Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs
I hadn't realized things had gone so far. Of course, I reached adulthood around 1970, when customs were presumably different even in Europe; my experience might not be typical even in the United States.
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The United States are, in my experience, a lot more open to cash-based transactions than the Northern European countries. And, of course, there
are places, even in the modern TL8 world, where cash
is still king. It's just that most of us don't have the skills to get to most of these places without using photo ID for travel.
And, honestly, if I was GM-ing, I'd still require Streetwise or other skills useful in similar conditions for a lot of the day-to-day challenges of being a person without identification or legal residence permits in a foreign country,
even if that was a country where you could use cash for almost everything. Quite simply, Streetwise is not confined to those who are criminals by choice, it's a basic life skill for anyone who is trying to live in urban areas, but remain outside of mainstream society and avoid official notice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs
As much as anything else, this is an expenditure control strategy. If I take cash out of my wallet, I feel the outlay emotionally. Putting something on my debit card feels less real; there's not the psychic barrier of, "No, I don't have enough money for that." Takiing out a certain amount each week is a way of defining a "petty cash" amount that I'm prepared to spend without advance planning and without first checking my bank balance.
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It makes sense. I've even done it myself, but I can't keep it up, precisely because the hassle of trying to obtain cash from ATMs is too much bother for me. Since everything is done by card anyway, why bother to look for ATMs every time the small supply they give you each time runs out, not to mention keeping track of bills and
coins (ugh!), having to wait for a teenager who rarely sees money to figure out how to count your change, etc.?
Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs
In any case, you're quite right that my habitual cash balance wouldn't last me long if I needed to pay for a place to stay with it. I might not even be able to get one; I first got a credit card after dealing with hotels that expected every guest to have one.
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Indeed. I used to use a debit card for everything as a teenager, but had to get a credit card specifically to travel in Europe, as I was simply unable to book hotel rooms without one. Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure every time I've gotten a room in the US, I've also used a credit card, even in motels. I don't have to pay with the credit card, but they need it on file, so that they can charge something if I were to cause any damage to their property.
There are skills to avoid this, but for normal people who are not rolling against any skills, any place that will rent you a room, whether by the night or for longer periods, pretty much requires that you have not only a valid form of identity papers, but also some way they can charge a credit card or otherwise claim your money for damages if you steal or ruin anything and then run away in the night.