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 ?

Mrsjayy I agree, my 81 year old dad and my FIL really struggle with modern ways of paying for things. Luckily they have us to help set up apps etc but they prefer cash. It must be so hard for those who don’t have younger people/family to help. My dad gets quite downhearted about it all and says modern day life doesn’t care about older people.

I do this with DH. Anything less than 50p gets put into a jug and we've paid for weekends away with it!

*It might be easier for you, but that’s not the case for everyone.

The quicker we get rid of cash the better. Totally pointless. We need to be living in the modern world, not clinging desperately onto the old one.*

I run a small business a number of my clients will pay me in cash because they don’t want anyone knowing they’re accessing my services. In some cases it’s a safety issue in that their abusive partner monitors everything they spend on the bank account.

The modern world needs to accommodate people who for various reasons don’t want their financial activity tracked through banks.

corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/cash-tracker/what-is-the-post-office-cash-tracker/our-latest-tracker

The actual volume of cash in the economy is still massive. It's far from dead.
All the indicators are that many people are reverting to cash to help them budget more easily.
A huge number of people have also been involuntarily moved onto energy meters by utility companies forcing them to pay up front and that is also driving cash usage.

Using cash means that the money stays in the economy. If , for instance, you pay your hairdresser in cash she gets all the money but if you pay by card the bank takes its share, she could then go to her supplier and pay in cash then they get the cash in full , but pay by card the bank takes a cut etc. No wonder banks want us to use cards.

Well I don't see what point you are making. If someone can grasp the concept of cash, what it represents, and how you trade it for goods and services, then they are clearly perfectly capable of understanding the concept of doing that with a piece of plastic instead.

I get 'preference', because we're all different, but there is no practical barrier whatsoever to anyone who can currently get by using cash doing exactly the same thing with a piece of plastic.

Unless, of course, you don't have a bank account in the first place, but even the barriers to that, and there used to be plenty, are being torn away because of the recognition that it's practically impossible to navigate modern society without one. Even people with CCJ's, bankrupts, and creditors chasing them for every penny they own can now get basic banking accounts that are protected and can be used for everyday spends, so there's not even any reason to hide from creditors by using cash only any longer.

A few days ago, a customer paid in cash for quite a large purchase ( retail). While waxing lyrical about we need to use cash as the 'whole banking system is due to collapse and you need to get any savings out now my girl or you will lose the lot, one day soon you will wake up to find they are all closed, ATMs all closed, there will be anarchy'
🤔🙄

I prefer cash and still use it loads and prefer to use cash over card payments. I can keep track of spending a lot easier when using cash over card or Apple-pay.

I have noticed an increase in being able to pay cash. All the card only self service checkouts in my local Aldi have recently been replaced to ones that accept cash too, also Matalan have replaced 2 of their self service rolls with manned tills as there was always complaints about not being able to pay cash at the self service tills. Lots of business that were card only have gone back to accepting cash.

We don’t accept card payments at work. Our average spend is about £15k so card fees are just too high on transactions of that amount. It’s cash or bank transfer only. People are free to go elsewhere if they don’t like it.

'Modern' does not always equal better. Cash is straight forward. Technology and apps often do not work they way they are supposed to, and often over complicates, and create frustrations and anxieties, as there is often no recourse to resolve problems. It's also creating a thriving environment for scammers.

Handling fees have changed a lot over the past few years, so there are a lot more options so retailers need to pick the one that works for them.

It used to be something like 40 p for a debit card transaction and 2% with no minimum for a credit card one, so obviously hopeless for a corner shop where people buy single low cost items if they paid with a debit card. Credit cards would have been fine, because the transaction cost would have been a couple of pence.

Now a lot of the new ones are a flat percentage with no minimum, so a lot easier to manage. You just build this into your prices so you can accept cards without paying 40 p fees on a 60 p bag of crisps for example.

Places that sell expensive things, most notably cars, tend to stick with the 'old' business model where they pay a token fee for accepting a debit card, but won't accept credit cards.

On cash, yes it does cost money to bank, but if you are a business that sells goods that can be bought from a cash and carry, you can spend a lot of it this way. You may even be able to pay staff with cash. So you only end up banking (and paying fees for) a small amount of the cash taken. Whether or not it goes through the books is a separate issue. Working this way is not a definitive indicator that tax is not being paid in full.

My beautician is the same.

I find cards far more ‘straightforward’ than cash. I can see a list of where is has been spent, on my phone. If I spend cash, I have to keep my receipts and input the amount on to a spreadsheet if I want a list of how much I spent and where.

Lots of stores are switching to card only self checkout so of course all the cash paying customers will end up at the manned checkout

I agree with Jellycats. I am not purchasing anything that I would be embarrassed about (except too much chocolate) but sometimes I just don't feel like I need or want to br tracked and assessed. How often I spend and how much and where is nobody's business except mine. It is a minor act of rebellion and the same reason I don't use reward cards.

I prefer cash for budgeting and because it's a pita when card systems crash for whatever reason.
Cash is king in my world unless buying online and that is rare for me personally.

I think cash should remain an option for those who find it easier. Personally I'm all for cashless. I find it much easier to track what I'm spending by card.

I also find cash really hard to access now. We have one cash machine in our town. It's on the High Street where you can't park so if you just want cash you have to go to the car park, pay to park,walk to the cash machine and hope it's not out of order.

I find it easier to keep an eye on spending using card as all transactions listed on banking app. With cash I forget what I've spent it on. There's still a place for cash though so I do try and use it occasionally.

I use cash when I’m with a carer because then they can go get the drinks and I can wait at the table otherwise they have to use their card and claim it back via the agency which means they're out of pocket for a while

I'm using cash more and more, not for any real reason other than I always preferred cash pre-covid but then the pandemic made me switch. Now that covid is a distant memory (for me) I'm gradually switching back.

Why? What is so wonderful about the modern world? Quite a few of us happen to think it’s a little bit shit and that there is a happy medium between the two.

So you assume that everything anyone says to you is wrong?

That must make life difficult to navigate. The checkout person was relating her personal experience unless you know something that's not in the OP how is that anything like what GB news or the Daily Express say?

That doesnt make any sense, it's a fact that I use cash weekly, would you not believe me if I (as one person) said that to you?

Yeah, it gets copied and pasted a lot but is basically complete bollocks!

I never knew where I was up to in the days when when I took out and used cash. With online banking I can see every penny I spent and where- much easier to then budget, make a spreadsheet etc. And the app will do some of that for you anyway.

Uninformed rolling of eyes

Thus demonstrating that "don't take cards" is not a synonym for "only takes cash" ....

Our gardener "only takes cash" until (he's unreliable, so cheap 😀) he turned up early one time and I had no cash. Very quickly he remembered he could take a bank transfer. Which, I noted with interest, went to his wifes account.