I second this anecdata. I carry an Amex (credit) and a Mastercard (debit) backup. I don't carry any cash unless I know I have an imminent need.

"Always carry enough cash to get home" - my dad.

But otherwise I'm in the same boat. Amex for everything I can possibly use it for, Visa for places that don't take Amex, Visa debit when I'm under a CC limit.

> "Always carry enough cash to get home" - my dad.

In London you can't pay for a bus with cash any more.

You can still buy the oyster card with cash however, right?

Now try catching a bus late at night after the shops close - what a silly system.

Finding an operating cashpoint late at night isn't especially easy either (and the reason most are shut down is that operational ones tend to attract muggings). It's a pretty practical system IME; having a payment method on you is no harder than having cash; indeed in this age of phone payment it's easier.

I never came across a cashpoint in Britain that was closed at night. Is this a recent change?

> You can still buy the oyster card with cash however, right?

You don't need to buy an Oyster card as contactless bank cards work on Oyster systems as well.

> Now try catching a bus late at night after the shops close - what a silly system.

London is a 24 hour city. :P

I'm pretty sure I used my UK (debit) card, the other day, to pay for something absurdly cheap - maybe 49p? I was about as surprised that they accepted it as I am when a shop requires me to pay a huge minimum - e.g. £10 - and it's not quite as straightforward as "big shops do this, small shops, that".

The "I only have my debit card on me. What's your minimum spend" conversation used to be annoying. Thankfully that's been less of an issue since contactless as shops now often expect you to pay for small items on card.

Contactless is wonderful, especially now the receipt for smaller items is effectively being phased out; couldn't the receipt-handling just get handed over to banks, ultimately? That could be really useful...

I still use cash, probably more than the average. There are just a handful of situations - paying for a newspaper, or at my local bakery - where it feels more 'natural' to me to use cash, but I'm sure that feeling will go eventually!

>Even silly little things that only cost a couple of £.

I use a credit card to pay for a $1.25 coffee. I never have cash, partly because I forget to take some out.

Contactless is faster than making change, so it's just far too convenient to use a contactless card.

Same here, though I think a lot more recently than a few years ago because of the growing ubiquity of contactless options which are very convenient for those small payments. Is that payment option as common in those countries at this point?