Food places and cafes not accepting cash

[Annoyedtiger]

Yes I understand covid and I normally always pay with my card but today I accidentally left it at home and I went to three cafes including Cafe Nero which wouldn’t take my cash.

We know covid is airborne and everything is mostly back to normal.

AIBU to think everywhere should be tasking cash now?

Cards being stopped while people are travelling is down to the bank you choose and their own protocols, rather than an inherent property of using a card.
I use 2 different banks neither of which ever do this.
Many traditional High Street banks have had to play catch-up with the digital world in the last 5 or 6 years. Many aren't doing so well at it

@badlydrawncat I am talking from my experience as a consumer. It has not only been one venue. Maybe it works better for an event with all young people with no one struggling with e tickets on their phone, I don't know? But I have been so frustrated at the long queues and the time it takes at the theatre and cinema. Both take longer now than before when it was only paper tickets.

@Choopi they get a cash card to take out money, but not a debit card. Yes it is real.

But my biggest issue with no cash is the problem when there is no signal. I have had this with car park machines, I could not pay as there was no signal. Connectivity in our country still needs to be sorted out.
A colleague and I were talking about this today. We have both been abroad in poor countries in very remote areas and still got connectivity. But in the UK it can still be patchy.

@Choopi
i had one not that long ago. Petrol was the hardest thing, you’d always have to stop at a station that had a cash point, check it’s working, take out what you think you’ll need and hope you’ve got a few quid spare in case it clicks over.

I'm in my mid-60s, my husband's in his late 60s, we're perfectly happy with tech and were probably early adopters for contactless, fintech or anything online

Well, congratulations, I guess...

But you're missing the point completely. Nobody wants to not adopt technology, just for the current options to remain available for people to use. It's not that difficult

I use 2 different banks neither of which ever do this

That's not ideal either. If you happened to be a victim of fraud they would not block your card and your credit limit could be reached and still need to go through the expensive calling process while abroad to resolve the issue- plus wait for them to investigate, etc.

its frustrating but it’s been going this way for years I just do not bother holding cash at all haven’t in years
even selling on market place on Facebook I hate it because it’s cash

I genuinely cannot believe that some of you can’t see the way this is going to turn out for us all if you believe it’s best for us all to go cashless. There’s a reason for the phrase cash is king.

90% of the time I pay with cash, if a place doesn’t except cash I don’t shop there unless I really want the item.

We have saved a fortune now dominos and Pizza Hut no longer accept cash.

Many of the places I shop there are usually queues to pay with cash while the card only tills are empty.

Is it really impossible for some to get a card in the UK?

Bankrupts, people with IVAs, rough sleepers, care leavers, asylum seekers and recent refugees, people newly discharged from medium/long term MH sections... yes all of these and probably a few more will struggle to get a bank account that doesn't do cash.

I totally lost my shit over this about a year ago. A lot of poorer people find it easier dealing in cash as I guess you know exactly where you stand. I went to a well known department store cafe and they refused to even let you in unless you paid by card because of covid apparently. Their meals are really reasonable and I can imagine a lot of people would go there because of the value and they chose to exclude those who can only pay in cash. It then happened again on a family day out where my kids couldn’t spend their pocket money as the shop refused it in a well known attraction, so I had to pay for their items leaving me even more out of pocket. It’s just a bit crap for those who find money easier, and they tend to be more vulnerable.

I remember the days if working for 4.50 an hour and being really skint. I only got to go out fir a drink or buy food if I got tips. Even now I often use tip money to cover bus fares or to buy my lunch for work or get a drink.

Maybe we should all just buy card machines for ourselves. How much do they cost. How many tips will we need to break even ..🙄

It's far from a young person's event. It's a local event that tends to attended by middle to older age people (the oldest we know if is 89) and occasionally families with older children, our licence doesn't permit under 14s. The capacity is 1000.

The age spread of our customers is actually why we've never done online sales previously; we thought people wouldn't like it/cope, but the feedback has been really good - and although we do have people attending from all over the country, because the event is mainly centred on, and our main customers are the village it takes place in; we really would get to know if people thought otherwise.

Actually, you've missed the point. People point and say "think of the older people". It's got zero to do with that; had you read on, I have examples of people in their 70s who had and had not come to grips with the tech. For anyone under around 80 there is a choice. I agree that older than that it's difficult to change and they should be accommodated. But as time goes on that group with disappear. The world is changing, no amount of saying "but what about.." is going to stop it. Those of us under 80, especially those of us between 60 and 80 need to make sure we keep as up to date with changes in the world, so that we can function and enjoy life as we get older.

A basic reader from something like Sumit or Stripe doesn't cost anything, actually you don't need a machine you can just use your phone instead. The costs are listed elsewhere on this thread and on the websites but they are basically 1-2% of the transaction. So you don't need any tips to break even!

Except what do people tip?

Loose change.
The odd fiver that they have in their wallet. In pubs amd restaurants they usually just leave it on the mint tray.

No ones gonna say " u got a card machine love I'll leave u the 2.34 I have left after the round number"

Tips are optional and often done.privately. not everyone can afgird to tip very much.

We just won't get tips any more.

I just googled and I can't find an App called Sumit that works on phone to take card payments.

There is SumUP but that is a card reader device.

Stripe requires the recipient to input the card number, I think. Completely impractical when you are in an extremely busy environment (I was tonight). Or to take 3 payments/minute from 11 year olds.

I'm in Ireland and anyone can get a revolut account or an n26 account quickly through an app, both with cards.

For Revolut or N26, Apparently minimum age is 18, so anyone but the under 18s. And you can get your accounts suspended if suspected of fraud or criminality .... so "anyone" excludes those people too.

"Anyone" also doesn't mean folk who lack smartphone, wifi, money to pay for a regular data package, literacy & capacity ...

Oh and the extra 20p "convenience charge" should be banned. It's illegal to pass on the cost of taking cards to customers so how on earth they are allowed to get away with this beats me.

No it's not the least bit convenient to download yet another app, register a card, go through the bank verification process to pay for an hour of parking.

Those of us under 80, especially those of us between 60 and 80 need to make sure we keep as up to date with changes in the world, so that we can function and enjoy life as we get older

You are prepared to throw old and young people who need to use cash under the bus in order to self indulge in your belief that unquestioningly adopting change and withhold alternatives from others makes you 'young' somehow. It doesn't.

I round up for tips so a meal costing 83:48 ? Ask them to put £95 on the machine.

There comes a time when that gets harder. Apart from anything else a lot of technology is not particularly accessible. I have tried to register our car on the local parking app and I simply can't hear all the options clearly enough. You have to phone to register.

the percentage that 20p charge is, on the parking cost is huge. Your right it should be banned. I never use them unless I have to for that reason.

@LibrariesGiveUsPower

I'm agreeing with you, not the poster I quoted!

18 is the minimum age for a Revolut account holder, but children can be added for prepaid cards