Can shops refuse cash and insist on card payments only?

[AlternativelyWired]

A local deli moved to card only during lockdown and has continued to do so. There's a sign up saying card only and I wonder if there's a move towards a cashless society now. I get paid in cash and a take away drink and maybe a cake would be a weekly thing at most and I'd have cash on me but not necessarily any money in the bank. It's a first world problem I know but are shops allowed to say no to cash?

The visitor attraction l work for is card only - it's a pain for school trips and we get lots of abuse from people over it.

Apparently it's saving more money than we are losing in sales, though. According to accounts they had to pay for change to be delivered, pay for the money to be collected, insure the money while it was on the premises and pay the wages of the person who counted out the floats and the takings. There were also a lot more mistakes when we were using cash, not to mention all the damage when we were broken into - which used to happen pretty regularly.

I don't think they are going to go back to using it any time soon, to be honest!

I welcomed the day when our local buses finally got card machines, used to be a pain in the bum getting cash out and buying something to get change. I rarely to never have cash on me now. I get notes out to put money on my electric and gas, which would be better if they just accepted cards too.

Like an above poster my local chippy only accepts cash too so I just don't go there anymore.

Yes they can accept card only payments. They could also accept payment only with 2p coins or Pokemon cards if they wanted to. For many small businesses, taking a small amount of cash payments costs then more than the lost cash sales. Just as I avoid cash only business as I don’t want to deal with cash, you can avoid this business as you don’t want to pay on card.

I think it is a shame that some people are finding it difficult to access places when they go cashless but it is expensive to process cash. You can get cards that you prepay into with no monthly fees/ setup. I've used those for one off trips for dc. Best to sort them out a current account for high school though. DS got his at 11.

Of course they can. It’s their shop.

If you want places to contunue to use cash, then make sure you use cash.

Ditto using branches of banks, cheques (still millions used every year, way less than at the peak but not by any means uncommon) or anything else.

Having a plurality of systems is good for business coninuity.

The card only shop could be utterly stuffed if a network went down.

I am pretty sure the North got debit cards about the same time as the rest of the country.

@WeAreBob not all 12 year olds are competent to be able to have their own current account, no. Not all 12 year olds are capable of understanding the concept of abstract invisible money on a GoHenry card - what things can be bought with it, which things are too expensive, why suddenly it may stop working because actually the money has all been used even though the card is still in your hand just like before. Not all adults are competent and capable either as it happens. So talking about 'irresponsible parenting' is just sounding off inside your massive privileged bubble. Restricting the use of cash makes life incredibly hard for the people whose lives are already hardest.

The vast, vast majority of 12 year olds are. The vast majority of younger children are.

The problem is that parent dont bother to teach them.

I'm not talking about the small number with SEN which prevents this understanding. Because it is a small number.

The vast majority of kids can understand and work a money card if they are taught.

I'm not sure where you get my massive priveldged bubble from? I'm a single parent (totally single. Their dad walked off and we didnt see him for 5 years and now he sees them a few hours a week with very very little CMS) and I am "low income".

I'm not privileged. But my kids have been learning about this stuff for years because it is an important life skill. Its idiot parents who call bank acxount

*who call bank accounts a "piggy bank in the sky" and other nonsense who are to blame for their kids not understanding.

It isnt that the kids arent capable.

@WeAreBob That's all privilege talking. The privilege of having kids who can understand the concept of money, and addition and subtraction, in the abstract. The privilege of not having to consider 'the small number with SEN' or realise that if you prefer and promote a cashless society, your kids will be fine but mine will lose a crucial opportunity for some limited independence.

Also I would argue that, never mind younger children, many many adults struggle with the abstraction of money in the age of card payments. I'm not talking about special needs or disabilities here, just average wishful thinking and poor budgeting. If you withdraw £60 in cash for the weekend and all the banks are closed til Monday, you cannot overspend however much you might feel the urge. Contactless swipes of your phone or wallet are so much easier to shrug away until you have to face a reckoning in the shape of an overdraft notification.

I think it's headed that way.
Slightly off topic but our local.shop has a minimum £5 spend of paying by card. My bits came to £3 odd and the cash machine outside wasn't working, so I bought cigarettes. They then told me "not including cigarettes or formula". I just left without any of it and haven't been back since. OK so I should have had cash for my tit bits but irrespective of that, I hope that when shops do go cashless (because I can see it happening) they don't have minimum spends or ridiculous caveats in place to use your card.

If you need a kids card hyper jar is free rather than forking out for go henry

In case anyone missed it, the BoE is phasing out 20 & 50 £ notes from September too.

The OP says nothing about having a child with SEN. The vast majority of kids do not have SEN. Even the vast majority with SEN can understand money and cards.

I'm talking about parents simply not teaching them, like the OP. Her kid doesn't have one and probably doesn't know how they work because she hasn't been taught. Not because she isnt capable of understanding but because they haven't attempted to teach her.

Some kids wont get it. But no kid will ever get it with parents like OP who dont even bother.

That isnt privilege. It's normal bloody life. You teach your kid age appropriate stuff as they grow, but for years and years, financial stuff isnt taught by parents and kids suffer. Not because of SEN. Because of lazy parents.

In the absence of SEN, that's just people lacking in personal responsibility.

We dont baby people. They just need to grow up and learn. If they overspend then that is their own fault. They can limit that by having a prepaid card they load with their £60 and when it's gone then it's gone.

They don't legally have to provide a receipt as it is unless both the buyer and seller are VAT registered.

From their point of view, it's the contact details they really want. One to send endless marketing emails but also to sell these details onwards (to specially selected partners and all that rubbish).

@WeAreBob well then it sounds like you'll be fine and that's all that matters. How very lucky for you that no one you care about has SEN and that they won't be hurt by a move to a cashless society. The OP asks if shops are allowed to reject cash and, while they sadly are, it is discriminatory that they do so. If our only response to this is to harangue people who can't use card payments, that's discriminatory too. But WeAreBob is ok and would like to pretend that if everyone was just as perfect as her, they would be too, so crack on.

We don’t take cash in our business. It’s an absolute pain to get into Town to pay it in.

It depends on the shop, supermarkets like Tesco are moving towards card for the simple reason of the costs to count, insure and associated banking costs, it was £2 a hundred to pay in at our bank on the company's business account.

Our small village shop closed and the cash machine was removed. When it reopened the owners are happy to give you cash on a card but the cost of complying with the insurance conditions for a m/c was too high.

Isn't that just the paper ones though? The plastic 'new' ones will still be around.

I think businesses can make their own minds up. But I do wonder whether certain businesses should have to offer a choice because they are essential services - for example car parks or food shops.

Not having a bank account isn't down to poor "parenting", it's usually down to being poor. Also the need for photo ID which many people don't have.

The Go Henry type cards are quite good, but you do have to pay a subscription for them.

I created a separate email account for receipts for just the reason.

Unfortunately I can't remember what I called it!

I think il have to start again with a new one.

I agree. My son is in his 20’s. We’ve been teaching about money, the different denominations, how to put the right coins together to get to the amount that we need for years and years so that he can go into a shop and pay independently. Sadly if he had a card he wouldn’t understand there needs to be money in the bank for the card to work. It’s a difficult situation for those with SEN.