No more pennies

[kissmybASS01]

Next month, Canada is set to eliminate the penny from our legal tender. We can still empty our penny banks and use them to purchase stuff (up to 25 cents I believe), but they will no longer be given out as change.

All transactions are going to be rounded up or down to the .05 increment.

"The 2012 federal budget states: "The government expects that businesses will apply rounding for cash transactions in a fair and transparent manner."

The rounding will not be done on single items but on the total bill of sale. If the price ends in a one, two, six, or seven it gets rounded down to 0 or 5; and rounded up if it ends in three, four, eight or nine."

Cheques, credit and debit cards and electronic transactions will continue to be settled to the cent. However, all cash transactions will be now adjusted.

As of lately, I've been doing mostly cash transactions. I'm going to be one of many individuals affected by this change. Poop!

Any other places doing this yet, or are we the first?

[EagleMoon]

I think it's a good idea. No real need for pennies if they'd just figure out prices to not include them.

[iamlowsound]

Lots of other places have done this, Sweden and Australia are the two that jump right to my mind. In fact, the way of rounding that we are using is called "Swedish Rounding", as they came up with the method. IMO, we should drop the nickel as well, both have no buying power.

lowsound

[fdeck]

If Canada has had similar inflation to the US, then doing business today without pennies will be no different than doing business with pennies in 1974.

[bigboy_78]

We've had 5c as the lowest legal tender in Australia for years. It’s no big deal.

The biggest change was lollies that used to cost 2 cents went up to 2 for 5c, that’s a 25% increase per item.

Some things get rounded up, some get rounded down. One week my groceries will be $257.96, yay 1c for me. Sometimes it comes to $197.63 and I lose 2c.

[TolerancEJ]

Yes, but you know some shops are gonna automatically round up every time.

[bigboy_78]

Well most people here pay with cards because the banks charge $2-$4 to dispense cash from an ATM. That is the real scam.

Not pressing new 1 & 2c coins each year saves the Govt heaps. We don’t have $1 or $2 notes anymore either (coins instead), apparently saves the Govt a fortune in printing costs.

Strippers love $5 minimum as well.

[colcifer]

Originally Posted by bigboy_78

Strippers love $5 minimum as well.

lol

[droo46]

These:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5UT04p5f7U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77C47XYm_3c

[oniman7]

Make sure to hold on to as many pennies as you can get between now and then... they'll be worth something.

Some people in the US are stockpiling them because you can get something like 1.8 cents worth of metal for every penny if you melt it down, but that's illegal until such time as they're no longer legal tender.

[iamlowsound]

They will be legal tender indefinitely in Canada, they just wont make them anymore and they will take them out of circulation. The same thing they did with the one and two dollar bills, still legal tender, just can't find them.

lowsound

[oniman7]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

They will be legal tender indefinitely in Canada, they just wont make them anymore and they will take them out of circulation. The same thing they did with the one and two dollar bills, still legal tender, just can't find them.

lowsound

Oops, that's what I meant. But anything that's currently being printed by the press can't be melted down for metals.

[Indiana Mike]

All I can think of is ...

Office Space



Hmmmm

[mellowinman]

We were going to do that here in the U.S.

With dollar bills.

[Ziltoid]

I'm a plastic user, doesn't change much for me. The few situation I use cash is when I tip (pubs, coffees, etc.) so even then it doesn't change anything.

[dls59]

I read once that it cost the U.S. Mint two cents to make each penny.

[Riverhead]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

They will be legal tender indefinitely in Canada, they just wont make them anymore and they will take them out of circulation. The same thing they did with the one and two dollar bills, still legal tender, just can't find them.

lowsound

Exactly. Australia hasn't used Pound Notes, Shillings, Pence, etc. since 1965, but they're still legal tender. I doubt that anyone would accept them now in the normal scheme of things, but that's not the point.

[ruiomichlet]

we should drop the nickel as well, both have no buying power.

[MuinXing]

I donno I hate using cards, it costs to much money, and I can't budget as well when I can't see it. Nor do most homo sapiens.

Also I'm pretty sure these new plastic bills are just a way to keep people from using cash.

money is becoming more and more abstract, and that's find if your a CPA, but for the average person this means less and less control over your own personal finances.

[giacomini]

I use plastic mostly, but I could see a use for eliminating pennies down here in Brazil. It's been a while since I had .01c in my hands.

We already stopped making 1 Real bills, now they come only in coins.