Something I've noticed a huge amount over the last couple of years in particular - no one has any change for the homeless / those on the streets / those collecting for charity. Contactless has been a 'thing' for a while now, but it really seemed to kick up a gear when phones and watches had wallets and the buses and a decent amount of restaurants went 'card only'.
The charity people here border on harassment, have card readers, physically try to stop you or block you, and apparently none of what you donate actually goes to the charity, it's mostly paid out in commissions to rent seekers.
Are you talking about the charity people with clipboards in SF? They're seriously the most aggressive people I've ever seen. I'm surprised they have card readers now. I think they used to just write your credit card details on a piece of paper.
I'm try to respectfully decline them, but if they try to passive aggressively guilt me, I teeter on the cusp of countering by attacking back and trying to crack their self esteem.
I haven't done it yet and wouldn't be proud of myself, but it would feel good.
I've seen the ones here do shit like yelling these animals are starving and abused while you go home to your luxury apartment, keep on ignoring their cries-esque stuff
The most amazing thing I saw when walking around London was a busker near a tube station who had one of those Square-branded contactless card readers to accept donations.
Having been almost 100% cashless for the last decade it's only a matter of time before homeless people use contactless payments as an attempt to defeat my excuses.
