Which year will the UK go cashless?

[Cross City]

I doubt the drug trade is ready for card only yet.

A decent portion (maybe even half, even very small time weed dealers) of that is crypto now... apparently.

The only time I've seen QR code payment in the UK is links to bitcoin wallets for dealers on Snapchat printed out onto stickers and stuck to lampposts and toilet cubicles.

 

[The exile]

The main issue with cashless is the fees right now. Most small business (like barbers...) that don't accept cards because of that

Most card terminals work using a subscription fee for the equipment + 2-3% + a token fee, on a 20-30 quid, could amount quite fast over a year

The rise of terminals like Sumup (which only has a 1.69% fee and you own the terminal in the UK) and all will push banks and credit card brands out to lower the fees

Although for most businesses that’s on top of the banking fees you will be paying anyway…

 

[Norm_D_Ploom]

Interestingly quite a lot of places in Germany are still strictly cash only.

 

[Howardh]

Charging extra for paying by card has been illegal since 2018.

I learn something every day!! Thanks!

 

[spyinthesky]

Charging extra for paying by card has been illegal since 2018.

My local Chinese charged 80p for card transactions and now has changed to minimum order of £12.
Their prices on average have gone up 20p per item which isn’t bad in 6 years

 

[londonbridge]

I wasn’t sure if my regular barber took cards or not so before I got in the chair I asked “is card okay or shall I go and get sone cash first”? “Thats fine” was the reply. It was only after he’d finished and I offered my card that he said he didn’t take them so I had to go and draw some cash out anyway.

Another incident I had was last year when I was in Austria for a couple of days and ate in a pizza restaurant, I just assumed they took cards but he said cash only when I offered my card after eating and asking for the bill. I said I’d go and get some and he said okay, but in a tone of voice and with a look on his face that made it obvious he thought I was probably going to split without paying. He looked pleasantly surprised when I returned with the money five minutes later.

 

[Trackman]

Charging extra for paying by card has been illegal since 2018.

Do you know the law about ATMs charging, or is that something completely different?

 

[JamesT]

Do you know the law about ATMs charging, or is that something completely different?

Completely separate. I think the only obligation on ATM operators is that they must warn you if you'll be charged by them.

 

[PeterC]

I believe for some card processors, the fees are structured with a fixed per-transaction fee plus the percentage. So for small transactions that might wipe out their profit margin.

I had always assumed that that that was the case. I know that it has been the pricing model for online processors such as Paypal

 

[jon0844]

Yes Turkish barbers seems to be the one growth industry we have right now, amazing how they survive with barely any customers.

Yet they're banking huge sums of money... funny that!

To be fair, some do a very good trade and often have queues at most times of the day. Some take cards. Clearly many of them are perfectly legitimate, but some are absolutely dodgy!

 

[joieman]

Complicated matter for me. I use my cards a fair bit but am frequently confused when my mum transfers money to the wrong account or gives it in cash when I'd rather have it on card instead... and on buses I am strictly a cash user.
I always thought exact-fare systems on buses to be a hassle, and my opinion of them was not helped by an incident that happened following lockdown. Nottingham City Transport has for long used exact-fare machines on most of its routes, but the service 1 which runs via rural Nottinghamshire to Loughborough used to give change; however the buses for the 1 were fitted with exact-fare ticket machines sometime during lockdown. Cue to around 2021 or 2022 when I and my mum were getting a family day ticket for £9... I think you know what happened next. Lost a quid.
Ironically, since going to college by myself I have usually had the correct fare, and once I bought a single ticket into town and forgot to pick up the change, which my mum had to collect after me!
As someone who has, despite my lack of years, had a strong connection with cash, I would rather we continued to have the option of cash. For one thing, your cash can't be frozen or anything like that, which is good or bad depending on the situation, but I think freedom and the right to anonymity is more important.

 

[londonbridge]

“Which year will the UK go cashless”…..after the reported problems this morning with various retailers including Sainsburys, Asda and McDonalds apparently being unable to accept card payments, hopefully never is the answer. Some media overreacting as usual, describing shoppers as fuming and calling Sainsburys a joke or vile for not being quick enough to warn people that they are/were having issues with card payments. Fact is we are becoming way too dependant and over reliant on technology and are neglecting to have sufficient backup plans in place when things start going wrong.

 

[signed]

Fact is we are becoming way too dependant and over reliant on technology and are neglecting to have sufficient backup plans in place when things start going wrong.

And you add the ever present risk of cyberattacks

 

[jon81uk]

“Which year will the UK go cashless”…..after the reported problems this morning with various retailers including Sainsburys, Asda and McDonalds apparently being unable to accept card payments, hopefully never is the answer. Some media overreacting as usual, describing shoppers as fuming and calling Sainsburys a joke or vile for not being quick enough to warn people that they are/were having issues with card payments. Fact is we are becoming way too dependant and over reliant on technology and are neglecting to have sufficient backup plans in place when things start going wrong.

On the other end for smaller businesses, is it worth having a safe, insurance, suitable banking or collection arrangements and staff time to handle cash for these very rare occurrences. In most cases the cost of the insurance for cash would probably be higher than they are losing by not being able to process transactions for a few hours.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Jul 2024 ==

And you add the ever present risk of cyberattacks

cash has the risk of loss or mugging.

 

[Hadders]

“Which year will the UK go cashless”…..after the reported problems this morning with various retailers including Sainsburys, Asda and McDonalds apparently being unable to accept card payments, hopefully never is the answer. Some media overreacting as usual, describing shoppers as fuming and calling Sainsburys a joke or vile for not being quick enough to warn people that they are/were having issues with card payments. Fact is we are becoming way too dependant and over reliant on technology and are neglecting to have sufficient backup plans in place when things start going wrong.

How are you withdrawing cash from your account without ‘technology’?

 

[bearhugger]

I went into a shop to buy a can of coke and bar of chocolate, they said I couldn't use my card as it was under a fiver, so I went to put the items back and suddenly it was OK to use my card!!

I had a similar thing but at an army surplus type shop, just needed a couple of small items that came to just under £5 but was told that it was a £10 minimum spend for card. No chance I was going to spend another fiver on something I didn't need / want so said "ok then, bye" & started to walk out. He then said "we'll give it a go & see if it goes through.". I was watching the screen of the touchpad and it went through the normal processing bumpf - nothing came up to say it was under a set amount.

 

[Thirteen]

Phasing out coins should be the first step, do we really need 1ps and 2ps for example?

 

[Cross City]

Phasing out coins should be the first step, do we really need 1ps and 2ps for example?

We don't need anything smaller than a 10p IMO.

If we can't scrap all coinage I'd go with having 10p, 25p and £1 coins only.

 

[Busaholic]

“Which year will the UK go cashless”…..after the reported problems this morning with various retailers including Sainsburys, Asda and McDonalds apparently being unable to accept card payments, hopefully never is the answer. Some media overreacting as usual, describing shoppers as fuming and calling Sainsburys a joke or vile for not being quick enough to warn people that they are/were having issues with card payments. Fact is we are becoming way too dependant and over reliant on technology and are neglecting to have sufficient backup plans in place when things start going wrong.

That is so obvious to you and me, but apparently not to so many on the forum. I call it denial.

 

[Hadders]

That is so obvious to you and me, but apparently not to so many on the forum. I call it denial.

How are you going to withdraw cash from the bank without ‘technology’.

 

[Hadlow Road]

We don't need anything smaller than a 10p IMO.

If we can't scrap all coinage I'd go with having 10p, 25p and £1 coins only.

I take your point and still boggle that the € coins (sorry ¢) are in such a large range of denominations. Perhaps for the time being we should use 1p, 5p, 20p and £1. I still welcome your suggestion, but fear for the dreadful resistance to stopping the 1p. We could have simply made the pint 500ml had we really adopted metrication.
I’ll stop now.

 

[jon81uk]

Phasing out coins should be the first step, do we really need 1ps and 2ps for example?

Canada and Australia (and probably others) have already done away with them, cash transactions get rounded to the nearest 5c.

 

[HSTEd]

Phasing out coins should be the first step, do we really need 1ps and 2ps for example?

I would actually argue the opposite.

Small transactions are where cash still has a significant role, plus the cultural aspects of coinage.
We should start phasing out banknotes first.

For example, by introducing a £5 coin and begin phasing out banknotes entirely.

 

[Ediswan]

I would actually argue the opposite.

Small transactions are where cash still has a significant role, plus the cultural aspects of coinage.
We should start phasing out banknotes first.

For example, by introducing a £5 coin and begin phasing out banknotes entirely.

I would not support that. I always carry sufficient banknotes to cover a typical supermarket shop, as a short term backup to card payment glitches. Doing the same with coins would be substantially less convenient.

 

[TheSel]

I would actually argue the opposite.

Small transactions are where cash still has a significant role, plus the cultural aspects of coinage.
We should start phasing out banknotes first.

For example, by introducing a £5 coin and begin phasing out banknotes entirely.

Pedant alert. We already have £5 coins. Very rarely seen in circulation, admittedly, but they exist, and are legal tender.

Quote from this link, from the Royal Mint.

"These coins, as the name suggests, are issued to commemorate special occasions of national importance that are usually, but not exclusively, Royal in theme. They are intended to be souvenirs, rather than ordinary circulation coins, and are therefore rarely found in everyday circulation."

 

[HSTEd]

Pedant alert. We already have £5 coins. Very rarely seen in circulation, admittedly, but they exist, and are legal tender.

Quote from this link, from the Royal Mint.

"These coins, as the name suggests, are issued to commemorate special occasions of national importance that are usually, but not exclusively, Royal in theme. They are intended to be souvenirs, rather than ordinary circulation coins, and are therefore rarely found in everyday circulation."

I am aware, but de-facto, we don't have a £5 coin!

Also note sure the coin is particularly suitable for actual use, it is very large and heavy!

 

[richa2002]

How are you withdrawing cash from your account without ‘technology’?

The point is, cash offers a buffer so systems can happily go down for a few days depending on how much cash you take out at once and you can still pay. Card however makes you reliant on tech working 100% of the time.

 

[jon0844]

cash has the risk of loss or mugging.

One reason I think we've seen a significant drop in muggings is there's an assumption these days that people aren't going to be carrying large sums of cash. If we all started to use cash again, I am sure criminals would adjust accordingly.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Jul 2024 ==

I had a similar thing but at an army surplus type shop, just needed a couple of small items that came to just under £5 but was told that it was a £10 minimum spend for card. No chance I was going to spend another fiver on something I didn't need / want so said "ok then, bye" & started to walk out. He then said "we'll give it a go & see if it goes through.". I was watching the screen of the touchpad and it went through the normal processing bumpf - nothing came up to say it was under a set amount.

As I said above, I am pretty sure most merchant agreements disallow imposing a minimum spend, so clearly the machine wasn't going to reject the payment. Sounds like they didn't want to lose the sale, but at the same time not encourage you to try again another time (or tell people it worked so they might try spending under £10).

 

[skyhigh]

Highly doubt the UK will be fully cashless in my lifetime.

The last holdout in only accepting cash was my local barber. He now accepts cash and bank transfers.

I avoid using cash unless I have no option- in real terms I get around a 6% discount on my food shopping using a combination of work discount voucher scheme and a rewards credit card that I pay off in full each statement. I wouldn't get any discount using cash.

Funnily enough I did go into Asda this morning for a couple of bits and found that they were cash only. Unfortunately the store's cash machine was also out of service...

 

[The exile]

We don't need anything smaller than a 10p IMO.

If we can't scrap all coinage I'd go with having 10p, 25p and £1 coins only.

If you have 25p and 10p, you also need a 5p. 10p, 20p and 50p make sense (alongside £1, £2 and £5)