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!

Yes I don't think my son ever uses his card now. He has some cash stashed away for emergencies (eg if he lost his phone AND his card) but never uses it. in fact I found £50 of old £10 notes the other week in his room. Fortunately Nationwide took them with no issues.

I agree it's easier for businesses if they don't have to take cash to the bank. However, they probably do need to consider discrimination law - there are people who can't cope with cards and need to use cash.

There is an issue for cardless for children. We have applied for a card for my DS as he had been starting to go out with friends after school and some places no longer take cash. When we applied on-line for the account with card you needed to upload his photo ID. Not every child has a passport.

Children are often given cash as gifts at Xmas and birthdays and the move towards cashless means they can't just go into a shop and choose what they like and pay with their money. This is what has happened to the OPs son. It is a big thing for a child to spend their own money and count out the change. There are cards for younger children such as GoHenry but these involve fees.

It didn't matter if its legal tender they are in no way obligated to accept it.

Not that I am missing the point about wanting to use cash, and I agree entirely that people should have the choice, but for the same reason you mention, I have a Starling card which is free to have. I transfer myself my "spending money" for the week, the same way you do with withdrawing cash, and use just that card for my weekly activities, and once it's gone, it's gone. No dipping into what's left in the rest of the account x

This

I can't get over people being so casual about this. I'm not a conspiracy theorist or a prepper (beyond a couple of loo rolls in the airing cupboard), but the pitfalls are so blindingly obvious.

Who do you think is going to track your coffee habit, and why?

In a cashless society, either the government, large corporations or hackers could with a few keyboard strokes render you a non-citizen.

If you are denied a phone contract, have your bank account closed or cards withdrawn you would not be able to fill up your car, travel on public transport, buy food, pay your bills or access your savings. You could beg for food, but not money.

Every aspect of your life; from diet, internet browsing, health, media consumption, charitable donations, spending habits etc would be available to the highest bidder. Please don't be naive and think this information will not be used against people.

I went into a clothes shop recently and a car had crashed into the internet cabinet outside and they could only accept cash, I don't know long it would be before it was mended.

I wouldn't give anywhere that doesn't take cash my business !

It's perfectly legal for a business to set conditions on how they will accept payment and not accept cash.

Martin Lewis explains why shops can refuse to accept your cash

That's a shame I only treat myself to a starbucks couple of times a year but shall definitely boycott if they are going cashless.

I think we are heading towards a cashless society in our life times.

I was thinking about this the other day OP. You don't find cash laying in the street anymore like you used to, not even the odd 1p or 2p!

I went to Bristol recently and found it extremely difficult to find anywhere that took cash or where I didn't need my (very low battery) mobile phone to place an order through a QR code on the table. Maybe I just liked the look of every single place that didn't take cash?

I agree it's pretty scary. A lot of elderly don't understand or trust new technology so will find this particularly hard.

I find this hard with children. If they don't have a card it's getting harder for them to spend money on things like ice creams etc. We had this during pandemic when even little stalls were card only.

There's also benefits in being able to track people. It is not all negative.

Cash is legal tender. How can they just refuse it?

As already said, it's their business and therefore their decision, if that's a good or bad decision business wise is down to how much cash they actually take (so loss of potential sales) Vs the cost of using cash in the business, but they can refuse it if they choose to, just because it's legal tender doesn't mean they have accept it.
In the same way some places don't accept Amex because of the fees etc involved, or cheques because of the admin involved.
You're free to go somewhere that does accept cash.

I get it though because I once only ever used cash, and I had to argue with my bank to get a debit card when they closed local banks and cash machines leaving only the ones that charge you in my area, you can't even go overdrawn with a debit card, it just refuses the transaction but because my credit history was bad and I still had a very basic account they refused to give me one. Literally refusing me access to my own money, ridiculous.
I suspect there's other people in that situation too, as well as those who prefer cash, get paid in cash or don't have a debit card for whatever reason.
If this is the way it's going to go then banks need to consider everyone and make sure people have access to their own money.

Exactly this!

Yanbu. I only use cash. I take it out each week. If people don’t want a cashless society more people need to use it.

YANBU.
The slide towards a cashless society is a human rights issue because of the surveillance implications. I'd rather not have my every move, thought and need logged and tracked.

You have NO idea how much coffee I drink !!😂

Agree 100%

Add to this the cyber security risk. There's already chaos if one of the banks' systems go down and their cards don't work for a few hours.

Plenty don't take cash in our town, banks have all closed

I'm the reverse, it really annoys me when a business only takes cash. Don't most people have access to having a bank card now? There are lots of apps to help people budget and some banks also have options for helping to budget their funds.

Maybe because I'm an auditor Ive see so many business either get cash taken from employees or avoid tax taking cash. I'm very pro no cash!

I admit to having been seduced by the convenience of Apple pay and use it now for most things, but have recently been reminded of the importance of cash. The other week our whole area got cut off thanks to a damaged cable - 23,000 people with no internet and no 4G signal. Apart from the fact that we had no way of telling whether the rest of the country had been nuked, it meant no electronic payments and no ATMs working. I don't think we have any businesses who don't take cash (no Starbucks or Costa Lottos here!), but cafes and shops obviously had to turn customers away if they didn't have cash to pay with. We got some connection back the following day, but services were on & off for the next week as engineers repaired the cable. Lesson learned, and a weekly shops-worth of cash now stashed away for next time!