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?

I think it is a little bit of a stretch to say we should stay with cash for the fear of ai making decisions on our behalf about what products we are allowed to buy. That's scaremongering at this point - you can make an equivalent statement about anything digital. Of course the technology could enable such a thing to take place, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't adopt it because of a fear it could be misused.

All of the pro cash examples on this thread seem to be about access to cards and card services. The issue to solve is around making these services available to all - demanding cash remains is regressive and solving the wrong problem for a modern society

I think it is a little bit of a stretch to say we should stay with cash for the fear of ai making decisions on our behalf about what products we are allowed to buy. That's scaremongering at this point - you can make an equivalent statement about anything digital. Of course the technology could enable such a thing to take place, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't adopt it because of a fear it could be misused.

All of the pro cash examples on this thread seem to be about access to cards and card services. The issue to solve is around making these services available to all - demanding cash remains is regressive and solving the wrong problem for a modern society

Why?

Cash is absolutely filthy, germ covered foulness. Its been in pockets of filthy clothes. It's been handled by hands that haven't been washed after the toilet etc etc. We volunteer in our community shop. Your hands get filthy handling it and cashing up at the end of the day. We didn't go cashless until covid hit because older customers insisted they wanted to pay in cash. Covid arrived and the terror of catching it from touching anything meant that everyone wanted to pay with cards. Our shop takes thousands of pounds every week. We are completely cashless now. It's brilliant. So much cleaner and no need to count and cash up . All the transactions are already recorded. No need for anyone to have to carry large amounts to the bank. No point anyone robbing the volunteers because there is no cash( we have cigarettes and alcohol. They can take those and go). Young people pay with their phones. Older people live here. They wanted the change to cards and know we dont take cash. Delivery drivers/ workmen who call in pay with their phones or cards.

It's not regressive to value privacy.

Even if a service were available to all, it doesn't follow that it's all right for that service to be the only option, from a previous choice. I have a few bank cards, but for almost everything I pay in cash.

As an anecdote, a while ago I (temporarily) lost my wallet while I was travelling, on my way back to the UK. I had some money outside of the wallet, which enabled me to do things like buy myself food so that I had something to eat in the 14 hours of travel that wasn't a chocolate bar I had in my bag and to pay for my bus ticket to the airport. In a cashless society, I would have had no method of payment.

@Honaloulou covered the general principle of legal tender above. (Which was also in response to a reference to Scottish notes being legal tender - they aren’t, because ‘legal tender’ doesn’t apply to notes in Scotland)

Legal tender covers debts, a creditor cannot take a debtor to court if they have refused to accept payment within the denomination maximums of legal tender.

www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/what-is-legal-tender

Retailers can legally decide what payment methods they are willing to accept.

The other issue of potentially discriminating against a customer would apply only if a protected characteristic is restricted by the retailer. Some of the elderly prefer cash, other elderly prefer cards
It is a sad situation for available choices to affect individuals who are subject to various ‘limitations’, but it’s not necessarily down to an individual retailer to be responsible for helping them out.

I nearly always use cash (live abroad) I hope it doesn’t change, to be a cashless society really worries me.

My dad has never had a bank account in his life. His wages were paid into my mum's bank account, and now his pension is. If he had a card, he would be dead from drinking by now.

Ok but he did use a bank account - your mums. Assuming she withdrew cash and gave it to him, she could have just as easily transferred the same small amount to a bank account he had a card for.

My point is that cash has come from a bank account at some point. OK very rarely some wages may be paid under the table in cash, but benefits and pensions aren't.

I get (a tiny amount of) cash from my self employed ex who hides all his earnings to avoid child maintenance. It's the only spare spends I have as my wages are immediately taken up by direct debits for bills.

Same with this situation, you have a bank account, you could put the money in it.

My mother uses cards. She has an iPhone, an
ipad. She sends watts apps , uses zoom and travels abroad independently. She is 83. If you have a pension you have a bank account and a card.

I like cash, partly for the access reasons that many PP have stated, partly because when the systems go down, cards are useless, partly because I am much more aware of what I'm spending if I'm using cash, but above all, because I like choice. If you don't want to use cash, then don't, but why insist that other people have to be bound by your preferences? And has there been any case when someone has actually caught a disease, covid or otherwise, from cash?

I’d use my phone.

Lock down all but one card - you can freeze them instantly with online banking and crack on with the other one.

As I said in a pp, my dad has his pension paid into my mum's account.
He does not have a smartphone, email, social media... nothing like that at all. I am glad tbh as he would be a liability. He used to keep ringing into LBC radio when pissed. He would be a nightmare if let loose online.

Same with this situation, you have a bank account, you could put the money in it.

But I'm nowhere near my local branch during their opening hours - I work in the entirely opposite direction. Not to mention the fact it's up a street that has been closed to traffic for many months now due to ongoing works so is a pain to get to at any time day or night on top of all my other commitments none of which take me in that vicinity.

Its too expensive for a lot of businesses to take cash. They are even charged for getting change from their bank or post office. The last time I had to order some they were charging 6p in the pound. Business accounts are also charged for depositing cash, they have to pay someone to cash up, count it, take it to the bank or have it collected. You get staff stealing or skimming cash. Its just an expensive headache

You are wanting other people to be bound by your preferences. You want to pay cash. Someone has to fill the till in the morning, fill the safe with spare cash in case it's needed, handle that all day, deal with the risk of being robbed, cash up at the end of the day. Redo the cashing up over and over until the till and the cash tally. Put all that money in the safe. Repeat seven days a week. Our nearest bank is 9 miles away now. Someone has to take that money all the way to the nearest bank. Parking has to be paid for. The treasurer ( aged 75 in our case) has to walk across town with thousands of pounds in cash in a bag in order to pay that in. That will take most of a morning. All to enable 1 person in 20 to pay in cash. We don't take cash anymore for all the above reasons.

The other day I was fundraising ; we only have one card machine which was in another part of the building... customer moaned saying "I haven't paid in cash since 2019!" Then she proceeded to list lots of times when she had paid cash or needed cash since 2019 and how inconvenient each occasion was. Very weird. Which was it ? I think she paid me personally by bank transfer in the end (& I bank transferred the money to the charity after that).

Plenty of businesses around me only take cash, people moan about it too, but they seem to be successful businesses.

Why?

A charity run cafe local to me would not take card payments under £5 for years as they said it cost them too much. Has this changed?
They went card only during Covid. Sure way to make sure people spend a £5 as a minimum. Pretty crappy way for a charity to run.

I've started to purposely use cash in shops recently.

We must not do away with cash, it's not right to discriminate against people with disabilities, or a very tight budget.

My local Lidl have changed their self service to cash and card payments, so more people must be using cash.

Your merchant services fees seem high. What % are they and do you hire the equipment?

Every time you use a card, Visa or Mastercard earn money off your usage. Do you really want to send money to the US every time you spend anything in another country? I don't.

@AngelinaFibres if only 1 person in 20 was paying cash anyway, it sounds a bit of an exaggeration that thousands of pounds would be taken regularly to the bank. How expensive is the parking?! It's customer-unfriendly to take the choice away and I'd rather support businesses which take my hard-earned money in cash.

Yes it changed. There’s lots more competition now in terms of payment providers so fees have dropped considerably