Starbucks don't take cash

[CoastalWave]

AIBU to think this is ridiculous?

Took DS yesterday for a treat after school with his birthday money. We only spent £8 but as he handed over his £10 we were told, sorry we don't take cash anymore, card payments only.

Is this just the start of the slippery slope down to a cashless society ?

Really annoyed me!

All of the things you say you "need" cash for (selling on marketplace etc) can be done without cash. Where i live people simply do bank transfers. You don't need the newest or most expensive phones either, my mum has a basic model 6 years old and has the same banking app on it that i have on mine.

If you like to budget weekly etc there are lots of cards & apps that facilitate this so you don't spend money you don't have (revolut etc).

Who wants to write down every tiny purchase when out for the day? Cash is way easier for budgeting.

Must have been a decent phone at the time. My DPs basic older phone does not have enough memory even though he has deleted loads of stuff from it.

Op said they wrote everything down

If you take 2 mins out of your day to research it rather than writing passive aggressive messages you may be surprised

Probably placed an order through the speaker, moved to pay "sorry, no cash accepted" , then drove off without paying and without their food.

@Mydpisgrumpierthanyours

it really does pay not to take one person's whinge as gospel.

starbucks like many many other businesses us a franchise & this is a choice each one makes. It's NOT A nationwide policy.

A cash option ought to be available as it impacts the most vulnerable; that's more likely to be the elderly, or those on lowest incomes.

It's not control. It's administering. The card issuer can suspend / cancel the card anytime and has final say on whether you can complete a transaction or not.

Nobody can cancel or suspend the notes in my hand and the transaction is solely between me and the retailer.

I honestly do not give a crap if my bank knows where I spend my money.
Not a tiny crap. The convenience of cashless and being able to manage my money to the penny via my phone far outweighs any paranoid concerns about the Natwest knowing I just spent £10 in Asda.

How rude, calling those of us with very legitimate concerns 'paranoid' and making up nonsense about Elon Musk! Don't lump us in with conspiracy theorists.

It won't be very convenient using your phone when payment systems crash. I was in Tesco late last year. Payment systems went down. Those who had their bank cards could go outside to take out cash from the cash machines, but those with only phones to pay were leaving huge trolleys worth of food, it was chaos.

Also, in case you didn't know, when you pay by phone app - it's not just your bank who knows your transaction details. It's also the Bank of England / Central Bank, and therefore the government.

! I should?! Well they did know how to do that, thanks, but since all the bank branches in my city suburb have closed in the last few years, it would have been more of a palaver tbh.

But in any case, I wasn’t aiming for this to be a specific point, more a general one. Dd who is 21 and astonishingly, despite my shortcomings, able to use a bank, still likes to use cash sometimes (as do I!) was more annoyed than I was about the Starbucks thing and she made the point about teens. Maybe she knows some who like to spend cash eh?

@BertieQueen you do realise that there are les high street banks and online banks, like Monzo, Starling, first direct etc that don't have the option of going in with ID? I haven't had a high street back for around 20 years!

So that's not an option and I've never ever had a problem.

Cash is outdated.

! I should?! Well they did know how to do that, thanks, but since all the bank branches in my city suburb have closed in the last few years, it would have been more of a palaver tbh.

But in any case, I wasn’t aiming for this to be a specific point, more a general one. Dd who is 21 and astonishingly, despite my shortcomings, able to use a bank, still likes to use cash sometimes (as do I!) was more annoyed than I was about the Starbucks thing and she made the point about teens. Maybe she knows some who like to spend cash eh?

A friend had her card and phone payment suspended when someone cloned her identity. It took weeks to sort. She had to borrow cash from me to manage in the meantime. She had always refused to use cash. We always have some in the house just in case.

I find train station franchises the most likely to be card only.

! I should?! Well they did know how to do that, thanks, but since all the bank branches in my city suburb have closed in the last few years, it would have been more of a palaver tbh.

But in any case, I wasn’t aiming for this to be a specific point, more a general one. Dd who is 21 and astonishingly, despite my shortcomings, able to use a bank, still likes to use cash sometimes (as do I!) was more annoyed than I was about the Starbucks thing and she made the point about teens. Maybe she knows some who like to spend cash eh?

It's a slippery slope.

I didn't think places could actually do this? cash is legal tender, so technically they can't really refuse it can they?

Yes, cards and digital payment systems are very convenient for many people, and they also afford other benefits, as you point out, such as the clever bells and whistles on online accounts that make it altogether more attractive to do banking than in the past.

And I also think many people don't care, as you say you don't, about the banks knowing where you spend your money. But the concerns that many people do have are not just about the banks knowing where a person spends their money.

It's about the stealth movement towards a population that, with a few keyboard strokes, can be steered and controlled, individually, and as a whole.

Our footprints, both physical and digital, will be completely traceable. This technological capture is already leading to authoritarian overreach by governments across the world against their own people.

@Northseacrone I took out £600 as we went into lockdown one, just in case the banking system had issues. Over 2.5 years later, I still have £600.

I like knowing I have it, just in case, but haven't needed it yet.

@starfishmummy there are lots of apps & bank accounts now that limit any issues in cases like your DS's. Individual payments/daily limits/cash withdrawal/multiple transaction at the same place etc.

Telephone banking has been a thing for at least 30 years, so if you have a phone you can use that to check balances etc.

Even if you was unfortunate enough to bank with a bank that doesn’t have a store locally or that you could reach then a friend/relative who was able to lend you money until a new card came down would be able to give the person cash to help them get by, they wouldn’t be able to do this if everything was digital.

Post offices are also now being used instead of banks to withdraw cash.

Also I know that NatWest allows customers to withdraw cash after going through security checks online to get cash from a machine if someone has lost their card.

The small business where I'm a manager doesn't take cash anymore.

What a lot of you are not considering is how few banks there are around now. The nearest branch of our bank is now 40 minutes drive away. That's at least 2 hours for a bank run, we just don't have the staff to cover that. We don't take enough cash to warrant paying for a security firm to do a pick up, so we have no other choice.

If only it was that simple....