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 ?

Using cash doesn't always support local business. All the banks have closed in our town and several friends work in local businesses are finding it really hard to pay cash into their bank as the banks simply aren't there! Much easier if everyone paid by card. It's sad.

I remember the day you are talking about, and yes, it was a pain in the arse. However, it was just one day. I have far more vivid memories of several, fairly regularly occurring days before electronic transactions were commonplace, whereby every single ATM in town, indeed, across most of Scotland, was either out of cash or refusing to dispense any due to centralised issues.

So the 'we can't rely on technology' thing is true enough, only it was far more of a frequent problem in the era when everyone was utterly reliant on cash.

Definitely are around me! It's very noticable in the supermarket - Aldi swapped out a load of tills for self service a while ago, but only 3 tills take cash; when this was first done, it was all working fine, but now so many are paying by cash the 5 staffed tills are open as of old again at all busy points of the day. Too many people needed to pay cash for self service to work appropriately, when I asked about this change.

I don't live in a great area, so I've been putting it down to a combination of dodgy work (definitely gone up here!) and cash budgeting.

My DFIL works for a charity that helps the elderly. He said that moving away from cash has hit a lot of charities quite badly. In the past there were collection boxes on counters at supermarkets, garages, pubs etc and people would often pop their change into the box. But this spontaneous giving just doesn't happen when people pay by card.

I have since made the effort to pay by cash a lot more, and always put change in collection boxes where I can.

How many small time crims have been praying for the return of cash to make that hold up at a chippy worth it ?

Speaking of chippys, our local one is 80% delivery via app. Anyone who robs that dreaming of Vegas in the morning might be disappointed.

That's a good thing to remember @viques

Always have at least two methods of payment so that you're not cut off from spending if your card is lost or stolen or there is a bank system issue. So good to have cards with two different issuers, one Mastercard and one Visa and preferably a small amount of cash too.

As well as different cards, I tend to have a £20 in the back of my phone case and I'll get another one when I get down to the last £5/10, so I almost never get to the 'having no cash on me at all and the coffee shop I am in is cash only' situation.

I do pay by card nearly all the time, but have often got out of a hole with having cash on me as well as more than one card, so I'm never going to be stuck or risk being the sad face on social media complaining that I couldn't buy food/petrol to get to work because the bank system that controls the only card I own is down.

Agreed...and I won't use any business - coffee shops, etc - which doesn't take cash.

No all small business prefer cash. Cash is a risk of theft and then they have to use time/money to take it to a bank and there are fewer banks around. If I have cash I always ask which they prefer.

Does anyone remember about ten years ago when the Natwest payment systems went down? It was shocking how it messed things up

We use cash for almost everything - it is good for budgeting

I use the hand scanner in Tesco so I know how much I am spending so do not go over my allocated amount for shopping.

Our local Co OP has cashless self service tills too. They're always empty! People hate them.

I prefer card

And unless I happen to have some with me I won’t use any that only take cash. I’m not going out of my way to get some.

if a business decides to restrict itself either way they have to accept they are going to limit the custom base.

I was in my local town centre the other day and a event place (think it was axe throwing) had big signs saying cashless. Actual words were we are cashless baby.
Normally it's not something I give a thought to but after Farage being debanked, I did ponder whether to start using lots more cash.

Even cards are going out of use now aren’t they? I barely take my wallet out anymore, just my phone and keys. DH does work in banking tech though so maybe we’re feeling too comfortable with the topic 😄

Totally agree with you on this

Yes, contactless has become way too easy, but also way too difficult when it comes to car parking and settling payments between friends. So I'm making extra efforts to use cash. Also hopefully, if more people do this, it would give some resistance to all banking going faceless, contactless, branchless, trustless.

What about people who struggle with the "modern world" do they not get the option ?

A local shop said that more people are switching back to cash again. They pay a fortune in fees for customers to use a card machine, whereas if they receive cash then 100% goes into their pocket, so they prefer cash. It all goes through the till.

There are huge fees to bank cash, but they can pay some of their local suppliers in cash, so it all goes around.

I still use cash for small expenses as I know how much it costs the shop. Most have a minimum spend of £5 around here, which is fair enough.

Yeah, they must still be preoccupied with staring at 0:00 on their VHS recorders.

I think it’s a combination of things. Definitely budgeting but also maybe due to the fear of cash handling during Covid times and now we are all more relaxed about it people have gone back to handling cash. I also know a few people who are taking on second jobs due to the current economic climate and are doing things like take away deliveries which are almost always ‘cash in hand’.
There is also the conspiracy thing doing the rounds. There is a new Wendy’s restaurant local to us and they apparently don’t accept cash, several people on our local FB are saying to boycott the rests it’s all part of the greater ‘plan’ for us all!

I know a guy who is self employed. He gets paid in cash quite often and so he transfers money from his personal account into his business account and then uses the cash to pay for food shopping and petrol. He isn't withholding his earnings it is just more convenient than having to go to the bank to deposit cash.

Ah you are taking the piss I get you now ill just bypass you !

Yes this. The cost to small businesses for card payments can be a huge portion, so I've seen a couple explaining that they would prefer cash now.