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Original poster

Can a business refuse to take cash? Is it legal?

134 replies

AudTheDeepMinded · 20/11/2021 15:25

DH is NOT happy. Our local pool will not accept cash and will only take card payment. He is very much cash over card, whereas I am card over cash. Since the Pandemic this is far more of a problem for him as he regularly forgets to take a debit card with him. I think today has demonstrated why he should have both on him! But, can a business actually refuse cold hard cash?

OP posts:
pastypirate · 21/11/2021 15:41

[quote AudTheDeepMinded]@pastypirate you win! the pandemic has certainly crystallised the batshit among us.[/quote]
Hasn't it just!

Mushypeasandchipstogo · 21/11/2021 17:56

I work with young adults with various learning disabilities and I must say that they are far more adept at using Apple Pay than I am, they prefer to use their phones rather than use cash.

UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme · 21/11/2021 18:03

Mushypeasandchipstogo that's great, but lots of people with learning disabilities can't cope with the abstract nature of money they can't physically see. Also lots aren't young and can't cope with a smartphone, or lise their phone constantly (losing £20 is obviously more manageable than losing a phone). Also Apple is incredibly expensive - we keep running up against this problem - all the assisted technology seems to be for Apple, but none of the people who need it can afford it especially as they lose or break their hand held technology a lot

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General money
lynxca16 · 21/11/2021 18:06

Wow - he was 'on one'
Red flag there - only my opinion

Iflyaway · 21/11/2021 19:27

I live in a country that only accepts bank cards due to Covid.

A grown man not remembering his sounds like a child...

Mushypeasandchipstogo · 21/11/2021 19:28

@UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme I take your point but please could people be aware that many can and find it a lot easier to deal with than cash.
Surely a good carer would help clients get used to coping in everyday life by helping them get used to pay their way by card or phone?

UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme · 21/11/2021 19:34

Mushypeasandchipstogo it's not something everyone can do. A good carer (although that's not technically what I am) teaches an individual to reach their potential whilst recognising and accepting the individual's reality. Some people cannot ever learn to walk no matter how incredible their medical team and family and carers and how much effort they put in themselves, and the same goes for learning disabilities. It isn't always a matter of trying harder, as you presumably know.

Badbadbunny · 21/11/2021 19:48

@dottiedodah

Look whether anyone on here likes it or not.Cash is on the way out! A couple I spoke to at the bank said they "hate " computers and will continue with paper transactions /cash and so on .I think they are making life hard for themselves .They were older but not "old" as such . A friend /the bank /DC could help them ,but they were not interested .Its not the 60s /70s any more is it!
They'll certainly have difficulties in a decade or two when everything is electronic and they'll be too old to learn how to use apps/computers etc. That's already happening today with people now in their 60's/70's struggling because they're too old to change their ways, but cards have been mainstream since the 80s and online banking since the noughties - they could have embraced it 20 years ago when still of working age and perfectly capable of learning new stuff, but they wanted to be luddites and now paying the price.
Original poster
AudTheDeepMinded · 21/11/2021 19:56

@lynxca16

Wow - he was 'on one' Red flag there - only my opinion
I think we all have the odd irrational moments with a bit of irritability. It's hardly worthy of a red flag. Trust me, this is the guy who got out of bed super early yesterday at very short notice to drive to the local hospital and drop off a bag with medication in to a friend's partner who was in the children's ward overnight with a young DS. He's the guy who took home one of his employees recently when she was taken ill at work. The guy who cleaned out a sick bowl last week when I had a bug.
OP posts:
LuluBlakey1 · 21/11/2021 20:00

We have a local bakery that won't accept anything but cash- for Covid hygiene reasons (which I am baffled by). You put your cash on a small tray )on the counter top. The assistant puts on rubber gloves and handles all cash wearing them and puts your change back in the tray. They used to do card transactions!

Original poster
AudTheDeepMinded · 21/11/2021 20:03

@LuluBlakey1

We have a local bakery that won't accept anything but cash- for Covid hygiene reasons (which I am baffled by). You put your cash on a small tray )on the counter top. The assistant puts on rubber gloves and handles all cash wearing them and puts your change back in the tray. They used to do card transactions!
We holidayed on Scilly last year and one place had an icecream tub full of disinfectant for the cash to be put in. Felt like we had entered Eyam or something!
OP posts:
LuluBlakey1 · 21/11/2021 20:13

@AudTheDeepMinded 😁

Harlequin1088 · 21/11/2021 20:13

I'm a small business owner and do pop-up stalls quite regularly. We only take card now, I don't accept cash any more. Partly because it's an absolute faff to bank it as they closed all the local bank branches in my small town and partly because of the 'rona - I don't want to be handling people's germ-covered cash really!

Intercity225 · 21/11/2021 20:29

Surely a good carer would help clients get used to coping in everyday life by helping them get used to pay their way by card or phone?

No carer can improve their cognitive function, for example working memory, so they can remember the PIN number!

Intercity225 · 21/11/2021 20:32

A grown man not remembering his sounds like a child...

It sounds like you don't have any conception of what ADHD is like? DH (or DD) regularly spends 3 days looking for say their keys or wallet or phone, because they can't remember what they did with them!

tectonicplates · 21/11/2021 20:53

I don't see why the two can't coexist. Surely most shops could encourage people to pay by card as much as possible, but also accept cash from people who can't?

And I pay by card for most stuff, but I still pay by cash if I'm buying something like a bar of chocolate from a corner shop. I'd feel a bit ridiculous using my card to pay 60p.

Precipice · 21/11/2021 21:36

A cashless society is not an inevitability and proponents of cash use should not have to just shut up and go with the flow. Using cash (where possible) demonstrates a still existing desire or need for cash payments, which in a small way encourages it to stay around. Very little change is inevitable; it is done by choice en masse.

I'm not sure where the calling of OP's husband a jerk and so on comes from. Unless I've scrolled past one update, it sounds like his crime was only to pay in cash and to express surprise and dismay that this was not possible, then to complain to OP about this situation. All this is normal behaviour, not a red flag. Him keeping a bank card at home is odd, but again not wrongdoing. There's no reason to believe OP's DH went into a rage at the pool's receptionist or otherwise behaved inappropriately.

sashh · 22/11/2021 04:42

@UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme

SequinnedShawl that requires extea good will and liquidity on the part of all her carers and helpers. Not every minimum wage carer or teen after school helpwr has enough money in their account at all times to absorb doing someone else's shopping before the cash has gone into their account.

On top of which a paid carwr might be doing the shopping for five or ten or fifteen clients a week. Expecting them to pay on their own card and put cash into their account next time they can get to a bank on their own time is unreasonable and impractical.

But it might be reasonable for the agency to give a corporate card to carers, many businesses have given cards to employees for years.
Exhausteddog · 22/11/2021 07:23

It is common for a lot of places not to take cash these days but it is still legal tender (and not uncommon) A sports club near us has been told they must only take card. The card reader kept losing signal or not working quickly so they really struggled when it was busy and kids who were used to buying their own drinks and snacks from the bar could no longer do that without a parent. The staff say they would prefer to take both.

On another thread a person is complaining that her cleaner requested cash payment and a whole load of posters saying how it was difficult, bordering on impossible it was for them to get/use cash. Its not as if she was asking to be paid in a foreign currency!Confused

kitcat15 · 22/11/2021 07:47

@AudTheDeepMinded

He came back and we had a chat. He pointed out that not everyone has a bank account, or can use a card, which is a very fair point. It is a council facility for local people so that in that sense it could be seen as discriminatory if not all of them can access it.

I did point out that he does however have a bank card. Think it has been grudgingly acknowledged that having it in his actual wallet might be a plan!

I would think the vast majority of people have a bank card these days... pensions now have to be paid into bank account ( not a post office account), benefits all have to be paid into a bank account, ....maybe some homeless people don't have a bank card.
AlternativePerspective · 22/11/2021 07:50

Tradesmen sometimes prefer cash because they are charged per transaction and some people fraudulently reverse the charges. erm, I think it’s actually fair to say that most tradesmen ask for cash because they then don’t declare it and don’t pay tax on it.

At least we know that companies who don’t take cash aren’t fiddling their taxes by failing to declare most of it.

I don’t carry cash. Well actually I have a fiver in my wallet that’s been there for months now. But for the most part I use Apple Pay on my watch, saves even having to get my phone out.

Recently I had to get a cab back from the station and I specifically queried whether he took cards when I got in, and he said yes. When we got home he then said that he only took cash, and when I pointed out that I didn’t have any he said “well then we have a problem don’t we?” To which I replied, “yes, we do.” He then went on to ask do I not keep cash in the house, which I don’t, but set alarm bells ringing, how the hell do I know he wasn’t casing the place to advise someone that there’s someone vulnerable (I don’t consider myself vulnerable but by society’s definition I am,) who keeps cash in the house?

He ended up having to give me the journey for free. Entirely his fault. If he’d said from the outset he didn’t take cards I would have waited for another cab.

TabbyM · 22/11/2021 12:24

Lots of places in Sweden and cashless and even school events pay by apps etc.

My Dad likes to pick fights with people who won't accept Scottish notes and blame them for Scottish nationalism (Derbyshire bookshop - most places I have been to like Newcastle and York no problem)

Annoyance · 22/11/2021 13:31

There's a guy on YouTube who goes around shops and petrol stations trying to pay with obscure commemorative coins which are technically legal, but in reality most people would never have seen before.

He recently won £5,000 in compensation from the police on the grounds of wrongful arrest for not paying metro.co.uk/2021/10/26/driver-arrested-for-buying-fuel-with-100-coin-wins-5000-damages-15486151/

He is also a prick. His videos involve causing stress for minimum wage workers for his own amusement. He thinks he's soooo clever but I bet he has no friends.

user1497207191 · 22/11/2021 13:40

@AlternativePerspective

At least we know that companies who don’t take cash aren’t fiddling their taxes by failing to declare most of it.

We don't know that at all. Just as lots of traders will "forget" to declare some/all of their cash takings, so lots of traders will also either "forget" or divert their BACS/card sales payments too. I've seen plenty of business book-keeping where BACs/Card sales income either hasn't been included or has been put down as something else, such as proprietors introductions or loans, either deliberately or accidentally. HMRC don't routinely look at bank statements so would never know if a trader simply "missed" a BACs/Card payment from their books unless they specifically opened a formal enquiry to check the bank statements (which is Very rare indeed). I've been involved in some tax enquiries over the years where a trader has deliberately kept two sets of "books", with different bank accounts, different suppliers, etc., to basically "halve" their business, one half declared, the other half not - if someone will go to that extent, simply paying by card is no guarantee at all that it'll be declared.

countingto10 · 22/11/2021 14:28

I went into a national coffee chain a few weeks ago, we offered cash, it was taken and change given. It was then I noticed a sign saying card payments only and then realised our transaction wasn’t rung up 🤔

Then I watched as some builders came in and paid in cash, again the transaction wasn’t rung up……..