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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think we should be able to pay with cash?

350 replies

PearLime · 08/10/2021 10:12

The government should enact a law making it illegal for retailers to accept card only.

It's a discriminatory practice, with elderly, disabled and low income people suffering the negative consequences.

AIBU?

OP posts:
Bigassbeebuzzbuzz · 08/10/2021 13:51

I'm surprised so many people think children will be ok without ever using cash. I think having actual cash makes it easier for them to actually see it with their own eyes.
Just tapping your card wouldn't help with budgeting they need to see it.
Also I certainly wouldnt be allowing my child a card before they were at high school so how else would you give them pocket money?

Thelittleweasel · 08/10/2021 13:54

@PearLime

Remember too that "cards tell more to the taxman than cash ever can"

bringincrazyback · 08/10/2021 13:55

YANBU OP. My mum is 81 and is only really comfortable with cash. I'm sure many of her generation are the same.

HateJudgmentalPeople · 08/10/2021 13:55

YANBU because not everyone even has a card that they can pay with and you’re made to feel like you are being dodgy for trying to pay with money when it’s existed forever!

I was at Cafe Nero one day and I was actually on my way to put money in my account so I couldn’t use my card, and they wouldn’t even let me pay £3 for a latte and I had the exact amount, they just refused me point blank and a nice man offered to pay for it for me and didn’t take the money off of me, I think if businesses are going to lose a customer, then they need to just let you use money.

HateJudgmentalPeople · 08/10/2021 13:56

@Goldensunnydays81

Our cafe can only take cash, as we can’t get a phone line and signal is very limited and the more people that come the less/often no signal we have. But if the government made it that we had to by law take both cash and card then we wouldn’t be able to trade. So I think businesses should have the choice. At the same time it is a bit worrying that people come on holiday(I live in a tourist area) with just their Apple Pay on phones so no other way of accessing money apart from that 😳! I carry cash, cards and Apple Pay so I am covered 🤣
Apple Pay is also quite vulnerable to hackers!
BloodyBack · 08/10/2021 13:57

We absolutely should accept cash, I agree! There's a homeless man I give to usually about 3 times a week, he's lovely, I tend to give him £5 each time, I'm not going to give him my bank card and it would feel like a kick in the teeth to say 'can I transfer it love?'

Lightswitch123 · 08/10/2021 13:57

We should have a choice. Its scary too that the tappable limit is about to go to £100. A forgetful pensioner could easily empty their account in one shopping trip.

peboh · 08/10/2021 13:57

Yanbu.
I very very rarely carry cash, and once I went to the shop to get some milk for DD and the card machine wasn't working, therefore I couldn't actually buy the milk and had to go home to try and find some cash.
I can understand with times moving forward and technology forever changing, however I do not believe we're in a position to be a cashless society.

LeaveYourHatOn · 08/10/2021 13:57

Having everything via card means everything can be monitored. This means that anyone in any sort of vulnerable position can be controlled really easily. It makes every single thing that you do traceable and accountable.
That may have positive aspects, but it sure as hell also has a lot of negative ones.

DotCottonsFag · 08/10/2021 13:58

YANBU
Just found out yesterday that my mums' post office account is being closed and she will now have to open a bank account. Her passport is out of date and the only letters she has are from Pension Credit. I now have to take a day off work to sort it out for her.
She suffers from mental illness and she literally cannot cope

She just wants to use cash

bringincrazyback · 08/10/2021 13:58

you’re made to feel like you are being dodgy for trying to pay with money when it’s existed forever!

That's just reminded me how at one time in my younger days I had to pay for my weekly supermarket shop in cash for a while due to credit problems. On more than one occasion the cashier looked at me like they thought I'd just pulled off a drug deal or something when I paid for my groceries in cash.

Comefromaway · 08/10/2021 13:59

@peboh

Yanbu. I very very rarely carry cash, and once I went to the shop to get some milk for DD and the card machine wasn't working, therefore I couldn't actually buy the milk and had to go home to try and find some cash. I can understand with times moving forward and technology forever changing, however I do not believe we're in a position to be a cashless society.
My local shop won't allow you to pay by card unless you are spending more than £7. The local chippy is £10.
BoredZelda · 08/10/2021 14:00

I remember people whining the same way when cheques were no longer accepted in shops. Same with chip and pin. It doesn’t seem to have caused many problems.

Comefromaway · 08/10/2021 14:00

I still write cheques, mostly to send through the post.

Starlitexpress · 08/10/2021 14:01

While I think you should be able to pay how you want, many retailers much prefer card only. There was a pub landlord who only took cards and said it saved the staff 30 minutes on a Friday or Saturday night trying to cash up, there was no risk of getting burgled as people knew they had several thousand in cash on the premises, and then, no long car trips with said cash to deposit into an increasingly rare bank.

Nondescriptname · 08/10/2021 14:04

I'm subs sec for a magazine about my hobby. Subscribers from all over the UK pay by cheque and sometimes comment that they are glad they can still do that.
About half the subscribers pay by cheque, although we also have the options to use bank transfer or PayPal.

MatildaIThink · 08/10/2021 14:04

@VeryQuaintIrene

I completely agree with you, OP. We all know what happens when the systems go down. If you don't use cash, well don't, but why impose your choice on others who are sceptical about the benefits of the cashless society?
The thing is the OP is seeking to impose her choice on others. Posters are saying it should be up to the business, the OP wants them to force them to accept cash against their will.
peboh · 08/10/2021 14:05

@Comefromaway out local shop is a one stop, so no such limits, not at any of the takeaways.
The only shops in our town with limits these days, are the very small little corner shops of which we don't have too many of. So I've never found it an issue, and if I've had to pop into one of those shops I just buy something else to up the total (totally aware not everybody else can do that though)

bigbluebus · 08/10/2021 14:06

My 93 year old MIL has very poor eye sight due to macular degeneration. She is capable of tapping her bank card but if asked to put the PIN in she can't see the numbers of the keypad. So she prefers to pay by cash (or online banking as she can enlarge the text). So any shop who refused to take cash from her would be guilty of disability discrimination surely? She often goes out with friends/neighbours but wouldn't want to give them her PIN - apart from the obvious risks of that, she is fiercely independent.

MatildaIThink · 08/10/2021 14:08

@Bigassbeebuzzbuzz

I'm surprised so many people think children will be ok without ever using cash. I think having actual cash makes it easier for them to actually see it with their own eyes. Just tapping your card wouldn't help with budgeting they need to see it. Also I certainly wouldnt be allowing my child a card before they were at high school so how else would you give them pocket money?
Children can learn concepts which do not have a physical existence and adults budget all the time without needing to "actually see it".

You wish to impose an artifical barrier (not letting your children have a card) and the want to complain about an issue that causes (being unable to give them pocket money). That is an entirely manufactured problem of your own making.

waybill · 08/10/2021 14:09

There are several issues at play here.

One - I haven't come across any retailers recently who are refusing to accept payments in cash.

Two - a lot of businesses decided to go card-only during lockdown for health & safety purposes, so their staff didn't have to handle possibly infected cash.

Three - when business customers pay in their cash (or cheque) takings, the bank charges are far higher than they would have to pay if all the transactions were by card.

Four - less cash in the till means fewer errors made by till staff, and less opportunity for fraud or theft. It also means that they are less likely to be caught out by forged bank notes.

So in a way, I can understand why a lot of businesses are refusing to accept cash, but that doesn't necessarily make it right.

Comefromaway · 08/10/2021 14:11

[quote peboh]@Comefromaway out local shop is a one stop, so no such limits, not at any of the takeaways.
The only shops in our town with limits these days, are the very small little corner shops of which we don't have too many of. So I've never found it an issue, and if I've had to pop into one of those shops I just buy something else to up the total (totally aware not everybody else can do that though)[/quote]
Ours is a Premier. It's a fantastic shop. Has a really wide range of fresh fruit and veg and is really convenient and cheap.

Aqua55 · 08/10/2021 14:12

How are all these people that only use cash, getting their cash in the first place?

Bitofachinwag · 08/10/2021 14:12

@daisyjgrey

Starting kids off on debit cards with no cash handling is just a recipe for disaster.

Is it? Why? Is there an actual reason other than children learning with cash is the only thing we've known up to this point? A child's ability to manage money and have any kind of fiscal understanding does not hinge on their ability to pay for a magazine with 50p coins.

At some point, the world moves on, eventually people who were used to shillings died and the next generation only knew the currency as it is now. That's probably how it will go with cash and cards.

"The world moves on" is one of the worst reasons to justify any change! Surely we should one change things that actually improve the world? Getting rid of cash doesn't improve the world.

Regarding childre and cash-it's easier to learn about something you can touch and handle.

Comefromaway · 08/10/2021 14:15

Agree Bitofachinwag

There is a reason why schools use counters and pictures and number lines etc etc when teaching children mathematical concepts. It's easier to understand the concept when you can see it.