Does Anyone Carry Cash Anymore?

Does anybody actually carry cash anymore? I certainly don’t. And that’s never really a problem until you need to settle up with a friend, who say, wanted to put brunch on their credit card for rewards points purposes, or something like that. I’ve used various online payment services in the past, but it’s not a very quick transfer, sometimes taking a few days for someone to receive their money. I’m always on the hunt for new apps that make things easier and more convenient and Square Cash has found a permanent place on my iPhone.

I put the app to the test when I was on the road for three weeks a little over a month ago. I roll with a few guys and we actually cook our own food in our room every night. It’s cheap and we eat very healthy. However, this requires a cash transaction every day as we have to pay the dude who went to the supermarket. Square Cash totally transformed that experience.

Instead of having to carry around a huge stack of one dollar bills, I just connected my bank account, imported my contacts – you can be selective – and invited them to the app. (An added incentive is you’ll receive $5 when an invitee accepts and then makes a transaction.) You can either send or request money from someone extremely easily. The interface is simple and easy to use. You can also decline a request – my buddy Chris of Whiskey Room fame got in the habit of requesting $5-10K from me every day… Jerk.

There’s no transaction fee – unless you’re a business, then you’ll pay 1.9% – and the money ends up in your bank account very quickly. We found that there was a slight difference in time it took depending on the financial institution of the person you had the transaction with. If you shared the same bank, it seemed to go quicker, while it took maybe an hour or so longer if the other person used a different bank.

I’m definitely a Square Cash fan. Here are the Top 4 ways the app has made my life easier:

Splitting a check. If someone wants to put a bill on their card because they get rewards points, Square Cash is a great way to instantly settle up with the paying party.

Paying for gas. Perfect for road trips. Forget about trying to estimate gas for an entire trip or waiting until the end and tallying up all your gas receipts. Instantly settle up each tank down to the penny.

Groceries. On the road, we cook in the room with three guys. One gets the groceries, one does the cooking and one does the dishes. Before Square Cash we used to round cost up or down because we were dealing with paper money, but now we can settle up every day and not ever have to keep a running tally.

Random bets. $20 says you won’t eat that rotten banana…

Let us know in the comments: Have you tried Square Cash?

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Stylishly Yours,

Brian Sacawa
He Spoke Style

Disclosure: Compensation for this post was provided by Square Cash. The opinions expressed herein are mine alone and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Square Cash.