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!

I've copied and pasted for you @Fattoushi

"Good luck trying to buy a coffee in a blackout!
How do you think they're going to light/heat the cafe, or operate the coffee machine.
How you pay is irrelevant as the shops/cafes will mostly be shut!"

Rural location here. Well our business is in one. Blackouts not common but not unexpected in harsh weather conditions either.

A few people here have backup generators. We have one in our pub. In the last blackout we gave away hot drinks to locals. Some shops open here regardless. Cash is here to stay.

And we don't have any chain coffee shops in our village! It's all independent.

Those would be financial insitutuons freezing an account / refusing service and sending you elsewhere which is not the $2500 PayPal ‘fine’

Hi OP, the reason they have gone cashless is so homeless people can't use their stores anymore. They can talk about how it's better for business to be card only all they like (it isn't, it puts normal people off going there and the bank fees are still the same), but it's all about making lives harder for the very poor

Bank fees are not the same. It's costs twice as much to pay in cash than to pay for credit,/ debit card transactions. As well as that insurance companies put in restrictions on how much money can be held in the safe and how many people need to take it to the bank.

Except for the homeless people who have a basic card account, and may be using a card machine to take payment when begging.

They can simply refuse to serve anyone unless doing so discriminates against a protected characteristic. (They still can but at risk of being sued)

Individual Starbucks franchisees choose which methods of payment that they will accept

Except for the homeless people who have a basic card account, and may be using a card machine to take payment when begging.

Homeless people with card machines? I can't say I've ever seen such a thing.

I used to give the big issue lady a pret card at Xmas. She used to stand outside there every day.

Charities such as Shelter sponsor the homeless to enable them to open a bank account

www.hsbc.co.uk/help/money-worries/no-fixed-address/

and may get card machines via a charity or by themselves

amp.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/27/card-cashless-society-homeless-contactless-payments-britain

www.theargus.co.uk/news/17890425.amp/

Card machines that run via a smartphone app retail at approx £30, but can be bought for less or for free (I have one that I got for free by leaving it in an online shopping basket for a little while)
The provider takes less than 2% in transaction fees

As long as they have a data connection then it will take payment, a basis PAYG will give plenty of data for a month.

But there are others which run via their own embedded 3g connection which normally cost more, but there’s one for £9.99 at the moment - the catch with this one is 1% plus 7p

I'm with you, OP. I use cash for different reasons (mostly because I hate the idea of anyone being able to see what I'm up to - not that it's interesting, but still). I wouldn't go to a place which only accepted cards. The other thing that seriously pisses me off is 'pay by phone only' (e.g. car parks). I haven't got a phone either, and don't want one. So I can't park in some places. Very annoying.

Oh Big Issue sellers! That makes sense they might be given card machines.

I was going to say given that we're usually discouraged from donating to homeless people directly.

Places in the west end, I know Macdonald's in Victoria did it and a coffee shop in Picadilly had a touch machine on their window that you could donate to a Homeless charity

a coffee shop in Picadilly had a touch machine on their window that you could donate to a Homeless charity

Good idea. Feed the ballooning charity industry with their inflated management salaries and expenses. I wonder how much of your donation actually reaches the homeless

I worked for a charity for 11 years as an assistant accountant, i am more than aware how money is spent and where it comes from.
The company i work for now also works with homeless charities and pay for people on the street to work with the homeless.

So charities have to buy card machines because people will not carry cash?

As i have said previously, it is expensive to deposit cash in the bank. FWIW the charity i worked for very rarely had cash donations and that was over 15 years ago.

Charities do still get cash donations, but it depends on the fundraising you do. I am very involved in a local charity. We have collection tins in local pubs and cash collections. But it is a charity that is mostly supported by local older people.

And my comment was about charities having to buy cash machines for Big Issue sellers, thus increasing overheads.

do you know how much it costs to deposit cash? ir Barclays and automated transaction is 35p , to deposit cash costs 90p per £100. Nat west it was 35p to 70p It is unlikely the overheads will increase.
When i worked with cash .cash deposits were the biggest proportion of the bank fees every month. That was a car dealership so the majority of the money going through was smaller amounts through the spares and servicing departments.

You do not need to deposit cash in the bank that is a choice.
That is a high rate. Co-operative bank charge nearly half that. And big businesses will get better rates.

so where do you store the cash, is it covered by insurance?

Insurance does cover it. In a locked place. We record it and then use it.

When the arcade closes at end ofyear it costs a huge amount to transport the cash back to the bank. then it’s all done again when we open that’s why we are going cashless less fraud & cheaper insurance & no emptying cash boxes every week at 5 am.

So what do you do with the cash if you "choose" not deposit it in the bank?

You spend it.
We used to pay our cleaner in cash - still went through the books.
And lots of bibs and bobs. It wasn't as if we were taking lots in cash.