‘No need’: Cashless reality even tradies can’t avoid

There’s a new cash reality taking over Australia and it exposes just how much things have changed.

Cashed-up tradies might be a thing of the past as fewer Aussies are carrying and withdrawing cold hard cash.

Tradie Graham Tomkinson, 23, actually laughed at the idea of it being common for people to pay with cash.

“Nah no one pays with cash now,” he told news.com.au.

Mr Tomkinson, who is based in Western Australia, said cash just isn’t normal anymore, and it isn’t even something he uses outside of work.

“Nope, I never carry cash. I’m not rich enough,” he said.

Mr Tomkinson said that when he was a kid, he used to carry pocket money around, but that habit has not followed him into adult life.

“I never carry cash now,” he admitted.

Graham Tomkinson doesn’t carry cash. Picture: Supplied

He laughed at the idea of cash being common. Picture: Supplied

Mr Tomkinson does have a wallet, but it is just used to store his Medicare card and receipts for tools that he wants to claim back.

“I don’t carry my wallet with me. I keep it in the car. I guess I wouldn’t care if someone stole it. I just wouldn’t have the receipts anymore and would have to reapply for a Medicare card,” he said.

Similarly, mechanic Harrison Lockyer, 20, said there’s simply “no need for cash at work”, anymore.

“Most places have EFTPOS these days,” he said.

The 20-year-old said the only reasons he uses cash is to buy car parts and to avoid getting “stuck if EFTPOS is down”.

Harrison said there’s no need for cash at work. Picture: Supplied

Sydney-based builder Steven Sousamlis runs his own bathroom renovation business and doesn’t wander around with cash to burn.

“I don’t carry cash myself. With so many places only accepting EFTPOS these days, I don’t really see the point in having cash on hand,” he said.

Mr Sousamlis said that he doesn’t think cash is “completely dead” but it is definitely on life support.

“It is definitely heading in that direction. Have you tried withdrawing cash from a bank recently? It feels almost like you’re being interrogated,” he said.

“Plus, with so many ATMs being removed, getting cash is becoming increasingly inconvenient.”

Steven said withdrawing cash now isn't a nice experience. Picture: Supplied

Phil Cooksey, a general manager at Apprentices Are Us LTD, a company that helps young people become tradies, was on the tools from 2002 to 2018.

Back then, cash was definitely king.

“Most people paid cash and used it as a way of getting work done cheaper,” he told news.com.au.

Mr Cooksey said that at the time, he handled cash every day, and he mostly used cash himself.

“I was mostly paid cash and I would rarely go to the bank to deposit,” he explained.

The way we use cash has changed so much. Picture: iStock

The fact that cash culture is disappearing is a sore point for Mr Cooksey who reckons it is changing the value of money.

“$50 isn’t $50 anymore; the bank takes a percentage every time you pay with a card. Before a $50 was passed around to make purchases and was always a $50 note,” he said.

“Now, a $50 transaction has a bank payment, and then the person I paid buys something else; the bank charges them, and so on.”

Even ATMS are becoming less common. Picture: iStock

Mr Cooksey said it doesn’t really impact the industry but there’s certainly a new normal now.

“Most tradies are taking more card and account work than anything,” he said.

Graham Cooke, head of consumer research at Finder previously told news.com.au that “cash is dead”.

“A society where you can conduct 95 per cent of your transactions without cash, or even a wallet, especially if you’re young, is as close to a cashless society as matters,” he said.

ATM usage has declined rapidly since 2008 and Finder revealed that if the downward trend continues we could see ATMs disappear by about 2030.

You have to be born between 1997 and 2013 to be considered part of Generation Z, and 2008 was when the eldest of that generation were becoming fully-fledged adults.

The number of ATMs across Australia has halved since 2017.

There were 13,814 ATMs in Australia in 2017 and by 2022 there was just over 6000. It is getting harder and harder to secure cash easily.

Originally published as ‘No need’: Cashless reality even tradies can’t avoid