Remaining Effects of Covid

[Watershed]

19-1 is…

Oops, misread!

 

[Bungle73]

if the improvements were not in favour of the general public, the general public would vote with its feet / wallets.

Personally I find paying by card / phone so much easier than cash. In the last 3 years I’ve used cash less than 20 times; once in a car park in Wales, all the other times at my Barbers. Not only is it much easier for all transactions, I now don’t get holes in my pockets That need repairing either. The benefits keep on piling up!

I haven’t used cash at the barbers for a few years. They’ve accepted contactless for quite some time now. In fact I book and pay using an app these days.

 

[Cdd89]

I haven’t used cash at the barbers for a few years

The above is more accurate for me.

In retrospect, for me, this is the most significant remaining effect of Covid. After the first two or three attempts (which were varying degrees of embarrassment), I became adept at doing it myself.

 

[birchesgreen]

I cut my own hair, i only accept International Diners Club.

 

[takno]

My barber (who was pretty nuts about restrictions) was extremely grateful for cash payment the other day. I've more or less completely switched back, and only pay with card now when I've run out of cash. Literally the only point where this is less convenient than card for me is in Tesco where they refuse to take cash on their stupid self-serving machines

 

[najaB]

Literally the only point where this is less convenient than card for me is in Tesco where they refuse to take cash on their stupid self-serving machines

Tesco Expresses are supposed to always have at least one staffed till open.

 

[takno]

Tesco Expresses are supposed to always have at least one staffed till open.

Yup, although of course the staff member is also supposed to stock shelves and manage the self-service tills, and the people wanting to use the counter include everybody who wants or needs to use cash, anybody who wants cigarettes, spirits or lottery tickets, anybody who needs a little extra help with their shopping, anybody with a customer service issue. Basically half the shoppers are filtering through one person for a lot of the day, and that person isn't even reliably to be found.

 

[Hadders]

*shrugs* - perhaps children like their parents being notified of every purchase they make, being prevented from buying certain categories of items, and using biometric identification when buying things.

Doesn't sound much like what children were like when I was growing up, but maybe the new generation is being suitably trained (or indoctrinated) for when all transactions will be like that for adults too, with the government playing the role of the 'caring' parent, with cash abolished and all transactions done with CBDCs.

The relentless acceleration towards that may well be a rather unfortunate lasting after-effect of covid - it was going to happen anyway, but covid has managed to bring it forward a few years.

Part of bringing up children is to prepare them for adulthood and the big bright world. Whether we like it or not the direction of travel is towards fewer cash transactions so the right thing to do is to make sure children are taught how to manage money in this way.

Cash use was in massive decline pre-covid particularly in London and the South-East, helped in no small part by TfL accepting contactless for travel. Cash transactions in stores have increased post-covid but to nowhere near the level they were before. Just today one of the places I used cash (a school near my rugby club where I park my car on match days) has switched to card only. This trend will continue.

 

[AlterEgo]

The only place I regularly use cash is my barber and one Turkish takeaway in Charlton. Even the local market near me has traders who accept card payments from a handheld machine though they are not cashless yet; it's cheaper and easier for them as well as being a hell of a lot more secure.

One of the remaining effects of covid is watching sceptics invest their time in lamenting other parts of everyday life which will surely Make Everything Worse Forever.

 

[route101]

My local Lidl last night was still playing Covid announcments every ten minutes. The screens at the tills have been taken down very recently though.

I still see many shops with screens up.

 

[Bletchleyite]

My local Lidl last night was still playing Covid announcments every ten minutes. The screens at the tills have been taken down very recently though.

I still see many shops with screens up.

Screens will have in some cases been kept for other reasons, e.g. they will have in some cases reduced assaults, particularly ones like spitting.

 

[najaB]

Screens will have in some cases been kept for other reasons, e.g. they will have in some cases reduced assaults, particularly ones like spitting.

Not to mention that after a couple of years not being coughed and sneezed on, staff would likely have objections to them being taken away.

 

[Mojo]

*For now*, yes. But a couple of years ago, you didn't have to have such a card at all because you could use cash instead - but now, if you want to go to Empire Cinemas, that no longer applies. Not hard to anticipate that the GoHenry card (and indeed all credit/debit cards) may be changed to be 'phone-only' in the future in place of a physical card - in much the same way that Odeon's Limitless card was previously a physical card but since covid is only issued by phone app (and if you don't have a suitable Apple/Android phone, or don't wish to use one in that way for whatever reason, you can't use the scheme anymore).

I suspect a lot of organisations such as the railway would need to get on board with that - there are many places where you need the physical card. I’ve also had a problem getting a refund in a national chain where I didn’t have the physical card and had paid via my phone, but the staff member said their checkouts need the physical card.

I’ve also had on Apple Pay a number of occasions being asked to insert the card for a Pin check. I always thought this wasn’t a thing as mobile payments have better security but it’s happened to me and also my partner has a SumUp machine and often gets customers paying with phone payment & them asking for card insertion. When abroad you sometimes get asked for a Pin with a contactless transaction, never had that in UK, it just outright rejects you and asks for card to be inserted.

 

[Jimini]

I’ve also had on Apple Pay a number of occasions being asked to insert the card for a Pin check.

That’s surprising to hear. I’ve used Apple Pay exclusively for a fair few years now (AmEx and Nationwide Visa Debit), and that’s never happened to me, not even once.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That’s surprising to hear. I’ve used Apple Pay exclusively for a fair few years now (AmEx and Nationwide Visa Debit), and that’s never happened to me, not even once.

It has to me, though not often. I suspect a software issue with the affected terminal.

 

[AM9]

I suspect a lot of organisations such as the railway would need to get on board with that - there are many places where you need the physical card. I’ve also had a problem getting a refund in a national chain where I didn’t have the physical card and had paid via my phone, but the staff member said their checkouts need the physical card.

I’ve also had on Apple Pay a number of occasions being asked to insert the card for a Pin check. I always thought this wasn’t a thing as mobile payments have better security but it’s happened to me and also my partner has a SumUp machine and often gets customers paying with phone payment & them asking for card insertion. When abroad you sometimes get asked for a Pin with a contactless transaction, never had that in UK, it just outright rejects you and asks for card to be inserted.

So much for only a mobile being carried then.

 

[najaB]

So much for only a mobile being carried then.

I wouldn't leave home without the physical card, just because contactless payments aren't accepted *everywhere*.

 

[island]

When abroad you sometimes get asked for a Pin with a contactless transaction, never had that in UK, it just outright rejects you and asks for card to be inserted.

I have had this happen in the UK – once – causing both me and the sales assistant to do a double-take.

 

[yorksrob]

I agree that we are moving towards a cashless society, and we can argue whether that's a good or bad thing. In fact, that argument has been played out many times on this forum, both in general discussions and more specifically linked to the use of e-tickets and ticket office closures on the railways.

But to bring this back to the topic, I don't think this is a 'remaining effect of Covid'. The trend started years ago, when debit cards became contactless. Data shows that a big driver of the adoption of contactless was TfL starting to accept it in London, followed by their decision not to accept cash on buses. I think there was a period when TfL accounted for 10% of all contactless transactions in the UK. And as people got used to tapping their card, it spread to paying for other low value items like a takeaway coffee. And the limits started to increase from the initial £10. All this happened long before Covid. Even without the pandemic, we would have reached a point where businesses decided that the number of customers paying by cash didn't cover the costs associated with handling the cash.

I don't think it will be long before a physical card becomes an optional extra on a bank account, a bit like a chequebook is for most banks. This isn't driven by Covid either, it's driven by the banks trying to cut costs, and an attempt to appear 'green' by using less plastic.

I think Covid accelerated changes that would have happened anyway (and this applies to greater adoption of home and hybrid working, and online shopping, etc). But Covid didn't cause these changes.

It's an effect of big business, rather then covid.

 

[DelayRepay]

It's an effect of big business, rather then covid.

Assuming you're talking about cash vs card/mobile payments, I think it's an effect of both big business and consumer demand. My local newsagent has a card reader - he's not a big business, it's literally him, his wife and a woman who works part time. He got the card reader because customers were asking to pay by card, and he was losing sales when he said it was cash only (even though he's next door to a shop with a free ATM).

 

[yorksrob]

Assuming you're talking about cash vs card/mobile payments, I think it's an effect of both big business and consumer demand. My local newsagent has a card reader - he's not a big business, it's literally him, his wife and a woman who works part time. He got the card reader because customers were asking to pay by card, and he was losing sales when he said it was cash only (even though he's next door to a shop with a free ATM).

Consumer choice is exactly that - choice, which is why your newsagent has both a card reader and a till.

It's big business that tends to want to remove that choice and force everyone onto electronic payment.

 

[najaB]

It's big business that tends to want to remove that choice and force everyone onto electronic payment.

Pretty much every size of business would stop dealing in cash if they could. It really is very inconvenient as compared to electronic payments - it's far easier to make mistakes with cash and at some point you have to physically go to the bank to deposit it.

 

[LowLevel]

My GP surgery has 2:07 of recorded waffle before one gets through to a person. I tried to sign up to the App to book appointments online, but it turns out they still had my previous address on file, despite four attempts over two years to get it changed. The fifth was today. Fingers crossed.

I did learn to play that to my advantage when I was having some issues that required contact with the doctors - my surgery operates the 0830 phone scrum or you're not seeing anyone today nonsense. I worked out that I could dial the number the precise length of time of the waffle before the phone lines opened and without fail I'd be number 1 in the queue.

 

[Bald Rick]

It's big business that tends to want to remove that choice and force everyone onto electronic payment.

It really isn’t. Lots and lots of small, independent, retail businesses are now card only.

 

[LowLevel]

It really isn’t. Lots and lots of small, independent, retail businesses are now card only.

Absolutely. Especially places like bars and pubs that have embraced the idea that they're slightly less likely to have the window put in by scrotes looking for cash and they don't need to go and bank it either.

A lot of businesses I use of that sort went over to card during the pandemic and never went back to cash, having found that not accepting cash made little difference to their bottom lines.

It is only usually the small number of people who doggedly wish to use cash who object.

I rarely carry it now.

 

[duncanp]

I have had this happen in the UK – once – causing both me and the sales assistant to do a double-take.

Having to input a PIN or insert the card could be a problem if there were no facilities to do so, such as when trying to board a bus or get on the tube.

 

[najaB]

Having to input a PIN or insert the card could be a problem if there were no facilities to do so, such as when trying to board a bus or get on the tube.

As far as I'm aware, transit mode doesn't have the facility for PIN verification.

 

[yorksrob]

It really isn’t. Lots and lots of small, independent, retail businesses are now card only.

Absolutely. Especially places like bars and pubs that have embraced the idea that they're slightly less likely to have the window put in by scrotes looking for cash and they don't need to go and bank it either.

A lot of businesses I use of that sort went over to card during the pandemic and never went back to cash, having found that not accepting cash made little difference to their bottom lines.

It is only usually the small number of people who doggedly wish to use cash who object.

I rarely carry it now.

I wonder if this is more of a Southern thing because I can only think of one pub I frequent that doesn't take cash.

 

[duncanp]

I wonder if this is more of a Southern thing because I can only think of one pub I frequent that doesn't take cash.

I think it is some chain pubs that have taken the decision to go card only.

In Birmingham, All Bar One and some of the trendy pubs on Broad Street do not accept cash, but Wetherspoons and the local independent pubs around where I live still do.

EDIT :

..and now there are bank branches that don't accept deposits of cash

Barclays said it has no current plans to expand the number of cashless branches.

If you believe in the saying "..never believe anything until it is officially denied..", then what Barclays (plus all the other banks) are really saying is "...we want more cashless branches, but we don't think we can get away with admitting this publicly yet..."

Bank branches turn away customers depositing cash

Experts warn of a sign of things to come as cash use continues to fall

www.telegraph.co.uk

Bank branches turn away customers depositing cash​

Experts warn of a sign of things to come as cash use continues to fall

For centuries customers have used bank branches to withdraw and deposit cash, but this everyday activity could soon be a thing of the past.

Banks across Britain have slowly started to launch a strange new type of branch – one that does not accept cash at all.

It would have been unthinkable in 1650, when a cloth merchant called Thomas Smith opened the first provincial bank branch in his native Nottingham. Yet there are now at least three banks in the UK where the Queen’s (or soon the King’s) face is nowhere to be seen.

Barclays – which operates two of the branches in King’s Cross and Hanover Square, both in London – said they are designed for customer meetings with bank staff, while Santander said its cashless branch in Leeds is primarily a co-working hub.

Both banks pointed out that the branches are within easy reach of others which do facilitate cash deposits, and Barclays said it has no current plans to expand them elsewhere.

But for Ron Delnevo, of the Payment Choice Alliance, this is a sign of things to come.

“It is absolutely the direction of travel,” he said. “What is the point of a bank branch that doesn’t handle cash?”

He pointed out that while the number of cashless branches is currently small, more and more branches now accept deposits via machines, rather than allowing customers to interact with members of staff.

British banks can state they are simply following what their rivals abroad have done. Those looking to deposit their krona in Sweden will now find that hundreds of the country's bank branches are cashless, while Irish bank AIB last year announced plans to ditch cash at 70 of its 170 locations – eventually backtracking following "customer unease".

For many, paying with notes and coins has become a forgotten habit – leaving us at a loss when we need a pound for the trolley at the supermarket or the locker at the gym.

As many as 23 million people in the UK used cash only once or not at all in 2021, according to the banking trade body UK Finance, an increase of 10 million in just one year.

Cash has gone from accounting for more than 17 billion payments – 45pc of the total number of transactions in 2015 – to just six billion in 2021.

The number of bank branches has fallen by 5,000, a reduction of more than a third since 2012. According to the Government, nearly 5pc of the population now live further than two miles from a bank.

In a bid to avert this slump, the Government launched the Access to Cash review in 2018, which led to the launch of Cash Access UK – a body tasked with introducing new initiatives to protect the use of notes and coins.

Cat Farrow, its chief operating officer, said: “Cash and face-to-face banking services are vital for many people and businesses across the UK. More people are choosing to shop online and bank digitally, which inevitably means fewer customers are visiting bank branches. However, it’s essential that we continue to support people who rely on cash.”

One such new initiative is shared banking hubs, where high street banks share one building, which were established in Rochford in Essex and Cambuslang in Scotland.

Customers of any bank can visit the hubs to deposit or withdraw cash, while the area’s most popular banking brands will send representatives to provide other services on one day each week.

Now, whenever a bank decides to close a branch an assessment is carried out by Link, which operates the cash network, to decide whether the area requires additional cash services.

This could include a shared bank hub, and there are now four in operation, with more in the pipeline.

However, critics highlighted issues with the way that the scheme works. Mr Delnevo pointed out that action can only be taken when the last bank branch in an area closes, which still results in the loss of a bank.

A source in the banking industry also said some communities, like Knaresborough in Yorkshire, have been waiting for more than a year for a shared banking hub.

The source said the way the system is structured is “problematic”, as notification is only sent when a branch closure is announced. The earlier Cash Access UK is able to become involved, the easier it would be to provide a replacement.

Mr Delnevo also criticised the fact that it has been left up to the industry to lead the charge: “It’s like giving the poacher not just the gun but the atomic bomb.”

The Payment Choice Alliance is calling for a Payment Choice Act which would appoint a body like the Bank of England or the Financial Conduct Authority, the City watchdog, to be responsible for guaranteeing the future of the cash network in a more specific way than current legislation.

The FCA already has an “expectation” that it is notified when banks intend to close branches, while the cash access legislation currently going through parliament allows for traders to offer cashback without a purchase and also guarantees “reasonable access” to deposit or withdrawal services.

A spokesman for UK Finance said that it estimates that 1.1 million people mainly use cash for their day-to-day shopping.

She added: “However, the overall number of cash payments decreased in 2021 and we expect cash usage to continue to fall, with cash forecast to account for only 6pc of all payments made in the UK by 2031.

“The banking and finance industry is committed to preserving access to cash for those who need it, including through banking hubs, free cash machines, enhanced Post Office services and cashback without purchase.”

 

[Bald Rick]

I wonder if this is more of a Southern thing because I can only think of one pub I frequent that doesn't take cash.

I guess that’s possible. I notice it most at cafes, market stalls, that sort of thing. I don’t go to pubs, honest