Time to go Plastic.

We are not drivers yet. Shameful, we know. However, for a series of reasons that we won't bore you with here, we have not, thus far, got down to it. (And also because we have, in reality, mastered the art of procrastination!) Yet, we do ride in cars, of course, and we know that cars need fuel. Yeah, we get that much. Something we can't quite understand, though, is why when one goes to fill up their tank at the petrol station; they have to pay by cash. Cards are not accepted. Yeah, in 2012.

We believe cash is a highly inconvenient commodity. Of course, it's ludicrous when someone requests to pay for, say, a packet of chewing gum, by card. However, we cannot quite fathom why one cannot pay by card at a petrol station. If one can pay by cash through an automatic machine for their fuel, why can't they pay by card, as people do abroad? What if you're driving and you're running low on fuel and, for instance, you've no cash in your wallet (that normally happens to us), what do you do? (It's not a rhetorical question, really!)

However, petrol stations aren't the only place where using plastic money may be a problematic task. We've been to loads of places where they either don't take cards, or only take cards issued by a particular bank. We can't quite comprehend the reason for this - wouldn't it be more convenient for everyone if we were to use 'real' money less? Think about it - less complications for cashiers, fewer mistakes and discrepancies. And how about the shop managers who have to go to the bank, every blessed morning, to get lots of coins for the day ahead? (Albeit not their fault, these people queuing at the bank and taking others' precious time become quite an unnecessary nuisance. So much so that they now usually have a bank teller for their private use, while other people have to, well, lump it.) Ultimately, making further use of those plastic cards would only be a win-win, we say.

Moreover, not offering such a service to clients and customers might be counterproductive. Let's say we don't have much cash but we come across something we like. We go to the cashier to pay, only to be told that our card isn't accepted at the store, or that they don't accept cards altogether. We will, most probably, just leave the store and forget about the item; unless it's imperative that we buy it, of course.

It would be farcical to ask everyone to have a VISA or MasterCard because, hey, those are the only ones that are universally accepted. Some people just don't want them and the reasoning behind that is nobody's business in reality - it is, however, many people's business that they cannot purchase something merely because the shop owner has a fancy for one bank and not the other.

It happened to us the other day. We were having lunch at The Plaza and once we were done one of us went to the cash till to pay the bill. "I'm sorry, madam, we don't take that particular card. Would you have ****'s?" What, exactly, would have happened if someone else sitting at the table didn't have another card? Would we have been offered lunch on the house?