Hairdresser only taking cash

[Snowleopardsspots]

I live in London and have my colour done every 6 months. It costs £265. Hairdressers is nice enough, the lady who runs/owns it/does my hair is an Albanian woman.
when I started going 2-3 years ago, they kept saying oh the card machine is broken, can you pay cash? There is a card machine next door. Now my daily limit is £50 so I would have to visit the cash machine six times leading up to the appt. I am disabled and do not go out every day. When I first went They gave me the bank details and I paid straight into the account. Just had my hair done and said do you still have the same account? She said oh we are a cash only salon now. You can transfer the money today but in future we are cash only. I heard them telling a few people on the phone when making appointments ‘it is cash only’ and a couple of people actually left and came back with cash. Is this a common thing? Is it time to find a new hairdresser?

Sounds like she's dodging tax. I would go elsewhere. I don't buy from anyone providing a service costing more than £50 if they only take cash. I pay my tax and want to support those that do the same. Not all cash businesses are tax dodgers but I don't have time to investigate.

Not everyone can. Some bank accounts are for people who can't manage money properly and get into debt. Or people who want to be very in control of their money and limit any movement and possible fraud

Mine is cash only too. Defo tax evading.

She's the one potentially being dodgy.
You're not.
Ask for a receipt or invoice.
That should tell you if she's legit.

Having a smaller cash withdrawal limit doesn't matter unless you have written your PIN number on it also. Which would be a breach of your T&Cs.

The reason banks put cash withdrawal limits on cards is to stop idiots lifting tens of thousands at a time when they want to buy a car and can't be bothered ordering it via their branch. Thus emptying the ATM leaving nothing for anyone else.

You have set this restriction in place needlessly then complain when you force yourself to have to go to machine over multiple days.

She clearly does not wish to declare her income for tax, as I imagine is the case with many self employed people who take cash and give no form of receipt. Report and find someone new.

I wonder about theft. Surely it's risky to have that much cash, and now there's few banks, it won't be easy to drop it off during the day (she can hardly run out every half hour doing her job). Not your issue OP, but just one of the reasons I find it odd!
I suppose cheques aren't possible now? Can't remember when I last saw one, but would that mean she doesn't have the same bank charge, and you have convenience, OP? As in you'd only have to get one book ordered, not trek to the ATM?

I recently had this with a tailor. Smaller amounts of cash (just using them for alterations) but it immediately made me assume either tax evasion or money laundering.

If you only go once every 6 months, can you not just withdraw £50 each time you pass a cash machine and put it aside ready for your appointment?
surely you have enough time to prepare for this in between appointments.

I'm sure plenty of businesses do ask for/insist on cash for the purposes of avoiding tax; but this is by no means always the case.

If you're a very small business - especially if you're a sole trader or family concern - a large part of your income will be effectively your wages. If you take a payment by card, you have no alternative but to put it through the bank, as well as through your books, and pay bank charges on it; but if you take cash, you can quite legitimately keep scrupulous records and put every penny through the books for tax purposes, whilst avoiding paying unnecessary bank fees for paying it in and then paying more bank fees for withdrawing it again to pay for your personal living expenses.

Also, I think the nationality of the business owners can sometimes be relevant, as they may have come from a less industrialised country where cash is still more commonly used than in the UK; and/or if their country of origin is a much less liberal one, with the police looking over your shoulder at every street corner, they may still be very wary indeed of giving away more power to 'the system' to control them, when they have a proven track record of abusing that power.

report them the HMRC
they are avoiding tax and this is one of the reasons everyone else’s is so high.
it is that simple

This

£265 for colour?? You are being ripped off anyway, cash or not😳

If you want to keep using the same hairdresser, you'll need to pay cash.
You could make one trip to the bank each fortnight to withdraw cash.

I would try to use cash as muxh as possible.
i find that it saves bank fees.

If you want to keep using the same hairdresser just go to the bank one day and withdraw cash. Otherwise found another that takes card

I went to a nail salon that took card, next time cash only. I haven’t returned as they aren’t paying tax - so look for someone who will take card and pay tax. Why should you pay tax and they don’t?

anyway the nail bar got raided, people got half a job done! As the place were breaking a couple of laws and it’s not reopened

Speaking of only taking cash a number of cab drivers have only been taking cash (which I always have anyway) as they tell me their card machine is broken. I use taxis weekly after food shopping.

I think this is a common lie.

Guess people are trying to survive.

Has the Albanian hairdresser got children? A lot of the UK is claiming benefits plus undeclared cash income alongside. It is statistically reported to be literally half the UK.

Another person could be paying the business rent on the salon for example so she can claim as a single parent for example. Of course this is only conjecture.

The British are doing this widespread so not just immigrants.

Agreed hair dressers, barbers, window cleaners and car washes are ideal for money laundering because they have low untrackable input costs. If you try through a normal shop at some point the amount you take has to reconcile with what you have spent on stock.

There is a lot of organised crime and money laundering in the uk and unfortunately Albanians (not all) are well known for their participations.

Why is limit £50 you can change this.
Many machines allow £250 or £300 withdrawals

Money laundering.

For ages I went to the same hairdresser, largely because she was a short walk away and I could always get an appt. the same day.

The salon was never busy and eventually it dawned on me that she couldn’t even be making enough to pay the business rates. In fact she wasn’t a very good hairdresser, which was why it was never busy. She’d told me way back that her dh had his own business, so I put 2 and 2 together. Initially she had wanted cash, but did start taking card payments.

Eventually I found a much better HD - a longer walk away. He’s since moved to a different salon, so I’ve followed him there.

How naive are you.

My hairdresser started saying cash or bank transfer only, since last year! I don’t like this because I pay for myself and my daughter and it comes to just under £300. That’s a lot of cash to carry around! Funnily enough she said the card reader wasn’t working! When I said I couldn’t do a bank transfer nor use the ATM that day. I would have to wait until
Monday to physically go into my bank and withdraw the cash. I did think what a massive inconvenience!!! Suddenly it was working again! They then said it’s because the credit card services charges them a fee each transaction. But I suspect it’s more to do with tax avoidance. My husband’s barber now only takes cash too and points the customers to the ATM opposite! Perhaps the businesses are struggling to make a profit and paying less cash helps them financially. A neighbour recently recommended a plumber but he would only take cash for a big job. I declined as I wanted the security of proof that I’d paid, in case it all went wrong. He did actually say it was for tax purposes!

He did actually say it was for tax purposes!

Well, ironically, it's the exact opposite: it's actually for 'non-tax' purposes!

Paying cash is inconvenient for you. So there would need to be a big advantage to going to this hairdresser to continue doing it. It's certainly not price, is it? £265 for colour is very expensive, even in London. Why do you go to this particular hairdresser?

Everybody would be better off if they didn't pay tax. One of the reasons tax is so high is because of the number of people who won't pay their share. The black economy is estimated to have evade about £3 billion of tax each year. Think about it the next time you're sat in A&E for 6 hours, or your local bus service is cancelled forever. edited - read post before hitting send