How change is now given when paying cash.

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Leodian
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How change is now given when paying cash.

Post by Leodian »

Though I have a payment card I still make small payments in cash, such as the 82p cost for the Yorkshire Evening Post. I know from experience that if I put a £1 piece into a self serve machine I often get the 18p change as 9x2p pieces or other combinations of small change which is why I try not to use machines for such as that. A sign though that young assistants are now more accustomed to not using/giving cash is that when for example I try to make things easier by paying £1 and a 2p piece I often get blank looks and have to explain that the 20p change then due is easily done by giving me a 20p coin rather than 18p in small change. The simple thing of giving a bit more to make change easier to give is clearly dying out. Of course in the seemingly inevitable cashless society that may soon be no problem ;).
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chemimike
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Re: How change is now given when paying cash.

Post by chemimike »

You forget that the till tells them how much to give as they cannot add or subtract, so it makes it much more difficult for the poor little ones if you do this. but i agree many do look confused

harrym1byt
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Re: How change is now given when paying cash.

Post by harrym1byt »

In such rare circumstances (using cash), I ask them if an extra 2p will make it easier for them. It is their decision then.

jma
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Re: How change is now given when paying cash.

Post by jma »

I think this changed with decimalization. Before that, people tried to pay with the correct amount but in the confusion afterwards, they began to pay with higher denomination coin or, perish the thought, break into a ten bob note. In 1966 I had a Summer holiday job selling ice cream from a van. At the end of each day I had to cash up, counting and bagging the takings and it was all small change, with even half crowns being very rare. The bags were made of different coloured paper for each denomination. All that change was paid into the bank the following morning by the boss who had a small fleet of vans.

In those days, if you gave the bus conductor a ten bob note you risked bringing Leeds City Transport to a standstill and you would definitely get 9/6 or whatever in ha'pennies as change.

These days, shops have get bags of change from the bank to cater for customers who routinely pay with notes. It's all in little plastic bags now, of course, but in supermarkets, supervisors are constantly being summoned to bring more change.

People end up with loads of small change which either goes in charity collections or into the Coinstar change machines which charge something like 8% commission. I've occasionally seen children throwing change away outside the newsagents and it's not really worth picking up. When the £1 coins were changed recently, millions of the old type were said not to have been swapped.

Look after the pennies .....

volvojack
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Re: How change is now given when paying cash.

Post by volvojack »

Though i am not the biggest fan of Aldi and Lidl supermarkets i do find that some things sold in there are very good value and so do go in one or the other maybe once a week. I also find that when at the checkout the bill comes to a few coppers over and you offer the 2 or 3p. they look confused and most times ignore it. I do think that it is a combination of quite a lot of the staff are East European and quite efficient they simply look at the till and require the amount it shows. anything else confuses them.

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blackprince
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Re: How change is now given when paying cash.

Post by blackprince »

jma wrote:…………………….. When the £1 coins were changed recently, millions of the old type were said not to have been swapped.

Look after the pennies .....
I can testify that some old round pounds are still out there. Recently I gave guy a pound as a swap for his supermarket trolley. Doing us both a favour I thought. When I returned the trolley myself, to my disgust he had used one of the old pound coins, no longer legal tender.

A major reason for introducing the new pound coin was that millions of the old coins in circulation were forgeries.
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jma
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Re: How change is now given when paying cash.

Post by jma »

After a lifetime of never knowing which pocket my wallet was in I bought myself a shoulder bag. In addition to my wallet for notes and cards, I use a £1 coin dispenser - a bit like the dispensers bus conductors used to have in their bags - and one of those leather purses which open up so you can count out your coins in the lid.

Paying with the correct change is easy with this set-up, especially if you did mental arithmetic at school, but I think many shop assistants, especially the younger ones, equate it with coppering up: getting together all your change to be able to pay. They don't appreciate that some of us grew up apologising if we couldn't offer the correct change. The funny thing is that decimalisation was supposed to make it all simpler. It certainly fuelled inflation because things which had previously been 4d were costing 4p, 2.4 times as much.

I think they should now scrap every denomination under 10p as a waste of space.

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tilly
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Re: How change is now given when paying cash.

Post by tilly »

Remember when we had half pence pieces what a wast of time they were, i think more were thrown away than spent.
No matter were i end my days im an Hunslet lad with Hunslet ways.

jma
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Re: How change is now given when paying cash.

Post by jma »

I can't be the only one to remember when we had the ½d which still had some value. I certainly remember once being sent for a loaf costing 4½d with 9 ha'pennies hoping that the man in the shop wouldn't notice that one was Irish.

When the ½p was introduced it was worth more in theory than 1d but that soon changed with inflation.

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buffaloskinner
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Re: How change is now given when paying cash.

Post by buffaloskinner »

Hope these jog your memory then JMA

I used to try and pass the old silver threepence off as a sixpence to the tram or bus conductors, worked most of the time as well.

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