Is cash dying a death?

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I have a £20 note tucked in my phone case. It's been there for a few weeks. I rarely use cash save buying things at the local market (the olive stall and plant market)
Do you still use cash and if you what for?

I use cash a lot - it helps me budget, I give it to my cleaner as I suspect her husband is in charge of her bank account and she isn’t. I withdraw an amount of cash each week and it really stops me in my tracks at the supermarket because whatever’s left over I put into a treat pot for the end of the month. It genuinely lowers my impulse spending weekly. Also I once couldn’t pay for a meal at my local as all their wifi went down and loads of people were able to just put down cash and I had to remember to ring and pay the next day over the phone which was a pain. I now have £££ in a coffee pot at home for Petrol, taxis for friends’ who drink too much to drive home and spontaneous pub drinks.

I pay my farrier in cash. My horses livery yard also require our livery fee as bank transfer but any other additional services as cash but I think that’s a tax thing

I pay for basically all in-person purchases with cash. Cash is anonymous and reliable and I want to contribute to demonstrating that there is still some demand for cash to discourage further businesses from going card-only, to which I really object.

@Galadali why don’t u just pay it in at your local post office
I do, saves going to the bank

I noticed quite a few people wait for the cash and card till at Tesco as they are only using cash. I am always surprised by the numbers that do this which tells me cash is still popular.

Our village shop wants cash now for transactions under £5. During Covid they preferred cards but apparently now they are charged too much by the card companies so prefer cash for small transactions.

Ah, local post offices, I remember them. Ours closed 5 years ago.

What annoys me on mumsnet is the way people assume that tradesmen whibwant to be paid in cash are evading the taxman. Cash is a perfectly good way to pay someone, though the earlier posters comment on legal tender is irrelevant.

I actively use cash where I can and also make a point of using the cashiers in the shops etc. I take out about £250 each month and generally run out. Had to buy a coffee on my card today!

We're sleepwalking into a dangerous territory.

So many implications of a cashless society. People say 'yeah but xx doesn't pay tax etc'. I can't get my knickers in a knot cos the plumber/hairdresser etc does a few jobs for cash when those at the top get away with so much more.

I’m amazed by how many people still pay me in cash. I have a card machine, but cash is still king.

im just glad to be paid I don’t care how.

Can you pay cash into the post office? Mine only takes cheques!!!! How do you pay cash into the post office.

I often run the snack bar at our cricket club. We’re set up to take card payments via an iPad app and a dongle thing, or cash.

Last summer virtually all transactions were by card, just a few cash payments from very young kids with their pocket money.

At the start of this season (April) I’d say 2/3 of transactions were by card.
In the last couple of weeks it’s been about 50/50.

I feel like people are beginning to carry cash again after a few years of not. A bit of a back up for flat phone batteries. I’ve started carrying parking money again, after being caught out with the wrong, or out of date, parking app.

I like to tip my lovely hairdresser too, and the guy who cuts the grass is a cash-only one man tax dodger.

And the same goes for people thinking small businesses such as hairdressers/cafes/restaurants preferring cash. What they fail to sometimes recognise is the ridiculous costs to the Merchant services banks/chip and pin companies when taking card payments, whereas mainly a certain amount of cash can be banked for free, or used at wholesalers/suppliers.

I’ve been carrying around the same bit of cash for over a year. No one wants to touch it. Absolutely every business in my area has a sign up saying they prefer cashless transactions. Some only have one register that even has cash in it any more. Even things like food trucks and vendors at the summer fair preferred cards.

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads : how much did the dongle cost?

I'm looking at Zettle which is 1.75% of each transaction + ~£30 (lowest price) for the card reader device. I think this is the cheapest way we could take card payments. I was trying to figure out if I could use one Zettle reader for 2 different bank accounts (2 different charities, at their different fund-raiser events). This is looking tricky but not impossible...

Some of the payment receipt systems charge a fixed 20p/transaction + a %, but that would be very pricey & wipe out profit margin on a snack bar set up I imagine.

Yes still use it

In beauty salon, in the shops for small purchases.

Charity shops take it

It happened here during Storm Desmond when our entire city and surrounding towns were without electricity for a few days. People couldn't even pay for a taxi or bus fare to get home on the night the power station flooded - they were sleeping in a few pubs that stayed open all night as a kind of refuge! Taxis and buses were cash only due to there being no power for the internet/mobile phone network!

The thing is, though, shops were closed too because of no power, so even those with cash were very limited as to what they could buy - just a few private/small shops managed to open which weren't reliant on bar code tills and where the owners knew prices and could add up in their heads! All supermarkets were closed as were petrol stations. No point having cash if the shops are closed!

More and more wholesalers/suppliers to shops are refusing to accept cash. Not long ago, delivery drivers would take cash when they delivered to small shops, but most don't do it anymore.

Most banks charge exorbitant amounts when businesses pay in cash - a small number offer low charges and one or two are free for relatively small amounts.

@user1497207191 not in north London they're not....Costco/Makro still take cash as do all of the wine merchants and other restaurant suppliers we use. We are lucky in that we have free business banking (account set up years ago and even tho they keep trying to move us to a paid for business bank account, I just ignore their requests ) and that we can still bank a reasonable amount of cash. We don't though as we probably don't even take as much as 10% of our revenue in cash.

My window cleaner knocks on after every job and I say 'I'll transfer you the money' I've been here two years and he still knocks on for me to say the same thing. Every. Single. Time. 🙄

I have noticed that staff in a lot of places just say, “tap there when you’re ready please” or similar. They don’t ask first how you want to pay. There is an assumption now that customers aren’t going to pay cash. And I guess that card/Apple Pay is marginally faster, which is handy at busy times.

I don’t care how I pay but I care that some people will be disadvantaged by the decline of cash transactions, so I try to use cash regularly for their sakes. I can’t see it making much difference tbh though...

I went to a restaurant a few weeks ago and they refused cash. They were in a cooperative type building with loads of other restaurants and none of them took cash. Annoying as the kids give me their cash to buy them stuff online and i was loaded up with it

Paying the farrier (and gym lockers) is the only time i pay cash and every time going to the cash point is the biggest burden of the week (yes i know 1st world problems). I wish he would go to bank transfer

I rarely use cash now, pay by card for most things now.
My DCs, 24 & 20 just use their phones now to pay for most things. They hardly use bank cards let alone cash.

Yes, I still use cash ... I went to a different church this morning and gave a cash donation (I donate by standing order to my 'regular' church). I use cash for parking if possible, hate faffing around trying to pay by mobile.

I manage a charity shop and at least 30% of our transactions are cash.