Petition to protect cash payments

[Precipice]

Have you ever been one of those people aghast that a shop won't take 'legal tender'? That's not what legal tender means, but now you can be right in practice even if getting there the wrong way.

Ever lost your card or whole wallet somewhere and been glad that having cash meant you could still buy something?

Concerned about privacy? Concerned about security of payments when there's an issue with your bank?

Have a bit of sympathy for people who prefer to pay in cash for whatever reason even if you yourself prefer card or waving your phone?

Sign this petition to require businesses and public services to accept payment in cash: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700404

Poland has such a law, with some exceptions. So can we!

Whilst I have some sympathy with the sentiment, it will never happen. Even if it obtained the required number of signatories, it is totally impossible to do what it says. It's an appalingly badly thought out idea. I wonder, for example, how Amazon will manage to collect cash for its provision of goods and services? And how does the UK government dictate to multi-national companies who can decide that they will simply pull out if their business is interfered with - and that will include most of the banks!

I wonder, for example, how Amazon will manage to collect cash for its provision of goods and services?

It wouldn't have to. It's a distance seller, so of course they'd have to take online payments only, which in practice means card. If we take the Polish law as a guide, that's where it applies (it also exempts b2b transactions and has exemptions for situations like festivals IIRC). We already have specific regulations for distance selling, for example in the right to reject. There's a big difference in practice between a transaction you're making online and a transaction you're making in purpose.

Should the writer of the petition have specified face-to-face businesses? Probably. Bearing in mind there is only a little limited space for the explanation of what is being petitioned for, I'm not so surprised it isn't there. Most of these petitions are not making 100 percent efficient use of their allotted wordcount. Not so surprising.

The real point of petitions on the parliamentary petitions site is to demonstrate that there's some demand for an idea. There's no space there for a legislative proposal. There's no permitted wordcount to explain the nuances of a proposal.

And how does the UK government dictate to multi-national companies who can decide that they will simply pull out if their business is interfered with In the same way that the UK government regulates businesses in general.

But that's not what the petition says, and I don't sign things that might mean something other than what they say.

Poland is not remotely a similar economy to that of the UK.

And government - pretty much any government - has no great track record of getting multi-nationals to toe the line. How's controlling internet content and access going? Or collecting taxes from Amazon? Half of these companies can buy countries if they want to.

There's better ways of managing these issues than trying to force businesses to accept cash.

Just to be clear: you don't believe parliament should pass any legislation regulating business because of issues with enforcing regulation?

"There's better ways of managing these issues than trying to force businesses to accept cash." What is a better way of ensuring people can pay in cash than trying to force businesses to accept cash?

No, a business shouldn’t be obligated to accept cash. It’s an extra labour for them to deal with and it doesn’t suit all businesses.

Why! Times change, things move on ... it's always been the way.

Amazon (and others) have stores that are cashless.
Would click and collect be acceptable? Takeaways (delivered and picked up) accepting cards was an extremely helpful change and helped takeaway apps take off imo.
It should be up to businesses imo and yes, they can say no cards if they want.

I signed it for all of those that can't get credit cards because no one in their right mind would use a debit card for shopping, unless you have a second bank account and some people struggle to have just one bank account

why? what do you mean?