That a Vodafone shop wouldn’t accept cash in payment and it pissed me off?

[Inappropriatefemale]

So as the thread suggests then AIBU because a branch of Vodafone wouldn’t accept cash and it pissed me off?

I went into a Vodafone store around 4 weeks ago to buy a £20 memory card and I was aghast when the sales advisor told me that they didn’t accept cash because it was ‘a hassle’ and that paying by card was easier for the shop, it wasn’t the end of the day or anything like this where they had counted all their profits for the day.

I didn’t have my debit card with me that day so I went elsewhere to buy it but I was really pissed off, what if I was purchasing a brand new iPhone 8, or whatever the latest one is, at over £700 then would they have been happy for me to walk out their shop and spend that money elsewhere.

I have always suspected that actual cash will be done away with one day but not for a good few years at least and not in a Vodafone shop.

I didn’t look into this, I was just pissed off and wondered if any of you ladies/gents had experienced this and if so where, when and for how much?

Also if you lost cash, it's gone forever usually. If you lose your card you just get a new one

OTOH - cash can't go down.

Cash can't be stopped by the system - your card being blocked by 'them' - the authorities.

@WhippetyStourie
I would take a card to the beach over cash.

The place I get my lunch everyday is cashless. It's up to them!

Yeah I would rather take a card to the beach.

A pp mentioned about a chip in our fingers in the future, now that would be great!

Maybe eventually cash will die out but I think it will not be for many years.

Lots of people still use cash especially older people. My mum goes to the post office and draws out cash to then go shopping, pay bills etc.

I do use my card but prefer using cash for quite a few things. I would never dream of using a card for a purchase under £5 anyway. When I see people using a card to buy a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps I am always surprised plus it always seems to be in shops where the card reader is very slow so it would have been quicker for them to pay by cash

But not all cash taken needs to go to the bank. Anyone with a convenience type store probably uses a lot of it at places like the cash and carry and for their own personal wages.

How does that square with some posters assertions that using cash is invariably dodgy ? (Having run a business for a few years, I am well aware of the legitimate uses for cash receipts and payments ...)

Whether or not it is dodgy is a separate issue. I'm merely saying that while the percentage fees charged by the bank for cash and cards will appear to be around the same, say around 1.5%, but on card payments it will be charged on the whole amount, but on cash payments, only on the money that goes into the bank.

If a small shopkeeper spends a third of their takings at the cash and carry and takes a third of the takings on their own wages, they only pay the banking fees on the other third, so significantly less. There's nothing to say that all their takings won't go through the books, and of course, they'll have the receipt from the cash and carry.

I know a few takeaways and cafes that are cash only. The takeaways are close to a cash machine (although that's been known to run out) one cafe is a good mile from a cashpoint, so no easy access.

There are a lot of wrinkles to still iron out with changes of payment.
In Girlguiding, we can not have a bank card due to needing two signitories so are stuck in the era of needing cheques which are decreasingly accepted which means either cash, or hoping a leader is feeling solvent enough to make the payment or be paid back, which can be quite a burden to place on volunteers when £££ sums can be reached for accommodation or feeding large numbers of children en-mass.

People in debt management can have very restricted bank cards that force them to budget through cash.

Events like fetes couldn't run without cash, and it's not practical to have umpteen card readers to deal with petty cash transactions. My independent fitness instructor has just got a card reader, but it takes a cut so cash or bank transfer still works better.

I'm not greatly surprised at Vodaphone being a pioneer in refusing cash; customers are not isolated from technology, and most transactions will be done by card or direct debit with a low number of small value transactions likely to be paid in cash.
But we are still a long way from it being practical to ditch cash as a society.

Events like fetes couldn't run without cash

I'm sure they could, if enough imagination were applied. Off the top of my head a single terminal where punters buy tokens (with their cards, naturally ) and use those at the stalls who then return them and receive an appropriate amount in return at the end of the day. (That's my 5-second solution, so don't spend any longer than that picking holes in it ...)

I've just remembered using special tokens - gettone - in the phones in Italy in the 70s. Oh, and if your change was less than 100 Lira (from memory) you were offered a handful of sweets as there were no coins that small (a nod to the suggestion that chocolate would make a fallback currency )

I used to help at a tuck shop selling penny sweets (among other things) some kids would literally spend 8p sometimes, which I would imagine would be faffy putting on a card.
The ice cream van outside our local school takes card payments though.(as well as cash)

I would never dream of using a card for a purchase under £5 anyway. When I see people using a card to buy a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps I am always surprised plus it always seems to be in shops where the card reader is very slow so it would have been quicker for them to pay by cash

Not wanting to pay for something less than £5 with a card is your feeling, there is no logic to it.
As for it being quicker to pay cash, I disagree. Getting out my purse and fiddling around to find the right change or the cashier counting out the change to give me, takes much longer that just going ‘bip’ with my watch.

As an aside I do for some reason miss the days when people would count back your change. I used to do that when I worked in a shop decades ago.

As for school fetes and the like, I do see that would be a faff but I went to a cashless event (beer festival) like that a while ago.

As you went in there was a person who sold cards at £10 each. The cards had squares on them worth 50p each, they looked like a bingo card. Every time you bought something the bar took your card and crossed off the correct number of squares. If you needed more you went and bought another £10 card. If you had anything left at the end you got a refund back to your card to that amount.

As a slight aside - when cash does go, what will that mean for 'money' and monetary policy?

I know it's a really complex area - but it's fascinating. I think we have some kind of control with the printing of money - but if 'money printing' goes and we move to digital money, what does that mean for 'money'?

Banking cash is time-consuming and/or costly for businesses. Card terminals can be priced competitively and it's much more convenient for a business that doesn't need to pay out cash.

Many local bank branches have closed and it's a security risk for staff to have to deposit cash. Cash collection services are pricey and still need staff to do some cash counting and processing.

@FlamingoAndJohn I almost always have the cash in my hand ready to pay when I get to the checkout. I don't understand women who wait until they are told how much their item(s) is/are and then start looking for their purse.

Even if paying by card I would have my purse in my hand ready to take the card out or, quite often, have the card in my hand. Seems common sense to me

Cash is very important and lawful. I draw out £500 and then uyse that for the supermarket, petrol etc etc until it is used up. I gave the twins cash today to buy their lunch and dinner.

Some small businesses prefer cash because there are no charges in relation to it eg they might lawfully pay for things in cash.

What is actually the logic behind not using your debit card for low value purchases? I just don’t get it.

I’m in my early 20s. I have had a bank account since I was 15. My parents would transfer money into, then when I started working at 16 I was paid directly into my bank and have so in every job since. Why would I go out of my way to withdraw cash, typically a £10 minimum withdrawal, just to buy a sandwich from Tesco? With contactless and Apple Pay, using card isn’t inconvenient at all in comparison.

I don’t always have the money in my account, I’m self employed and usually only put a certain amount of cash in at the start of a month to pay rent and bills.

I’ve completely given up cash. I last drew some out in August to pay for flowers on a market stall. Every purchase is on plastic now.

I guess no real logic to not wanting to use a card for small purchases but it just seems silly to me. Also i believe some shops still charge for purchases under a certain amount.

If I draw x amount in cash out I know exactly how much I have and exactly how much I have spent. I like that and feel more in control of my finances. My DH uses his card far more than I do but if I ask him how much he has spent in a day/week (I do our finances) he rarely knows or states an amount which is almost always wrong!

Our business doesn't take cash, we don't have a float or have time to bank cash. We have a card reader and ipad, so much easier than a till! It always surprises me when people say they don't have their card with them, I don't go anywhere without them and never carry cash. We've never lost business due to it though, generally we've said they can pay next time and people have been trustworthy so far!

I have noticed that some.cafes in London only take cashless.payments.

The thing is, I went in one recently and was told I had to pay by card, fine, then I went next door to a general food store to buy something as was told they would only accept cash.

It is annoying when one place only takes cashless and next door only takes cash!!

I went into a bank one time to take money out as had lost my atm card and was told in a BANK that they couldnt give me money because they didn't deal in cash.... In a BANK.. Would've laughed only for the fact that it was so stupid I sometimes think I dreamt it..

It is annoying when one place only takes cashless and next door only takes cash!!

ot as annoying as places whose card machine is permanently "out of order" meaning an unexpected trip to a cash machine (assuming you want to buy there) ...

If I draw x amount in cash out I know exactly how much I have and exactly how much I have spent. I like that and feel more in control of my finances.

lynsey91 Interestingly, I find exactly the opposite. With my card, I can track it online and on my phone at any time and see exactly where all my spending is going in one handy place.

With cash, it just gets frittered away and I’ve no idea what I spent it on or where.