No cash accepted

[greenose]

I've posted about this before and it is getting worse. Takes kids into London today to spend some pocket money off grandparents. Goes yo Pizza Hut and its card only them the glossier shop and they don't Even have tills 😡 you put details into the iPad and pay contactless. I don't understand how all these business are getting away with refusing to accept cash.

I was at a cashless venue last month that had an IT failure. They were suddenly able to switch to accepting cash when they realised they were not going to sell anything otherwise.

What I did notice though was the teenagers working on the tills struggling much more than I would exoect to work out what coins were needed to form the right change. They simply weren't used to handling and adding up actual notes and coins which felt a bit sad. Another lost skill.

Cashless is the way, so much more convenient.

DS barber only takes cash and it's a pain in the arse. His hair is £18 but I need to send him £20 to withdraw from an ATM, the nearest is a mile away. Such a bloody faff.

@PonyPatter44 I didn't actively decide not to bring any money/cards with me (although I rarely carry cash in any event), I just use them so rarely that they're not something I think about. On this trip - as indeed every other trip that I've been on in the last few months (which is many) - I've used my phone for everything. Just as I do at home. (I also have a spare phone too). I'm in a European capital city, I have no need of cash at all.

With a real threat of cyber attacks, I think it’s a silly idea too.

In a really big cyber attack the cash machines would stop working, so it wouldn’t be much use either.

I was at a local soft play place the other day and they didn’t accept cash in the cafe! I’ve been on a tighter budget lately, so I took a certain amount of cash out for the week for “extras” like coffees as I often overspend if it’s just on card - tap tap tap. But that plan went out the window 😕

Cashless is all well and good till the it crashes which as we've seen a lot lately is happening more and more in bigger places.

I was in Tesco a long while ago and all their systems went down.
The queue for the two cash points outside was snaking round the car park while everyone's shopping was defrosting and getting warm in the trollies.

After that I have always carried enough to pay for a food shop

It's since happened in marks and Spencer's when I've been there,sainsburys,various coffee shops and cafes etc so I for one don't want cashless.

It's also too easy for cards to get cloned and people get scammed and accounts getting frozen.

Then you can't get to your money for days.

Keep the cash flowing

We used to have banks with cashiers, where you could get cash. Then they pushed us in the direction of ATM and closed branches. I've noticed that the last few times I've tried to get cash from a supermarket ATM there was a 'no cash available' notice.
They will keep pushing you in the direction they want by using incentives. Then one day they will switch, remove the incentives and you'll find that there is no alternative. We're in the middle of a 'boiling frog' situation.

Children under 10 travel free with a paying adult.
Children age 11-15 shouldn't be using bank cards anyway as a bank card will always be charged the adult fare. We got our DC an 11-15 Oyster Card because we go to london often enough for it to have been worth the trouble but if you only go occasionally an ordinary oyster card can be activated for Child Fare use at any staffed underground station.

I rarely use cash but I think it's prudent to carry some with me - I have some in a small zip purse, in a tiny container attached to my keys, and folded in my travelcard wallet (I have a Freedom Pass so I can't use my phone on the tube). I've mainly had to use it for school events/donations, though there were quite a few restaurants which only took cash a few years ago - not been to them in a while so don't know if that's changed. There's been the odd occasion that I've not had my cards with me if I've changed bags, and I've been able to use my emergency cash.

I dont use my phone for payment as I generally use a card on DH's account for spending, so I can't add it to my phone wallet. But I have a credit card on my phone wallet as a backup, and a couple of other debit cards too, so I'd manage if one particular bank went down.

I keep a fair bit of cash at home so I'd be fine if a cyber attack affected cash machines, for a while.

What is this special magic about cards that has people claiming that they can't be snatched? Of course they can! I was in Hurricane Helene a few weeks ago in the US and because the power was out for literally days, everywhere, you were seriously out of luck if you had no cash - there was no way you could buy anything all because all the systems were down. I realize that is an extreme example, but climates are changing, cyberattacks by bad actors are not infrequent etc.

With revolut junior of course.

If the power is down the shops are closed anyway, the tills don't work and the doors don't work and the security doesn't work....the shop is closed.

The last bank in our small town has now closed. The cafe has gone cashless because there’s nowhere nearby for them to deposit cash.

And where would craft fairs, tombolas and raffles for local good causes, schools etc be without cash transactions? The PSA running a barbecue at a school event won't want to have to need a card machine to accept payments for burgers, and who is going to buy a £1 raffle ticket with their credit card?

Society needs cash. All bank payments are tracked. There's nothing anonymous about them.

What happens to giving a homeless person some change? Gone

That poor woman in an abusive relationship trying to squirrel some cash aside? Gone

Easy fundraising, donating £1 here and there for charity at schools etc? Gone

No, that's not how it happened. Quite a few shops were open after a day or two and were able to accept cash, which sadly we barely had, having not taken the storm warnings nearly as seriously as we should have done.

I hardly ever have cash on me now. If I need cash for something I might take an extra £10 out of the cash machine to keep in my wallet just in case, but a lot of the time I don't bother with my wallet either, easier to just carry my phone.

I was in a shop I don't usually go to earlier and they only accepted card payment, much to the annoyance of the customer in front of me. I think some places do it to stop employees from having their hand in the till.

This subject has been done numerous times.
We all use our favoured methods and cash is still a preferred method for many.

"Of course?"

Like everyone uses it.

A lot of people don't use Revolut because it's extremely unsafe.

If you get scammed on revolut, good luck trying to find any telephone number to call.

You will find it very hard to get through to someone at Revolut.

You can add anyone's card to your phone wallet so long as they add it themselves and approve through their online banking app, I've done to it add my credit card to my daughter's phone.

Hmmm it’s annoying but it’s today’s society, become much more of a thing during Covid too.
Also surely kid’s pocket money isn’t for Pizza Hut?

I can't believe some businesses are cash only.... I wonder why?

How else can what you spend be tracked...you are being very unreasonable

All of mine have had debit cards since they turned 6.