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 ?

Exactly. I remember going to the first village fete after the pandemic, took some cash and a card, and nearly every single stall was cashless.

See that would be no good for me as I don't have online banking. I'll bet I'm not the only one.

What's to stop them having a debit card?

My MIL has dementia and cash was a nightmare - she'd just lose it or throw it away. We'd be having to take her to the bank every week for her to withdraw £100/£200 and a few days later it was all gone, even though she'd been nowhere.

Covid was the breakthrough we needed to force her to use a debit card. It was painful getting her to change, but we persisted, and now she never uses cash and has probably forgotten what it is. We can monitor her spending on the bank's app, and can cancel/suspend her card if she loses it, and then unsuspend when she finds it. She loves the independence of being able to buy things for herself with the added benefit we now know where's she's been and how much she's spent.

Best of all is that the "leakage" has stopped - heaven knows where all the cash went when she used it, but now she's got a card, her losses/thefts have been zero!

@dementedpixie I don’t understand. How does using cash help small businesses? Wouldn’t it regular custom to local small businesses be more important?

@PrincessUnicorns Good luck when Russia decide to take down our online banking one day. You’ll wish you hadn’t said that then.

Well, we'll all be buggered then wouldn't we. It wouldn't be like anyone could do anything with the cash once they'd taken it, if there was no banking.

Yes me too first time yesterday so weird. Despite the bags saying “just walk out” and the guy at the door saying “just walk out”, we kept saying to each other “we just walked out!”

My hairdresser said she’s noticed a big increase in cash payments I was surprised

My day yesterday:

1. Public transport commute - no cash accepted.
2. Pret coffee - no cash accepted.
3. Work canteen - no cash accepted, I have to top up my staff card.
4. Quick stop at the Chinese supermarket - no cash accepted.
5. Shop at Tesco - cash accepted(!) There are 4 check outs with belts, 12 self service check outs that don't accept cash and 4 self checkouts that do - for the sake of time I usually have to use the card. I do have to use a £1 to get a trolley though - this is genuinely my most frequent use of cash.

This evening I want to go to the bar up the road, which is also card only. We do have 5-ish pubs within a 10 minute walk that accept cash, though. I just like this bar.

Can you explain it?

Its easy to overspend just tapping a card. Cash makes it much more 'real'

Car parking is a case in point; many ticket machines no longer accept coins and want people to pay using an app - and the problems encountered by people using those apps are frequently reported. So-called progress doesn't automatically equate to better.

I wish them good luck wit that, since so far all they've managed to achieve in the technological espionage stakes is embarrassing themselves by having obvious bot and sock accounts try, and fail, to troll people on Twitter.

Opposite for me. I’m far more likely to overspend with cash, because once it’s out of my bank account it’s already gone from my bottom line, and therefore it’s fair game to be spent. Just feels like handing over bits of paper, it feels entirely meaningless.

Total bollocks. Banks charge more for handling cash. Bank charges for debit cards can be pretty small. Most suppliers insist on payment by BACs not cash, especially as most small businesses buy their supplies online anyway and pay on order. Utilities/overheads need paying by online/BACs etc. Van delivery drivers tend not to accept cash anymore, so even small shops have to pay for their daily bread, meat, milk deliveries by BACs. Small businesses have to pay higher insurance premiums if they handle cash, and also need security, such as a safe and they're not cheap. Not to mention loss from theft and forgeries.

I've a number of small business clients, many shops and cafes, etc., and they basically have to pay to bank the cash they get as their supplies won't take it. They all pay the vast majority of their costs, overheads, suppliers by online banking/bacs. None trot down to the post office to pay their phone bill in cash! Just done the accounts for a small garage - not a single payment/expense/overhead paid in cash!

I’m sure it’s not always like that. Maybe just one or two people. I used to use cash but then realised I just dropped coins or would accidentally overpay. For example, handing over two 5 pound notes because they were together and I took it out thinking I took one out. Or I’d have notes folded so I might pay more without realising and then rush out. This used to happen especially when I’d gone to the market and somehow overpay and then realise when I left. Sometimes the stall owners would admit it and give it back there and then or when I came back and sometimes they’d deny it. And other times I’d drop the note by accident and the wind would blow it away. So now it’s easier to just use a card.

The other thing is that doing away with cash would help to stop money laundering and tax avoidance.

There's always problems with anything new. Don't you remember every single time there's a new coin or note introduced, there are loads of complaints about machines not being updated to accept them, whether parking meters, vending machines, slot machines, etc.

I work for a bank and ATM withdrawals are up. People find it easier to budget paying cash.

Same as people referencing FB posts.

Can't remember the last time I withdrew cash in the UK. My mil still insists on either cash or cheque so we use that up if we need to.

I think cash is still needed. It really helps when it comes to budgeting. You can’t prevent tax avoidance or money laundering by stopping cash usage. The mega rich will still be able to have their overseas bank accounts. There’d still be shell companies for companies to avoid paying too much tax if any. So instead of focusing on those large whales, it’s sometimes easier to fixate on the smaller fish.

And how do you think you'd get cash to pay for stuff?

Unless you had a shed load under the bed.

Or hackers take down our electrical grid for a bit. Be a miserable time.

It's not good to be so dependent on the electronic world, you should always have a back up plan.

But the largest component of tax evasion per HMRC's official "tax gap" is the black economy, which is basically small businesses, people doing "cash in hand" jobs, people selling counterfeit goods, people illegally selling duty free booze and cigarettes, drug dealing, etc. So basically potentially your friends and relatives, people living on your street, etc.