash will enable Big Brother to monitor everything we do. Where we go, what we purchase could be controlled by Big Brother. Do you trust Big Brother? What if Big Brother is a Big Bully? Ya know, a ‘Decider’ who wants to decide where you spend your hard earned dollar.

I'm getting back into the habit of paying for everything with cash. It keeps me honest and stops me from buying stuff I don't need.

yo conniepae incase you haven't noticed we have no rights any longer thanks to president bush and I use the term president losely when referring to that idiot. they have striped the constitution down to mean nothing. I really don't care if hillary or obama wins as long as its a
democrat.

allirbs, I have noticed we are loosing rights and many we haven't lost are being trampled on. I prefer 'Decider' Bush; he uses the term president loosely also. I don't think I have ever heard him refer to 'Leadership', but I have heard him say he's the 'Decider', he decides.

I don't care if it's Hillary or Barack, but Hillary has many positions, which scare me. I want a leader who I trust to choose 'Diplomacy' over rhetoric and fear mongering. I'm tired of being afraid of what my own country will do in my name 'American'. I think they use the term 'American' too lightly. The majority of Americans don't agree with the direction the country is going in. What does our Vice President say, 'SO!’? A Justice on the Supreme Court referenced the 2000 Election, his answer is 'GET OVER IT'! WHY SHOULD WE? CAN ANY OF THEIR JUDGMENTS BE TRUSTED? TRUST IS EARNED! HAVE THEY EARNED OUR TRUST? NO!

I do not have a bank account and pay in cash for everything, this is completly insanly retarded, thanks AT&T for making the lives of us poor people even harder, because it's not hard enough already.

We free thinking individuals need to start asking meaningful rational questions. BT(BritishTelecom) is doing the same thing and the courts have just given them backing on it. What do these multinational conglomerates take us for, morons? People, question everything you are told and fight for everything you know is right and pious because it a mad mad world out there.

Just another way to keep track of our movements , Democrat or republican it really doesn't matter , they all follow the money. We'll all be standing in line waiting for our bar codes soon enough , as soon as the goverment has control of all the weapons (except for weapons owned by criminals),they can tell us to do what ever they want. Go ahead, vote in a anti-gun (I'm a sporstman, I love to go hunting) lying Demoncrat or a Republickcan its all the same party now. Lucky for us we have given away the power to people who could care for our every need and do all our thinking for us, that way soon we won't be burdened with such things like voting our free will. It's amazing how a small stream can erode a beatiful (purple)mountain's majesty.

I have turned to paying cash for everything as well over the past year. I don't like my life being owned by a credit card company. However, I've noticed it's been increasingly difficult to do so. What if I want to book a flight? What if it's just as simple to walk down to pay my electrical building?

I've traded to using prepaid cards on cell phones and living in an apt. from month to month. I think our lives have become owned by stuff; By leases and credit cards, so I definitely see cash as freedom. I truly hope something comes about this so that this freedom is not taken away. I'm tired of contracts and obligations that aren't necessary to make.

I honestly don't see this as an issue. If there undocumented workers they might be Mexicans and thats no good.

they should be happy they can even pay cash in store. a lot of stores won't even take cash or let you pay a bill in store because it may not be a true corporate store

Are you serious nate, so if there undocumented workers but not a mexican is it alright?

Debt is what made America. Just ask Visa. I owe everything I am to debt.
D'oh!

Cash " paper" money is considered "fiat" money.
It is used to control. Be it in paper or plastic form.
Gold, Silver and Platinum is the only true currency.
"money" is backed by debt.
Metals owe nothing.
Why do you think in 1933 FDR confiscated ALL Americans' Gold?
Take away that which enables ones' freedom, you then control them.
If credit was spelled cred-debt would you want any part of it?
Because that is all it is. DEBT.
When broken down to the basics it becomes a form of legal " indebted servitude".
Until you pay off your debt, the credit card companies "own" you...
It is easy to control the masses when they are living far beyond their means.
Just imagine what will happen when all the foreign investors "call in" all the owed money?
If your bank has sold your car loan, mortgage etc... to another bank(possibly foreign) and you cannot pay off your debt when called upon, that means a foreign entity now owns your house and whatever else was yours....
American corporations have been selling off America without it's own citizens knowing it.
BUY GOLD, SILVER, AND PLATINUM.
Physical ownership of your investments is your only safety net to protecting your wealth.
Embrace the barter system. Keep it personal.

You're money is worthless. It hasn't been worth anything since America got rid of the gold standard decades ago. Think of all the media we see programming us that plastic is easier then cash, cash slows the world down, and now it cost more to pay in cash than in plastic?

This is all part of prepping us for the Real ID Act. That one card will be your identity, your passport, and your bank card. You'll be striped even more of your privacy and liberty only to have them replaced with a bar code. Each Real ID will eventually be fitted with an RFID chips (the same ones in newer US passports and the same ones that are used to track animals in the wild) and at anytime the government, or who ever is running the show, doesn't like something that you do they can flip the switch and turn off your card leaving you with out identification, access to your bank account, and basically cut off from civilization. The best part is any person born after December 1, 1964, will have to obtain a REAL ID by December 1, 2014. So we have that to look forward to...

So long story short: Banks, the F.E.D., and our own government is trying to ween us off hard currency so we'll be easier to control and enslave. Like you said Huntre, you owe everything you are to debt.

backward....

it just shows that AT&T has some butt-hole bean counters who looked at some "time and motion" studies and realized that "taking cash payments takes away from selling face-to-face time."

THEY are the true morons in the picture. it has nothing to do with tracking us or printing money. it's not a gummint issue, here, it's an "AT&T is so fracking stupid that they can't charge ALL of their customers a few pennies more a month to cover the "losses" of some $6-an-hour grunt making change in the store."

[or whatever minimum wage they're paying now..]

i saw this in multibilliondollar corporations i've worked for and worked with.

it's another perfect example of how to piss off customers in the name of alleged efficiency and "management."

virtually all companies today do stupid things like this. AT&T has a long record of doing stupid things, and this just adds to it.

by the way, Fortune magazine, @1percent, has a nice article refuting your suggestions about owning commodities.

owning gold is pretty stupid, after all, unless the entire civilization collapses, in which case, you will be mugged or killed for your gold. and you can't store enough commodities to last your lifetime. or enough guns to keep EVERYONE at bay FOREVER.

physical ownership of your investments went out with feudal times, and things HAVE gotten a lot better since then. the article mentioned that if you owned gold or even were 100% invested in it, you'd have done much better in general equities over the past MANY years.

if you can afford to lose that much money, go right ahead, but the rest of us would do well to ignore your ill advice.

an excerpt or two...

"At the extreme end, the hard-core survivalists stock up on Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) and firearms, pick up an extra brick of ammunition every time they go to Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), learn to grind their own grains, and are so well versed in the art of repurposing everyday items that they could probably fashion indestructible underground bunkers from a couple of rolls of duct tape, some old culverts, and a few pieces of chewing gum. (As with any subculture, they also have their own in-jokes. Q: How do you know you're a survivalist? A: You have emergency rations for your pets and view your pets as potential emergency rations.)"

love that one!

"Speculators who bought gold at its peak in 1980 and sold at the low in 2000 lost 70% on their investment. (For comparison, the Dow went up 1,113%.) If you were a survivalist during that period, you might argue that those losses were irrelevant, because when dollars are worth nothing, gold at $280 an ounce will look good. But if short-term gains or losses are relevant, gold can easily be a bad place to put your money. "

is gold at a peak now? BUY, sucker!

"Investing in gold as a small hedge against inflation while expecting a very, very long-term real return of 1.2% a year, plus storing some canned goods and water and looking at alternative energy sources, is very different from moving all potentially vulnerable assets into gold, acquiring a small armory full of munitions, enough food to feed your family for three years, and a wardrobe full of hazmat suits."

1.2% long term? YOU invest in gold... MY diversified portfolio of about 150 stocks and a very few bonds was up about 17% last year. i'm very happy with that.

Spot on DEVO64 !

Three words: Cash Is King! I refuse to purchase anything that I can pay cash for so tht my purchases are not tracked by marketing agencies or any agency for that matter. It used to be a free country. Why pay finance charges anyway,

What a scam.