Tesco ditches cash payments at 40 cafes

[sunnydaytoday0]

I was reading this article (can read for free via Yahoo link) that Tesco are going card only in 40 of its cafes and customers will have to pay by card at self-service machines. I know it's something a lot of fast food places do already although I'm not sure how many give you no other choice but to use them. Would you be bothered by this or if all cafes (maybe even restaurants) eventually went the same way?

I don't mind self service tills when shopping in general although not for more than a few items. Interesting decision given recent news about different supermarkets deciding to actually put more staff on tills.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/tesco-ditches-cash-at-cafes/
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/supermarket-customers-forced-order-cuppa-134836134.html

YABU: I don't mind if I had to use these ordering screens in a cafe, and it being card only.
YANBU: I prefer the option of ordering via a person and/or having the option to pay by cash.

I think this is true, there's more of a concept of checking you have enough money if your money is on you, you can also see more easily what it leaves you with once you've made your purchase.

My son has a debit card, we transfer his bus money to it, but he likes to walk to school so he can spend the money. I encourage him to check the balance on the app before he buys things and he almost never has the amount that he thinks he has, sometimes nowhere near.
It's nice to pull out an amount for an outing without having to check back in with the grand total all of the time, but it's easy to forget a couple of drinks or a chocolate bar.

I was responding to someone saying is still legal tender so they should be able to use it. Not sure what you point is.

Exactly.

I am not against cashless systems and I do use them, but I've also been caught in the chaos when they go down. Cash is needed as an alternative.

Costa near us tried to go card only at one of their very large branches in a city centre. One day their card readers all completely failed and suddenly they could take cash again. It was that or close for the day and lose a lot of money. They haven't pulled that stunt since. I know that one because I was there with my DD on that day.

I regularly have to use taxis when I go to my mother's house and find their card readers very hit or miss. It depends on signal, which can dip. So I usually have cash as a back-up and they accept.

ApplePay now shows the balance on all the cards I have setup, so if anything that’s more convenient than cash as you don’t even have to count it - it’s there in front of you. It sure if that works for all banks cards though.

I’m older and can use cashless easily, but, there’s been a lot of corporate hacking etc lately, with shops, banks organisations. These places all work by electronic systems. Some shops won’t take cash now.

Banking apps and branches can’t operate properly.

If the hackers ever get clever enough to hack a lot of them at once, there will be chaos.

We need to keep both options.

I know, I was just reinforcing that. Legal tender is irrelevant.

I agree with all these points. I would hate to see the use of cash disappear altogether. I always carry a small amount of cash for emergencies, and my husband keeps a supply of money for when we get jobs like the tree in the front garden lopped, or if there's a plumbing emergency. Most builders still much prefer cash for smaller jobs.

My best friend always pays for everything by cash, and has never used a debit card for anything, including her supermarket shopping. She has always been very short of money and says that withdrawing the smith of cash she needs for the week helps her to budget, which I can understand.

This wouldn’t bother me. I haven’t used cash in years but my DH always likes to have some on him.

As an aside, does anyone actually know an ‘old person’ that doesn’t use cards or contactless as an everyday means of payment?

I see plenty of them in supermarkets, and it might surprise you to know that not all of them are "old". I also used to work in a place where a lot of people paid their monthly accounts with cash, sometimes quite large amounts. Mostly they were young.

There are good arguments for keeping cash, but the ones that go "oh the govement could freeze you bank account " or "hackers could freeze the financial system" apply equually to people who use cash or card unless you get your wages paid in cash and keep it under your bed.

As an aside, does anyone actually know an ‘old person’ that doesn’t use cards or contactless as an everyday means of payment?

Yes, MIL until she died last year in her 90s. She couldn’t use an ATM, mobile phone (even a basic one), computer and struggled if her microwave packed up, and she had to have a new one. SIL had to try to get one, with the same knobs. In fact, she couldn’t cope with paying her bills in the last few years. SIL had LPA and had to handle her finances for her. We ordered her food. We all suspected she was in the early stage of dementia, but she passed capacity assessments.

Thai actually isn’t true with modern banking though, it was true 20 years ago when your balance wasn’t immediately available to you.
All the kids debit cards have great banking apps with them.
You can check your balance instantly, it will even take off pending standing orders, direct debits etc so it couldn’t be easier to keep track of money digitally.

I always use cash and use the cash till at McDonald’s etc. my local tesco cafe is used a lot by local care homes for all ages and they all go in with cash to order. Could be interesting

I said I do get him to check his balance, but why keep always looking back at the bigger financial picture when you are out?

I will go into town today, but I don't want to spend more than £10, so I'll take £10. That's far more simple.

My mum gives my son £20 to take on holiday, it's for ice creams and archades, why not keep it aside for what it was intended for, rather than keep a mental tally or keep looking at an app? It's such a silly way of doing a simple thing.

Basic budgeting is deciding on how much we are willing to spend on X category and then only having that amount available to us, it's not tallying it up afterwards.

As an aside, does anyone actually know an ‘old person’ that doesn’t use cards or contactless as an everyday means of payment

Yes, my FIL. He does have a debit card but won't use contactless (doesn't trust it). He prefers to use cash. He has a basic mobile phone but can't work a smart phone so he can't use anything that requires payment via an app, eg some car parks. If he went to a cafe with touchscreens only he'd just leave. Now some would say that he should move with the times. He does try but gets confused and anxious when things go wrong. He's still a member of society but is being increasingly excluded by the relentless march towards cashless.

My MIL was 97 and going out using contactless all the time. She loved it! My dad is 92 and manages online banking.

Under a completely cashless society, especially if it develops into one that tracks not only the amount spent, but what it is spent on, which would be the next step, enforcement of such draconian rules could become a reality.

You do realise that modern stock control systems record what you buy, regardless of how you pay?

The trouble with doing all your payments "digitally", by which people are clearly meaning by phone, is that you need to have a phone which is still getting security updates. In other words, you need to replace your phone every 3 to 5 years. This is a large expense for many people.

If you pay by cash, they don't have a record of who bought it, only that it was bought.

I’m 48 and hate using contactless with a passion. Cash is King.

The 2 Morrisons near me have screens to order food but if you ask to have a human take your order at the till they will do so.

I am 70 and quite capable of using the screen and a bank card but don't want to. Neither do I want to scan my own shopping. That's why I refuse to shop in the local Boots because it is all self serve.

R.e. frozen bank account - you could still borrow cash off someone else, or work cash in hand if possible. If places don't accept it as payment, you're stuck.

The financial system bit - correct. Cash doesn't exist in a vacuum. It comes out of an ATM, and is paid back in,
If hacker erm 'froze the financial system' all that would happen is you'd be unable to withdraw cash or pay in! Sure, transactions could take place with existing cash but it'll run out eventually...

People moan about cash being dirty but will gladly use those touchscreens, surely they will be dirty as well, I haven't seen a whole lot of wiping going on with them

And that’s fine, you don’t have to see why anyone would go there. People obviously do, otherwise there wouldn’t be any.

A phone is only expected to last 2-3yrs tho you can also add your card to a apple/google watch. Cash might be an advantage if you run a really tight budget (we transfer a chunk to saving the rest is for spending) but then Monzo solves that issue with its pots. DS has a GoHenry card for everyday junk and a proper account for birthday money etc to spend on things.