Cash - am I out of touch?

Both my daughters sell goods at craft fayres/Sci fi conventions. They use zettle and sum up to take card payment through their mobile phones, even for less than a pound. They take cash but most customers pay with a card or their phones, regardless of their age.

Most people do not give a shit about vulnerable people. Peoples reaction to keeping cash shows this. If you care about vulnerable people, you fight to keep cash.

It’s great that incidences of armed robbery will reduce/have reduced for obvious reasons. Although other types of crime (cyber) have obviously increased in recent years, and cause real distress, at least they don’t involve a knife in the chest.

But I can see how a cashless society would cause people on tight budgets to suffer, along with vulnerable adults who struggle to open bank accounts. I think it’s important for neurotypical, comfortably-off people to use cash every so often to show that there’s still an appetite for it.

BUT- it still makes me annoyed that so many places are cash free now because it removes access to vulnerable people- elderly people or people without bank accounts for example. It can also be easier for people with learning disabilities or brain injuries to budget using cash they can see rather than a card where they have to remember.

As well as welfare rights, my job involves helping people manage their money. This is so true, and also applies to a fair few people with MH issues.

With cash, they can draw out what they can afford to spend that week/fortnight/month and actually see how much they have left whenever they spend some. Some people don't have the ability to think to themselves "I've got X pounds in direct debits coming out in the next 2 weeks, and I spent £9.50 on my card which hasn't come out yet, so I can only afford to spend Y" and then add up the cost of their shopping as they go round the supermarket to make sure they don't overspend.

Cash is also better for those with MH conditions that give them poor impulse control, they can't spend more than they have in their pocket or purse when it's cash. And then there are those who won't use online banking or pay by card, because they don't want the state to know what they're doing with their money...

If a business is card only they can't just "take cash" if a customer demands it.
At the very least there isn't a drawer full of change to give back to the customer, so I'm pretty sure the pub wasn't refusing to give out change more that they didn't have any!!
I used to work in a cashless business, occasionally we'd be stuck as a customer only had cash, more than once staff had to use their own card to pay for food then take cash from the customer if it was the correct amount or they could scrabble some change together from their purse, bag or other staff.
Businesses can't simply take cash if a customer demands it.
However it should be clear that card only places are card only.
( Where I worked it was clear and stated many times as it was pre book only but there's always one!)

This.

I only use cash once a fortnight to pay for my nails (she does accept bank transfers but I don’t have the app thing)- otherwise I use Apple Pay on my phone for everything… I don’t even have a debit card.

BUT- it still makes me annoyed that so many places are cash free now because it removes access to vulnerable people- elderly people or people without bank accounts for example. It can also be easier for people with learning disabilities or brain injuries to budget using cash they can see rather than a card where they have to remember.

I use cash occasionally but mainly use credit cards to pay for things, I never use my debit card from my main bank account as that is a bit foolish because of fraud, it's quite easy to manage if a credit card gets used fraudulently as you just use another one and wait for it to be sorted out but a bank account being frozen can be problematic. People that only have a one basic bank account are probably sensible using cash, credit cards are unfortunately not available to everyone.

Over the past month or so I have seen a few posts on Facebook from businesses saying 'Cash is King'.
Although they do accept card they would prefer people paid with cash.

Yorkshire

@NoisySnail Where are you?

@Howblueisthesky I see more places where I live taking cash only. Generally interesting independents.

@Simonjt I’d hate that

It’s the other way round where I am.
Recently went to a cafe/restaurant with my sister and she was gobsmacked that the didn’t take card, only cash…she just never uses cash

And small companies

Big companies want cash abolished as it will benefit them.

Time will tell.

So what you're saying is we need to keep our money under the bed?

I can live without going in either if those places

A good way of bullying people to go cashless is to accuse them of being criminals if they only want to deal in cash.

@Simonjt that is extraordinarly low. The national average is 17%.

I'm a cash person. I really don't want to see a cashless society. Plus, I think it helps to manage your money better if you physically have it in your hand, rather than the constant card tapping.
I have noticed pubs often come at you with the card reader without asking if you're paying card. But I've never been told, we don't give change! (Yet, anyway!) I think if I would underpay them rather than overpay them if they did this. So if the bill was £93 and they wouldn't give change, I'd just give them £90 rather than £100. Who do they think they are, thinking they can just keep people's money like that!- outrageous! We need to stand up to this sort of nonsense!

Where I live is largely cashless, around 2% of transactions involve cash, and the majority of those are at the airport. Its great never needing cash.

Yes 😀. But if "nobody" uses cash it's pointless as nobody will accept it. However, most shops do accept cash!

Although if people keep using other forms of payment in the end cash might become obsolete. So if you want to be able to use your emergency tenner in an emergency it's best to also use cash in non- emergencies as well ( at least occasionally)!

Wait for all these card users start moaning when we go completely cashless people have no idea what will happen.

For emergencies?.