To be narked that my hairdresser will only accept cash?

[Hillfarmer]

Had my hair cut and coloured at a small local salon in London i.e. not West End. At the weekend. Came to £108.00. Only taken my daughter there before for a trim so it was under £15 and must have paid cash previously.

I asked why, and they said it was ‘easier’. I said it was ‘easier’ for me to pay with a card. They said every card transaction costs them money. I said ‘even a debit card?’ and they replied with a yes.

So off I had to trot to the ATM up the road, presumably just like most of their other customers.

The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off. They are obviously just avoiding tax in some way, aren’t they?

I feel like dropping them a note saying I like my haircut, but won’t be coming back unless they drop the insistence on cash.

AIBU?

P.s. I tip in cash.

They

My beauticians does this... Because they're all self employed so your cash goes into the pot of the person who you saw. They pay x amount a month to use the salon facilities.

If it was by card, they'd spend hours divving up who did which treatment, oh that was on mates rates, I had a special offer on that day etc etc

This really annoys me when I know you can get a chip and pin reader to connect to your smartphone for as little as £30 (no ongoing rental charges) and the charges are about 2%.
I really think you would keep more business and it would be worth it. I used to sell at craft fairs and these days every stall has one of these little readers that deposits their money into their bank or paypal account. I don't understand why places like hairdressers (esp mobile ones), taxis, tradesmen etc don't use them more. Such a small investment for potentially a big ongoing return.

I've looked into this before and things like PayPal can process a card payment with just an iPad and internet connection. It doesn't have to be expensive. A card machine can also be purchased or rented for relatively little too.

Fees can be as much as 5% per transaction but as little as one additional sale will more than cover it. Prices can also be adjusted to factor that in.

It costs a lot more to get new customers than keep one you've got so it makes sense to take card payments if it helps retain customers.

I think a lot of people (including businesses) think it will be more expensive and more hassle than it actually is.

I agree that for small cafes etc it's ok for them to not take card payments as the cost you are spending is likely to be under £20/£30 (an amount which is reasonable to have on you in cash).

I absolutely don't think it is acceptable for a hairdressers charging £100+ per cut to not accept card payments. Lets be honest if someone asked you about where you got your hair cut the first things you are now likely to discuss is the trip to the cash machine to pay for it, really stupid business model n my opinion.

I am irrationally infuriated by any trader who doesn't take cards these days

I bought some stuff from a market stall a few weeks ago. Asked him to hold the items while I went to the cashpoint, but he whipped out a mini calculator card machine.

It was only when we were halfway through that I realised Paypal to him might have been easier.

Actually it does cost 2% per transaction, debit or credit card for a small business plus the several hundred a year for the credit card machine

iZettle give you the machine for free and charge 1.75%

All it takes is for one person like the OP to leave and find another hairdresser than will take cards, and they've lost more than it would cost them to have £6k worth of business paid on cards

People must be spectacularly bad businesspeople to not realise the opportunity cost of not taking cards, especially when you offer expensive services that people might want to put on a credit card rather than pay in one chunk

Yes every transaction does cost them, this is why some places charge 50p for card transactions, personally I would rather pay the 50p.

It's not that simple at all. Where do you think the business is going to get the data from to make an informed decision, for starters?

For example, if I'd just stumped up £100 for a haircut and then had to run around to ATMs, I wouldn't be back. And I wouldn't recommend them to friends. But I also wouldn't be dropping them an email to tell them why, so they'd never know.

I really don't care; their business, they're choice. But I'd be very, very surprised if this was actually a smart choice for a place offering expensive services.

I generally avoid business that don't take cash as I hardly ever have cash on me and I hate having to dash to a cash machine when I'm usually in a rush anyway. I get my nails done by a woman who comes to my house and she takes cards (via an app on her phone) so if she can manage it then most other small businesses can too.

their choice, stupid autocorrect

Whatever about businesses with an average transaction of £10 and under, but to not accept a card for £100 is just ludicrous. It's ridiculous to expect people to carry that kind of money on them.

DH runs a small business, it costs him around £10 a month for the card machine, and around 35p per debit card transaction. It takes a few days to appear in his account but that's far safer than keeping cash on the premises and using a nightsafe. Absolutely rubbish that it costs a fortune these days. You are including your rates, rents, utilities and insurances plus supplies on your costs already so why not add the 35p on....... dodgy accounting, that's why. I'd avoid them on principal.

And ridiculous to expect everyone to be able to withdraw that amount at any given point, given it's around half the daily cash limit for withdrawals in some banks.

That would put me off.

I never use cash. I use my card or apple pay for absolutely everything.

I'd be pissed off - I would actively avoid a salon that doesn't take cards. I rarely have more than small change on me because I hate carrying cash.

I'd wonder if it was for tax avoidance purposes or an attempt to gain more in tips so I would change salons.

I don't know many places now that don't accept cards.

A quick google tells me it costs around £1-£1.50 in banking fees to deposit £100 of cash in a business account

So it would cost the hairdressers not much more than 50p more to have accepted OP's card payment
That's about the cost of the cups of tea they would offer while you're having your appointment?

Are people honestly going to keep defending it as a sensible business decision and not purely a tax dodge?!

I avoid businesses that don’t take card. I rarely carry cash now and I might have enough in my purse to buy a coffee and a croissant at a cafe but I’d be really peeved to be told I couldn’t pay £108 on card without having been told at the time I booked my appointment. If told when booking that they didn’t take card I would probably book somewhere else instead. I’m presuming they know that some people would do that and so I think it’s quite sneaky to wait until after the appointment before telling you. I wouldn’t personally go back.

I would suggeat you are correct, Income tax, VAT and PAYE would probably not stack up to the cash going through the doors.

I understand that every transaction can cost but some local smaller shops around here charge 30p extra to cost this which is fine by me but narks the hell out of dh!
I think it's really poor for a business not to offer card payment as an option, if you want people's money you should be prepared to take it however they wish to pay.

That would nark me too but YABU to expect a business to put themselves under the strain that can come with using 3rd party payment solutions, not only having to pay fees to the 3rd party provider but also to jump through a set of flaming hoops that can cripple a business.

Having worked for several companies who offer payment solutions, some of these fees can end up being a good chunk of each transaction - usually around 2.5% plus a flat rate fixed fee regardless of credit or debit card (the 3rd party payment processor are the ones putting the payment through, they benefit from the low transaction fees on debit cards - not the end user of the payment solution). On top of this, unless you're a huge merchant with consistently high turnover, you're also viewed as a chargeback risk to the payment processor.

If your company is deemed as a potential risk to the payment processor, they're able to place any received funds on reserve for as long as they deem necessary (usually at the very least a month - I've personally dealt with business owners who've had their funds held for 6 months) during which time you have no access to that money to pay your business expenses, your staff or even yourself.

It seems like poor business sense to me.

If they're busy enough, then it's not poor business sense at all.

However, if they're short of customers, then it is.

They've made a calculated business decision, so I assume it's the former rather than the latter.

It's not just the cost per transaction, there are also monthly fees and hire of the equipment and maybe even hire of a second phone line (depending upon equipment). Why put yourself to that kind of expense if most customers are happy to pay cash and you're not short of customers??

My hairdressers has recently stopped taking card payments it's irritating particularly as they are nowhere near a cash point! So I just take £100 and hope for the best