Reminders on my phone are a funny thing. I didn’t have time to write my blog in the morning yesterday, so I set a reminder for 2:30 in the afternoon. I had a separate alarm set to work on a campout this weekend at 2:00. At 2:00 I didn’t have a chance to work on the campout, so I snoozed the alarm.

At 2:30, the priority alarm was the campout because it was from earlier, consequently the blog alarm never went off. Last night about 11: 30 when I was headed to bed I noticed an alarm icon at the top of my phone and thought that was weird. It was the missed alarm for my blog. I was too tired to stop and write, so here we are this morning.

One question from my website’s suggested blog ideas had an interesting question that I had thought about previously, and then yesterday quite a lot (thinking I would write on it at 2:30!). The question was, what is one thing that you wish could be un-invented?

Digital Currency and Credit Cards

They are separate, but also very much linked. I have actually thought about this quite a bit over the years. Both make doing business easier in some ways, but both come with costs associated.

1. There is always a fee for using digital currency or credit cards. Often we think that the business absorbs that cost, but they don’t. If you aren’t getting an extra fee for using a credit card, then the business has figured that fee into the cost of the product and even if you pay with cash, you’re compensating them for the fee anyway.
2. Probably mostly personal preference, but cash, even a check, is a physical representation of something. Digital currency is just numbers on a computer screen. We trust our banks to be honest and not remove money or change things, but, if there’s not even a branch near you, or even a brick and mortar bank, how do you actually access that money if want a lot of it in cash form?
3. If you have a lot of money in your bank account, you can’t even access the full amount. They could digitally transfer the money somewhere for you, but they can’t actually give you your balance in cash. That is very disturbing to me.
4. Many banks have max amounts you can withdraw in cash now. You could spend it all digitally, but you can only have a certain amount in cash on any given day. If it’s my money, and I can spend it all through credit and debit cards, shouldn’t I be able to also spend it all in cash if I prefer.

I go through spurts where all I will spend is cash, but I do have credit cards and I do use them because they are convenient. So, while they annoy me, and a cashless society makes me worried, convenience does play a huge roll in what form of money I use. What do you wish was never invented?