AIBU to put up a sign encouraging customers to pay in cash?

[Theydidnt]

I run a small business and we are taking SO much less cash than we used to. It's really having an effect on how much we are taking. But I'm interested to know whether people would be put off by a sign with this wording or whether people support it. I know lots of people think cash is a way of avoiding the tax man and may find it unprofessional. Interested to know people's thoughts

I can imagine that banking cash is a ball ache, although like I said upthread I mostly use cash. Quite alot of this was from the influence of DH who was an accountant who used to work alot as a witness in fraud cases and he has always said you can piece together a person's entire life by their card transactions.

But that said- we live in a village. Our nearest town (not city) has just an HSBC and a LLoyds bank left. everywhere else has closed. One of those banks is closing in August. So we will have no physical bank within a 30 odd mile radius of us.

I know it says not to worry but these signs always put me off making smaller transactions. I almost never carry cash and don't want to.

Yes but surely the idea is to keep prices low and retain customers.

My local hairdresser only takes cash, the business has been there for 15 plus years and it works for them and it’s not a tax dodge. Prices much cheaper than going into the city centre so worth me getting cash ahead of time, though most of the time for everything else I use card Apple Pay or whatever. Clientele tend to be older, me included, so they are maybe more happy to use cash?

I would take out everything underneath no cash, no problem. The sentence is repeated and the ‘support small businesses’ bit would make me feel like I was doing something wrong! Otherwise fine.

I always pay by bank transfer when I get my nails done.

Whenever a business says 'We have to pay a fee if you pay by card' I always think 'Well, why does it cost me the same amount regardless, then?' If you need to cover transaction fees, whack an extra quid on the price of treatments for people who pay by card.

Increase your prices to cover the card fees and offer a 5% discount for cash rather than a passive aggressive sign which will piss those who love tapping their phones off. I love cash. We are very rural and therefore frequent small businesses including local farmers etc. We always pay cash. If it enables people to pay less to the tax man then all the better.

It wouldn't offend me or anything, but it also wouldn't make me any more likely to carry cash, which I literally never do. It's just so inconvenient. I do feel for small businesses though, I know it's a hard environment for them.

This is not legal since Jan 13th.

Our local fish and chip shop has a similar sign, it doesn't seem to stopped their trade!

Our local charity shop however asks for card over cash as we no longer have a local bank in the town and card is easier than going to the bank.

There was a piece on you and yours the other week about how some people are put off by places that refuse to accept cash. It also got on to the topic of how people are using less cash not necessarily because they don't want to use cash but because they worry about vendors not accepting cash/not having change as cash is now used a lot less. This drives less people to carry cash and more places to not accept cash. In that conversation a few people said it would be useful if shops had signs to say they welcomed cash or that they didn't accept cash so people knew where they stood before they got to the till.

I avoid businesses that only take cash because I assume tax dodging. They all deny it but still.
As long as you take card I would still use it.
My hairdresser reckons the bank charges more for cash than she pays for accepting cards so maybe you could shop around for cheaper card companies.

I disagree with others saying that just ‘cash is preferred’ is better.

I never ever carry cash because i don’t need it for anything. So if i saw your sign, it would make me wonder if you actually took card and possibly put me off coming in.

I would have a minimum spend, my place of work doesn’t accept card payments for less than £5, we have a cash machine fairly close by.
People are fine about it.

People are not going to read all of that.

"Cash preferred" is enough.

But surely the card fee is just built into the pricing? They can’t directly add the fee on top but it’s accounted for in the pricing, just as the pricing amount takes into account business rates, staff breaks, nation insurance etc
Ultimately it’s the customer paying towards all those things.

I wouldn’t pay any attention. I’ll still use card. Hate cash and never use it

Yeah get rid of the retaining 100% of the value bit - you pay tax on that so its false.

Because it's illegal

If i had to choose between prices 2.5% higher and paying by card, vs paying in cash.... i'll choose card.

This is because:
A) I don't often have cash, there aren't many cash machines near and the only one in my village charges me to withdraw.
B) I end up with loose change that I fritter rather than only spending what i actually need to.
C) paying on card allows me better data to review my own spending and manage/control it - i can see that I've racked up £80 in a month on odds and sods at the corner shop and reign it in.

If you are in England and Wales (don't know about Scotland) you are breaking the law.

I've seen this in a few places, yanbu at all x

yes but the poster wrote this

"If you need to cover transaction fees, whack an extra quid on the price of treatments for people who pay by card."

Because that’s not legal.

I also really hate when people suggest i should "support small businesses".

Why should I? So you can make a profit? Its not any more noble to shop at a small business, many of them are actually just less efficient, more expensive etc.

You can put the sign up but that's not going to mean I ever have any cash in my purse.

I think all businesses should offer the options. Going cashless is inaccessible to many learning disabled adults or other people without access to a bank account.

When I worked at a theatre in recent years, it became really challenging to accept cash because our local bank branch closed and cashing it in was a huge inconvenience.

The coffee hut I buy a coffee at when I walk my dog at the beach has a similar but shorter sign and it just makes me feel really guilty for only being able to pay with my phone because I've just got pockets full of poo bags, dog snacks, my phone and keys. I don't think it's a great feeling to have as part of the customer journey.

It's a looooong sign though, where would it be?