Quote from: AlcoHoDL on Today at 06:05:15 AM

Quote from: JimboToronto on May 10, 2025, 04:49:59 PM

Quote from: AlcoHoDL on May 10, 2025, 08:51:38 AM

Denying bank services completely is an extreme choice that will most certainly make one's life difficult. Having a bank account and a debit/credit card makes perfect sense for small amounts of fiat. Salaries don't get paid in Bitcoin, and 99% of shops don't accept Bitcoin. And, no, I don't much care about some database keeping logs of my supermarket purchases. Living Bitcoin-only is still impractical, unfortunately.

When in Rome, do as Romans do. But do it smartly.

It's indeed somewhat inconvenient to avoid banks completely. For years I didn't need a credit card because I didn't use air travel (railroads are anonymous and accept cash) and stayed mostly in Canada where there's no restriction on how much cash I can carry. If a merchant wouldn't accept cash, I'd take my business elsewhere. I got my first credit card years ago because I got a free t-shirt at the ballpark for applying. It turned out to be necessary for buying my first airline ticket in decades. I also realized it was a way to cross borders with more than $10kUSD by trickle depositing cash into my credit card until I had a large enough credit in my account to cover my foreign cash needs. Luckily very few people in Mexico use banks or have bank accounts. Cash rules.

I didn't get a bank account until much more recently when I needed one to accumulate millions of dollars to buy real estate. Now I use it for all government-reportable (tax deductible) payments and use cash for everything else. I use it for large not small amounts of fiat. I haven't received a salary or wages in almost half a century and I don't care if shops accept Bitcoin or not. As long as they accept cash, they'll get my business.

I gave up my season's Blue Jay tickets partially because they stopped accepting cash, even for beer. I used to buy my season tickets by meeting my customer service rep at the box office to take my cash. Now everybody, season ticket holders included, has to use a mobile phone to be scanned at the gates, no more anonymous tickets. The last thing I want to take to the ballpark is a telephone. The team and stadium owner just happens to be in the cellphone service business. Conflict of interest much?

Yes, bank avoidance can be a little inconvenient at times but to me it's worth it.

I don't disagree with anything you're saying, but I believe you are the exception, rather than the rule. Most of us receive salaries or pensions, and these can only be deposited to bank accounts. Also, in many countries, especially in Europe, you are not allowed to use cash when a purchase value exceeds a given amount, say, 500 €, which is really small, but they still require that it goes through the banking system. For someone in these situations to completely deny banking services serves no purpose, other than maintaining a strict anti-establishment lifestyle purely out of principle, which is OK if they can handle the downsides, but the downsides can often be very limiting, so much so, that they can make one's life more difficult that it should be.

I take a different, more pragmatic approach. I have several bank accounts, in different currencies, spread across several countries in the world. This allows me to move funds where they need to be, in order to accomplish what I want, all in the comfort of my own home, and all the while staying in the fiat world, because that's the mode of monetary transactions the world currently understands. This gives me immense power I would not have if I had simply denied banking services out of principle. I just use them as tools to accomplish what I want, with no expenses whatsoever, as these services are totally free (my money being in the bank accounts is what pays them). I remember when I was living in the UK, several banking staff had commented to me that "I'm a bad customer" because I never let my credit card unpaid so that it incurs interest. Indeed, I've never paid a single cent (penny in the UK) on credit card interest, because I always clear my balance on time. The key here is using the available tools smartly, in a way that benefits you.

It all depends on one's goals, wants, needs, and lifestyle. If you are a person that transacts exclusively physically, you could go all-cash, and it would make perfect sense. But for someone who also transacts digitally all over the world, banking services are a must. It could be done much more efficiently using Bitcoin, we all know that, but the world has not reached that stage yet. Until then, we either have to use banks out of necessity, or limit ourselves to cash and live a simpler life in a local setting. Or something in between, which is, perhaps, the best approach: cash when you can, banks when you need to.

tl;dr: a story told by a teacher when I was young. You want to meet a girl, and you know that the hot girls hang out at a specific downtown club where there is strict dress code. You hate dressing up. You have two choices: 1. refuse to dress smartly out of principle, stay out of the club and limit your access to hot girls; 2. dress up, get into the club, and meet the girl of your dreams. Bonus: in the club, many girls also hate dressing up, but they're smart and they know that that's how the dating game is played. When you meet, you leave the club and never go there again. The choice is yours.

I agree with almost everything you said, my friends.

And in my opinion, using multiple financial channels to carry out daily transactions and even investments and business can be a very good solution.

We can create one or more accounts and put very small amounts of money in them, and use a bank card or banking services for times when we need to, so that we can both maintain our financial security regarding the rest of our money and capital and meet our temporary and small needs.