The Lemon Fool

The Maxwell! I've lived, on-and-off, for 50 years within 5 minutes of that pub, and been in it once.

JohnB wrote:The Maxwell! I've lived, on-and-off, for 50 years within 5 minutes of that pub, and been in it once.

Did you check to see if they still have the mustard pot and salt cellars?

http://www.dover-kent.com/2015-project/Maxwell-Arms-Orpington.html

stevensfo wrote:The mere thought of using a contactless card in a pub seems so bizarre to me that I can't imagine myself ever doing it.

That and tales from colleagues about having strange amounts taken out their account.

With cash, I have an easy guide (empty wallet) to how many I've had and whether I should call it a day.

Steve

Nice try, but what about those evenings where you take £100 out of the speedbank, have about 5 pints and wake up with nothing?

At least with contactless you can see what you spent and where (although admittedly it's not always obvious from the limited descriptions on bank statements - this is one area where improvement is needed!)

Cheers,
StepOne

Howyoudoin wrote:I’m in a pub at Trafalgar Square.

I know that prices are going to be crazy compared to elsewhere.

However, I wasn’t prepared for this...

Either I’ve lost the plot or the World has.

Welcome to 2020!

AleisterCrowley wrote:My statement has lots of entries like THREE GUINEAS £4.70
I'll often look at it and think; 'Dammit

I'm not surprised. Three Guineas is £3.15, so that's nearly a 50% mark up.

DM

Nah, that's inflation for you.

(apparently gentlemen always paid in Guineas, the shilling went to the tradesman /intermediary)

I've just had this when buying petrol
Absolutely not a clue as to what charity.
No idea if the garage was taking a cut from my donation.
I asked both questions.

No I did not donate.

Apparently the petrol station thing date back to 2015
https://www.arrse.co.uk/community/threa ... nd.247322/
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/di ... or-charity

Run by charities like Pennies, https://pennies.org.uk/about-us/

If you come across it, best to tell the cashier you plan to take your business elsewhere, else it will become standard.

JohnB wrote:Run by charities like Pennies, https://pennies.org.uk/about-us/

If you come across it, best to tell the cashier you plan to take your business elsewhere, else it will become standard.

I see that Pennies takes 10% of the donations, which I suppose is reasonable, although a bit more than the 7% that Coinstar machines take.

My personal reason for refusing would be that I make my charitable donations gift-aided, which is better all round. Not that I'd be inclined to say anything to the cashier really. The world is full of things I don't really approve of, and as long as they're not racist/sexist/ageist/generally hateful I just let them pass me by.

If they made me feel uncomfortable, like the schoolkids packing your groceries at supermarket checkouts often do, that might be a different matter. (I give to those, too, but only on condition that they let me do my own packing. I like my eggs and my fruit undamaged, thank you very much.)

BJ

If I want to make a donation, my preference in such circumatances is to put the odd coppers into a charity's collecting box, like that for the Air Ambulance at our newsagent's. The local paper went to 99p, from 95p, both being stupid amounts these days. At least with the odd 5p you had a chance to use it the following week.

TJH

tjh290633 wrote:If I want to make a donation, my preference in such circumatances is to put the odd coppers into a charity's collecting box, like that for the Air Ambulance at our newsagent's. The local paper went to 99p, from 95p, both being stupid amounts these days. At least with the odd 5p you had a chance to use it the following week.

TJH

Trouble is the man hours spent counting all those coppers up and banking them etc. Far better if its all done electronically.

Presume you bypass all this charity and tip nonsense if the transaction is less than £30 and you just pay contactless without going the insert card/chip and pin route?

HYD

AleisterCrowley wrote:(apparently gentlemen always paid in Guineas, the shilling went to the tradesman /intermediary)

Now if you were a regular at the Stirling Bull Sales, you would have to bid for the Bull that takes your fancy in guineas. All the 5ps go to the auctioneer. Clearly our farming community are all gentlemen (or ladies).
As a very young academic, the University used to pay lecturers a fee of half-a-guinea for examination invigilation. Presumably it was felt that the younger academics were no longer recruited from the appropriate class, and would have difficulty in handling such currency, hence the payment was decimalised to zero.

tjh290633 wrote:If I want to make a donation, my preference in such circumatances is to put the odd coppers into a charity's collecting box, like that for the Air Ambulance at our newsagent's. The local paper went to 99p, from 95p, both being stupid amounts these days. At least with the odd 5p you had a chance to use it the following week.

About once a fortnight, I thin out my pockets and anything smaller than a 20p piece goes into a leather money box in my office. Maybe once a year, the money box contents go into the Coinstar machine for charity. It saves a lot of wear on the pockets of my bespoke cheapo Chinese denims.

I am, however, struck by how much less cash I use these days. It seems to be in inverse proportion to the rate at which my recycling bins fill up with plastic packaging. Now, if there were only a way that I could donate my placcy to charity, we'd be getting somewhere.

BJ

tjh290633 wrote:If I want to make a donation, my preference in such circumatances is to put the odd coppers into a charity's collecting box, like that for the Air Ambulance at our newsagent's. The local paper went to 99p, from 95p, both being stupid amounts these days. At least with the odd 5p you had a chance to use it the following week.

TJH

When I make a donation to charity, I choose the time, charity and amount. I ignore all chuggers, spam, junk mail and payment machine prompts

sunnyjoe wrote:When I make a donation to charity, I choose the time, charity and amount. I ignore all chuggers, spam, junk mail and payment machine prompts

Exactly!

I decide when, if to whom and how much I donate.


Julian F. G. W.

When companies do something annoying which is not core to their business, its always worth complaining, because its likely they will stop rather than lose custom, and they will assume any complaint reflects the reviews of a hundred who don't.

Couldn't care less about being asked for a gratuity (and I would probably give one) but those who think contactless is great should ponder that without cash negative interest rates become not only a theory but a possibility. And that is the obvious way to pay off UK's debt. Here's to the BoE keeping the £50 note.

Eb.

Howyoudoin wrote:

tjh290633 wrote:If I want to make a donation, my preference in such circumatances is to put the odd coppers into a charity's collecting box, like that for the Air Ambulance at our newsagent's. The local paper went to 99p, from 95p, both being stupid amounts these days. At least with the odd 5p you had a chance to use it the following week.

TJH

Trouble is the man hours spent counting all those coppers up and banking them etc. Far better if its all done electronically.

Presume you bypass all this charity and tip nonsense if the transaction is less than £30 and you just pay contactless without going the insert card/chip and pin route?

HYD

Of course it is better done electronically. Most small payments I do using Pingit contactless fob, but 99p for a paper calls for a coin. If its over £30 then it's the standard insert card method. I would normally tell a restaurant to round it up to a suitable figure.

As somebody else said, there are better ways of giving to charity, making sure they get the Gift Aid.

TJH

bungeejumper wrote:...
I am, however, struck by how much less cash I use these days. ..
BJ

Yes, I've noticed that. I used to dump my small change in a bag and go to the Coinstar every so often. I've been in the new place for well over a year now and my loose change 'pot' is tiny, probably about a quid! I use contactless for pretty much everything now , with the exception of buying drinks in a few old style pubs (and very small transactions)