Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Is it ridiculous in this modern age to be a business that only takes cash?

147 replies

PingpongDingDong · 03/09/2015 13:49

We sometimes visit a cafe in our city that takes cash only. While you're sitting there you see people realising this and one of them having to take a hike to tie closest cashpoint to pay. While we were in holiday we visited a couple of places like this and it made me wonder why they do this. Are bank charges so high? It seems archaic to me.

OP posts:
DontHaveAUsername · 05/09/2015 06:08

It suits me as I prefer cash, hate using my card for anything other than taking cash out. We have a few shops and takeaway places here that only take cash but they have it displayed on the door or windows so people know before they make a purchase that they will need cash.

WorktoLive · 05/09/2015 06:26

YY to everything Ryanoriley said. And to whoever said about the speed of cash. I can't imagine how slowly payments will go through if mobile pay becomes the norm and everyone has to start faffing with their phones to pay.

Oh hang on, there's no signal, it wants to sign into your wifi, my app has crashed, it's forgotten my account, I don't know my password, all in the time that five people could have handed cash over and walked away with their order.

As well as Visa, Mastercard, the banks or Paypal making billions out of electronic money, those of you who avoid small cash only businesses because you don't recognise the difficulties that cards can bring also make it harder for them to survive. And if they don't survive, what are we left with?

Chains only. Chains that (legally but almost certainly not morally) avoid tax, pay crappy wages, employ staff on zero hours contracts, stop at nothing in the pursuit of profits, care not one jot for the customer except for extracting more money out of them, offer inferior products that might appear cheaper, but are often not, certainly not for the quality.

People wax lyrical about the naice independent coffee shop, but when push comes to shove, they'd rather wave their card at Costa and take their bland corporate offering any day.

Hulababy · 05/09/2015 06:44

Our local only takes cash (or cheque). Nothing to do with tax evasion or money laundering at all.

Doesn't seem to cause issues. It's popular and usually busy. The managers are lovely - and have given us credit on occasion too where we've paid the next day. Luckily it's the type of place that they tend to know you by name.

NationalTrustLadyGardens · 05/09/2015 07:30

My beauty therapist only takes cash or cheques which is mildly annoying but I can't entrust my waxing requirements to anyone else, she has it down to a fine art.

JenniferYellowHat1980 · 05/09/2015 07:41

I don't use a local (rural) shop that charges 20p on payments of under £10. I discovered they did this when trying to make a purchase of about £9.80. So I put the stuff back and now I don't go there at all.

It's a long established, profitable business of which the shop is a part. They don't need to be charging that.

SouthAmericanCuisine · 05/09/2015 07:49

I would be wary of using one of the plethora of card payment services that have been set up over the last few years outside the stringent regulations of the financial services sector.

No checks on the security of the technology, no insurance for customers, no support for retailers - yes, they might be cheaper in the short term, but carry a higher risk for everyone involved.

Egosumquisum · 05/09/2015 08:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

IDismyname · 05/09/2015 08:11

I like using Ringo at our local station. Means I can get away with only a £2.20 charge for car parking when I'm in London for the evening.

If I catch the 3.54, I can get on the train and pay via Ringo.

If I was getting a ticket from the car park machine at, say, 3.45, I'd have to pay the full day rate of about £7.80!

Moln · 05/09/2015 08:23

Cash only in a city restaurant could very well suggest they aren't paying tax, but not in a mastermind tax evading sort of way, more in the using the what should be tax money to pay for something else way.

Moln · 05/09/2015 08:24

Other times it means the card machine is broken.

Egosumquisum · 05/09/2015 08:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

OurBlanche · 05/09/2015 08:38

Perhaps they do, though, Jennifer.

They must have considered the negatives before deciding to pass the charges on. Even ell established businesses can work on really slim margins and most shops and garages have minimum spends on cards.

I wouldn't have put the shopping back, I would have considered the time and money I had saved not driving into town and happily paid up.

ohtheholidays · 05/09/2015 10:16

We found the same a couple of years ago when we were on holiday in Cornwall,we went to Looe for the day and tons of the shops didn't take cards.

There were cash machines near by but the place was packed that day.We managed to draw money out but later on in the day there were alot of people complaining that they had no cash on them and the cash machines had been emptied!

It was Easter and the banks weren't open,I did feel really sorry for any poor parent there with young children,no cash and the cash machines having been emptied.

Trills · 05/09/2015 10:50

Most places that take cards tend to advertise it anyway, with stickers on the door and a machine on the counter.

Hahaha.

That is hilarious.

It's 2015.

"We do take cards" is not something that needs to be advertised.

"We DON'T take cards" is understandable for small businesses as long as it's made clear at a point when I can still change my mind.

I am always happy to pay 50p on a card payment of under £10 (or to buy one extra item so it's over a tenner).

I am never happy to be surprised with "not taking cards" when I've already ordered and eaten (so no chance to change my mind).

TalkinPeace · 05/09/2015 11:26

THose of you who are lucky enough to live where there is reliable phone signal might expect to be able to do so everywhere.
But there are huge swathes of the country with no decent phone signal and no broadband (95% of the population rules out huge areas of the country)

Go to Kings Somborne in Hampshire and try to get a phone signal - any network.

Buy a house in Hinton Ampner in Hampshire and budget for satellite broadband as land based is 5 years away

Trills · 05/09/2015 11:32

This house does look lovely but now you've said there's no broadband I might pass.

TalkinPeace · 05/09/2015 11:53

*trills, joking apart it is a serious issue ..
This house
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33543963.html has broadband too slow to watch the iplayer
£1.25 million and no decent broadband!
(there is a link to the checker on each listing)

its a real problem for rural businesses because if they do not have good mobile signal or broadband, they cannot access any sort of electronic payments
or even work effectively from home

Trills · 05/09/2015 12:09

Yeah, the "95%" population coverage still leaves a LOT of people stuck. And those people are so spread out that it'll take a lot of time and money to expand.

bgottalent · 05/09/2015 12:12

last week I had my hair done at a hairdressers i have used before but had changed hands. the bill came to £115 and when I came to pay I was told they could only accept cash and please get some from the cash machine across the road. I had not been warned about this and there was no signage. its a lot of cash to be carrying about but its the fact that I wasnt told beforehand that really annoyed me. I wont be going there again

fabuLou · 05/09/2015 12:16

My hairdresser takes cash or cheque only. Slight pain but ok.

Badders123 · 05/09/2015 12:17

My hairdresser only takes cash.
Which is annoying as no issue with phone signal here (he only works 4 days a week though)
There is a nice cafe in the village I used to go to but thou have to spend over £5 to use your card.
Sometimes I just want a coffee fgs.
I get very annoyed by cash only places that don't advertise that fact.

TalkinPeace · 05/09/2015 12:19

bgot
It may be that the hairdresser has not yet set up their card system : it takes a few weeks

WorktoLive · 05/09/2015 12:31

There's a big difference between paying cash for a £2 coffee and a £115 Shock haircut.

fabuLou · 05/09/2015 13:07

Badders, Im with you. The gym coffee shop only accepts cash under £5, annoying.

Badders123 · 05/09/2015 13:15

Yes there is Hmm but I don't spend £115 on a haircut, so's that's irrelevant to me, whereas being told I have to spend more than £5 when all I want is a bloody coffee does annoy me!
I now go to costa where I can buy a coffee and pay as I wish to.