Sainsburys checkout lady said that “lots of people are switching back to cash just now”

[Harpings]

I know it’s just one checkout person. But is this something others have noticed/ are doing? Just wondering if so and why it would be ?

I had a bad experience lately because the app had updated and I couldn’t figure out how to transfer to my bank account so I ended up drawing from my bank account to Paypal basically the opposite of what I was trying to achieve . so u get charged plus I didn’t want this transaction but no redress no chat that I could put a halt and all because it was an update on the layout and a new middle person handling transfers that they want you to use so they were pushing that direction . I don’t like how tech constantly updates and changes the format and pushes you in a certain direction and there is no way of explaining the grey area. It’s rather like surveys where u only get two options its less diverse and doesn’t accurately convey a situation. See the non edit on here that means people have to post after inserting correct word but imagine with money! I do not want everything to rely on tech because u have no control when they decide to change the layout format policies etc your just funneled through a narrow system and become very tiny insignificant and when computer says no what then ?

Fortunately I don't think there's anywhere at all in the little town I live in now where they've ever done this "order by QR code" thing. The thing that strikes me is not so much that some people are trying to "assume" (ie force) others into having smartphones - but the assumption that everyone could use one if they chose to. Errr...no....not so. I can certainly afford a smartphone personally - and did try buying one - but I just can't use them and had to get rid of it. I'm perfectly intelligent and definitely no sign of Alzheimers or the like - but I just can't use them - because I don't have a "technological" type mind. Some of us just don't have the mindset to use them and we are literally unable to do so. I don't understand it myself - because I'm provably intelligent - but that's just not how my mind (or some other peoples minds) work. Maybe one needs a mind that can do "narrowing down and focusing on details" type mind to operate much technology (including smartphones). Well I know my own mind (and presumably some other peoples minds) are what I call "spiderweb" minds/"umbrella" minds and we see the bigger picture more than many other people do and can mentally join up lots of facts together and figure out the conclusion - but what we can't do with the type of mind we have is "focus down on details" and hence smartphones are literally impossible for us to operate.

How is that daft? It's true as banks chsrge transaction processing fees for every card payment

Yes, I know there are fees for card payments, who doesn't? My point, and I'm not the only pp on this thread to make it, is that the Facebook thing is simplistic nonsense about how businesses treat cash. When you bank cash, you get charged for doing that on a business bank account. It's neither convenient nor secure to keep cash as a business, especially not large amounts. It's not good practice either. You may need a safe. You need to be adequately insured. You need to travel to a bank branch to bank cash. It's far more open to human error and theft. Paying by card is more convenient in many situations. Contactless payments increased hugely during COVID lockdowns because of the rules we were all operating under and the rapid increase in online ordering for many things, especially small, local businesses who worked hard to keep and encourage new custom.

The fees in the FB post are wildly exaggerated. It shouldn't cost anywhere near that, especially with the new breed of payment terminals like iZettle and Sum up.

These cost a reasonably token amount for the terminal and a fixed, lowish percentage for both credit and debit cards. It saves the businesses having to handle cash, which does have it's advantages (hygiene in food businesses, cash is filthy, no risk of robbery, saving time banking cash etc) so you can see why many businesses choose to not to accept cash, although they do need a back up plan in case the system fails - cash or bank transfer.

But I do agree that cash still needs to be an option for inclusivity, but in most cases, card is probably the preferable default for the customer and often the business owner too.

Yes, I know contactless card payments increased during covid, who doesn't?

Could you be any more patronising 🙄

Sad that this seems to have become yet another issue that divides people. Some find it easier to budget using cards, some find it easier to budget using cash. We are all different. No rights or wrongs, just what suits us as individuals.

I am firmly in the using cash to help me budget and because I enjoy it and want an inclusive society camp, but I get that others don't like to use cash and prefer to use card. We need to maintain the ability to use both to suit us all I think.

Patronising @LT1982 ? You're the one who thought I needed telling that banks charge fees for card transactions 🙄. How about you employ some critical thinking? The Facebook post about £50 cash is simplistic. Bank charges for card payments are not as high as that suggests. Someone in that chain will bank the cash at some point, incurring bank charges.

There is some truth in this. Governments can demand that your bank reveals transactions on your account (tax fraud mainly). Also your bank knows what you spend money on if you use a card etc which allows them to target you for advartising (loyalty cards are used by retailers for the same reason). There is also the social responsibility ideology that suggests your spending be tracked so that you can be told not to do things e.g. you have bought enough meat, alcohol, books this month so now you are blocked from spending on these items - this seems to be happening in China. Cash, once out of your account or if it never goes in, cannot be tracked in this way. It is also easier to budget if you see you have a certain amount of money in your purse/wallet than if you are using a contactless payment. This is a similar trend as making you pay all your bills by direct debit, which can be changed at the instigator of organisation you are paying - one can easily set up a 'direct debit' savings account into which you pay an amount for each bill each month so that the cash is there when the bill arrives. There are manifold benefits to the state and to retailers and banks in a cashless society. Those benefits are not necessarily to the advantage of the ruled.

Someone at a coffee van said this to me. His take on it was with the COL increases, people would take a set amount of cash on a day out to spend. He also said people weren’t buying the little extras, a cake or biscuit etc. their takings and those of the other food vans they spoke to were down about 20% on last year.

For small businesses earning below or around the tax threshold all the charges involved with card machines & digital transactions adds up - it's like a discount on all those purchases vs someone who pays cash. The customer gets no financial benefit, the business loses but the card company gains (they aren't 'banks', they are intermediary companies and they are making a killing, the pandemic is the best thing that could have happened for them).

From my POV I'm a very small food business (below the tax threshold) but am in a location with very bad signal & no landline so CAN'T use a card machine, hence cash only. I did advertise ppl could PayPal but I get charged, every time, & it's just not worth it for me.

It means I pay my suppliers cash-on-delivery rather than monthly invoice which is SO much better cos I'm never in debt to anyone.

For info sake - the bigger machines you see (not the dinky phone linked ones) have multiple charges to the business, not just the transaction fee. You rent the machine, you pay a contract (which you are locked into), transaction fees, the costs of the rolls (which aren't cheap).

The machine breaks, phone line goes down, powercut, banks systems have an issue & suddenly you can't take card so your losing trade as few ppl carry cash to use instead. So they go elsewhere or don't spend at all. Issues happen more often than you think.

So sure, top line as a customer is it's easy to use card/phone. Beneath that line, however, for small businesses there is a LOT going on & it isn't all nefarious 'trying to avoid tax' cos a lot of us dont take enough to pay any. But as a consumer who mostly uses cash I feel like I'm walking thru an airport scanner every time I shop, it's uncomfortable & I feel like I'm being side-eyed & judged. Have had cashiers comment about using cash & feel I have to explain myself - it's pretty horrible tbh.

One of the reasons is because some feel that the government should ask people before moving to a cashless society. If cash is no longer used, the government has larger control of people and their is less anonymity in regards to how you spend.(a theory)

I hope it's a case of if, not when, we become a cashless society; life would become restricted in ways many haven't considered, not small joys like finding a fiver (definitely agree with you there).

I can understand people using cash to make budgeting easier - although I haven't found it so. I just check my online banking and make sure I know exactly what's going out. But those social media posts about small businesses needing cash are misleading (and usually posted by people who have never tried to run a small business!) I notice several of our local small businesses only deal with card or app payments now, because the time involved in cashing up, balancing the till, and - above all - trying to find somewhere to lodge cash and get a float, make card payments much more viable for them, even allowing for charges. Not to mention how much easier it is to file tax returns, with downloads available at the click of a mouse. Anyone who doesn't understand this is failing to cost in the considerable time spent on dealing with cash, not to mention the lost sales from people who don't carry it. Our local not-for-profit shop finds that card payments are preferable, although it still handles cash. But the nearest bank is miles away, and even the post office is a car trip away.

I guess to complete the retro vibe we'll see a return to cash grabs by armed criminals then. People complain modern life is too cushy. Let's liven it up with the off chance of running into a sawn off shotgun outside a cash pickup.

The joy that someone else has lost a £20 note? That's weird.

I'm sure the person who lost it is now a lot happier that they don't need to carry cash anymore and thus no longer at risk of losing what could have been a substantial amount of money for them!

Someone at a coffee van said this to me.

Reminds me the lovely lady that occasionally goes past us only takes card. Either when you collect, or you pre-order and pay by app.

I've had to leave places that don't take cards. I've never left a place that doesn't take cash.

But I work in ecommerce currently grappling with Pay360 and skinning up online checkouts, so am probably not the best person to ask. Certainly not before the coffee this post has made me want.

I was talking to my greengrocer yesterday and she said that people using cards is very expensive for them as the fees the seller has to be pay to the card companies is high, so eats into their already diminished profits. They have never fully recovered their customer numbers since the pandemic.

I know that my views are sometimes a bit ott for mumsnet but I’m astonished at how little you all seem to be aware of CBDC, Central Banking Digital Currency. Even my mum is trying to save our cash by only using cash. If you continue merrily swiping your phone or card giving them every reason to scrap cash have you not thought about issues of privacy and control over how you access your hard earned money and spend it? Maybe you’re not concerned but do yourself a favour and at least educate yourself about something which will affect us and all future generations in myriad ways and then ask yourself ‘is this what I want?’

I find it concerning.
i think it comes under the enormous banner of conspiracy theory on here though.
Although I was surprised to hear a couple I know bring it up who would usually label a lot of things conspiracy.

Maybe you’re not concerned but do yourself a favour and at least educate yourself about something which will affect us and all future generations in myriad ways

Can you summarise @Inwiththenew ?

I'm not dismissing it but anyone I've spoken to has never been able to specifically explain why choosing to not use cash is inherently a bad thing and will lead to the governemnt controlling us.

I totally agree cash should always be an option for multiple reasons, but I don't see the need to use it.

I thought if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear ? Isn't that what we are always told whenever a new piece of snoopy legislation gets rammed through ?

Personally I will be long dead before the level of competence needed to make this effectively scary exists. If it ever does. And I say that on the day that it's been discovered that for all the money wasted on HS2, the project is unachievable.

We may be headed towards 1984. But it's clearly going to be the failed one ...

The CBDC stuff is proper tinfoil hat stuff. Links in usually with “15 minute neighbourhoods” and “5G mind control via the chip injected with the Covid 19 vaccine” that seems to ingest Facebook at the moment.

People vote with their feet. If people want to continue using cash, then businesses will continue to accept it. It's when the majority of customers use cards that the business owner takes a decision whether it's worth continuing to accept cash given the cost, hassle, etc. The fact that most customer spending, even in smaller shops, is by card is pretty telling really.

I find cards easier to budget and see what's being spent, especially with banking apps helping to keep track on what the money goes on.
My Dad has a small business and used to prefer cash but now it makes very little difference by the time you pay someone to count it every day and then take to to the bank plus bank charges.
When my kids were young the majority of their clubs and school trips etc were paid with cash but now they are all bank transfers or standing orders or the school has an app to make payments on