Cash v Cashless.

[OkiBum]

Cashless for sure! The number of coins this country has, NO THANK YOU!

[amattie]

Today my wife went to a certain supermarket and got something like 20% off everything by using paypay, and I think there is one day a month where she gets maybe 10% off at Welcia using a different payment system. And then there was the time she got an Amex card and thanks to the sign up bonus and using the card for her business she got 100,000 miles in the first month or so.

With benefits like that on offer, the case for cash is pretty tough I'd say.

[Blind Lemon]

I was in the Tou Hoku area during the earthquake and tsunami - cash was essential. That was a few years ago now and everybody in the lines at the supermarkets etc. had cash. Cards and ATMs are nice when they work ... we always keep something aside for such emergencies.

[Ryuuku]

I don't want to get into the pro's and con's of cash/cashless, I'll just put forward how I deal with money;
Keep a fair amount in cash on my person for emergencies.
Have 3 bank accounts- one for my main income, which I also use for monthly direct debit transactions to cover living expenses.
Another bank account for the money I get from my second job which I consider my お小遣い. Both of these accounts are unable to be used to pay for things online (small countryside bank. Really should switch, to be honest.)
The 3rd account is a kind of credit card/debit card system where I can use it to pay for things online (Amazon, cinema tickets, etc.) but then I pay the final lump sum of that month at the beginning of the next month (So, I would be paying Augusts' expenses this week). That 3rd account also has a convenient expense tracking app, so it helps me keep on top of things. As I've been into the habit of saving my money since I started work at 13, I have no problems in regards to over spending, though Amazon does make it incredibly tempting sometimes.

However, in saying that this is how I've done things so far, I really want to shift everything (other than my お小遣い account) to a card where I can build up points, such as Rakuten. Phone, amazon, rent, stocks, iDeCo, NISA, etc. would rack up a heck of a lot of points over the years I expect. There's so much money I'm missing out on by not doing that.

[Stewart]

With the recent encouragement to go cashless, with the increase in the consumption tax, I decided to try an experiment and see how much I could use credit cards and other cards (basically Suica for small purchases). I've been very surprised and I think I was still thinking like 20 years ago when I first came to Japan. All my food shopping and gas goes on the cards and the only regular cash I need is the 400 yen coins for the local govt gym I go to. Points mean ANA airmiles for me and they seem quite easy to use.

[Roger101]

interesting thread, My 2c worth
I prefer to be free to use both cash and cashless!
I have an Apple watch and using suica on it is awesome. I am the kind of person that never has problems with over spending on credit cards etc.
Yes, hard to ignore the benefits of cards and cashless
.... but would always like to have the freedom to use cash when I want to

[captainspoke]

Out walking the dog this morning I literally found two ¥500 coins on the road, maybe 10cm apart. A card would've been useless.

Keep that cash flowing folks!

[RetireJapan]

I've heard speculation that the government wants to phase out 1 yen coins now that we have a 10% tax rate. Can't see many arguments for keeping them myself...

[Ryuuku]

When I lived in the UK I paid for almost everything by debit card.
Going to the pub, I'd take out a £20 from the cash machine and limit myself to that (paying for each drink by card? You obviously have never worked behind a bar.)
But yeah, I liked paying for everything by card because it was safer for me- not worrying about what would happen if I got mugged or whatever- but also it was much easier for me to track my spending to see exactly how much I had, instead of thinking "Okay, so I've got 10 in that coat, a fiver in my work jeans, 30 in my wallet, another 20 in my drawer at home" etc.
Now, living in Japan, being cashless has been near impossible, especially out here in the countryside. But I'm looking forward to cashless payments at least becoming more of an option now. Wanting to go back to (almost) cashless, but this time I think I'm gonna put everything on a credit card that I have to pay off each month, looking at Rakuten, mainly. Looking to put everything on that card and rack up points along from my usual expenses. May as well make a little bit of money back in the meantime, right?
I've never had an issue with overspending, I'm guessing that comes from getting a saver's mindset from a young age, as opposed to a consumer mindset, so I'm not worried about the "You spend more if you have a credit card" fear, at all.

tldr; Gonna go cashless for better online financial tracking, take advantage of cashless cashback campaign and side-benefit of racking up points along with regular expenses and purchases.

[ricardo]

Now in bars in the UK it’s easy to pay with a contactless debit card. Faster than cash and easier for everyone - including the bar staff.