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?

There's a post above that explains why for her busines it does make financial sense

Taking cash isn't free and for small businesses it may well be cheaper to lose the sale.

For those of you who want tiny independent businesses to take cash, are you campaigning to get a bank opened in every large village/town /suburb ? Because ours alm have closed, nearest bank is 30 mins drive and £5 in parking fees away. Post office counter closed in the collapse of mccolls and whilst supposedly reopened, 3/4 staff left with just one pt staff member still there, it opens sporadically.

DS (8) has a Go Henry card, and quite a few of his year group do. I'd be surprised if many children aged 12/13 don't have some sort of card for them to pay for things in shops or online.

I'd refuse cheques and insist on bank transfer!

nows a good tone for your DS to start using a card.

I've signed up for HyperJar. Dd hasn't needed one until now. Cash has been fine.

For everyone huffing about it being "good business sense" to take cash - it doesn't work like that, l'm afraid.

You have an actual cost attached to taking cash which may or may not be offset by the hypothetical increase in sales if you do - so a lot of businesses won't bother taking the risk as most people either have cards themselves or are in the company of someone who does and the actual loss of revenue through only taking cards is pretty tiny.

BoE is phasing out 20 & 50 £ notes from September too

Why?

I'm looking at getting multiple new carpets and flooring from Carpetright, I have to pay in cash on the day for the installation people to take up and take away my old flooring, it isn't taken in the initial payment to CR via bank. So I'm going to have to draw out hundreds of £ just in £10? Ridiculous

@Anxiernie it's just the old paper ones, don't worry.

You do need several cards though for cashless in case one is compromised or doesn't work, I use a different one for Amazon, eBay and PayPal and a different one for shopping, I never use my debit card only credit cards as I wouldn't want my bank account blocked because of fraud. When we used cash it was all so simple.

I didn't get my first card until I was 15 back in 2010/11. I had no need for one, I didn't get pocket money, I would just ask for cash if I was going out and if my parents could afford it and I wasn't in trouble for anything, they'd give me cash.

My DD is 6. She doesn't get pocket money either. I'd just buy what she asks for if she's been good and I have the money.

I'm perfectly capable of managing a bank account now, and I'm sure DD will be eventually too. I don't even have an overdraft, I always have savings.

There’s an argument for fighting to keep cash, as a method of private transactions and a sort of personal freedom from Big Finance. But I almost never have it. Unless I sell stuff second hand. Then it’s a pain to spend it, and even more of a pain to Bank it! My nearest bank is three towns away, and my main bank is online only!

@User46489 that's a valid point. The taco driver's sumup thing wasn't working a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't pay by card. The hairdresser also had issues last Saturday.
I'll be sending Dd with cash and card to the theme park to cover all bases. I think they can exchange cash for some way of paying.

I didn't know about the associated costs with cash. I remember cards having a minimum payment on them in some shops. When Switch was new back in the 1990s my uni friend thought it very amusing that he'd had to use his card to buy a single cream egg🤣

I like being able to physically see and count money and many shopkeepers appreciate cash near me. Just not the deli. The bus company I use for one of our regular journeys only takes cash.

We used to have 5 banks and 3 building societies in our small town. Now there's no banks at all. The post office acts as a bank in many ways but the queues are huge and it can take 20 minutes to be served. It's also further away than it used to be.

I didn't have a cash card until I was 15. It wasn't really a thing. Both dds deal in cash as does ds. Ds is now very excited he will have a card. He's 7 and has no need for one really although he does like to pay for his own toddler food snacks in Boots whenever I get my prescriptions. His own card will stop him pocketing my change claiming it's his 🤣

As banks have shut in our town the Nationwide queue has got bigger, some people have moved their accounts to there if they like to visit a bank in person.

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

It's only the old paper notes that are being withdrawn, not the current polymer ones.

They 'need' to be paid in cash as otherwise there is a risk they would have to pay tax.

I avoid companies who operate like this, they are cheating everyone. 😡

This is a facile and rather ignorant point of view.

You can only accept cash and pay full tax, just as you can only accept bank transfers and not report your income to avoid tax.

It depends what you report to HMRC, not how you're paid. HMRC are not watching your bank accounts.

On points raised:

My DD was 13/14 when she got her first debit card & current account. Some of our relatives live a fair distance away from us and increasingly didn't want to sent cash by post for birthdays etc, and paying in cheques meant a trip to the bank which was a decent bus ride away, so we decided to make it all easier for everyone. Now her family & friends just use Internet banking to send her money. If she owes a friend money she can send it using their mobile number.

Her dad and I also set up standing orders so she gets a small allowance every month, which she has to manage herself. She uses an app on her mobile phone.

I know not everyone has a smartphone nor access to the Internet. But the majority of people do.

There is a cafe in a large park near me that only takes card payments and I have to say the queue is kept down by the fact you just swipe and go. London buses are cashless, and the Tube will be the same way within five years. I work for TfL and will get grief for when the Tube is card only, but I recognise that it will save TfL millions in the long run. (They can cut staff and save on security custodians for a start).

It's not poor parenting to have not got your child a card at the age of six 🙄. Those comments are very judgemental and unkind. But the world is heading in a cashless direction. I think parents need to be clued up on this.

As for the whole "tracking" thing we lost that battle in the early 2000s. I hate the emailed receipts thing too. You end up with loads of marketing emails which means time spent unsubscribing from mailing lists. I still ask for a paper receipt or of the shop says they aren't available 🙄I say not to bother and walk away. (ProCook and Uniqlo being two examples)

I don't understand how it's legal to refuse to accept hard currency.

DH and I have used cards for literally everything for years because we get points or a cash incentive on our credit cards. I do remember the days of a minimum £5 transaction otherwise you were charged to use a card as soon as that went we paid for everything on cards.

I actually can’t remember the last time I paid with cash.

It's a first world problem I know but are shops allowed to say no to cash?

They shouldn't be. If the banking (or shop's system) goes down or if your card is blocked for no reason (it happens) you cannot make any purchases at all.

Cash is yours and you can control fully

There should be more outrage about this forced cashless trend frankly, but people just refuse to engage their brains and go along with what seems 'trendy' or 'convenient'

You can be as outraged as you like but it won't change anything

Apparently it was Margaret Thatcher who abolished the right to be paid in cash. So if you are in favour of the "cashless society", you agree with Thatcher.

Works the other way around too - I volunteer in a charity shop and our card machine went down when we had no internet because of a fault. Cash only. Lots of customers equally unhappy.