• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Coronavirus: Is this the end of physical cash? Will we go completely electronic?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,531
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
With businesses (including TOCs) all over the place saying that they won't take cash due to contamination risk...will they start again, or is cash now dead?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,429
Location
Yorkshire
With businesses (including TOCs) all over the place saying that they won't take cash due to contamination risk...will they start again, or is cash now dead?
Cash is still useful in some cases but I definitely prefer using card.

The only thing I regularly pay with cash is a weekly football game!
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,531
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
Yep, I've dropped down to nearly no cash use at all. Only my local shop really, as they have a £10 minimum for card. Once that goes I can't see myself having any use for it at all.

Annoyingly I have £70 in my wallet (tend to draw out about that once a month for the above purpose) which likely won't now get spent! :D
 

3rd rail land

Member
Joined
30 Jan 2019
Messages
623
Location
Where the 3rd rail powers the trains
Like many I hardly ever use cash. That said there is a chippy in my area which only takes cash. Also I am a member of a tennis and squash club where the club night fee has to be paid in cash as well as the fee for light tokens. The bar there used to cash only until last year.
 

hexagon789

Veteran Member
Joined
2 Sep 2016
Messages
15,713
Location
Glasgow
With businesses (including TOCs) all over the place saying that they won't take cash due to contamination risk...will they start again, or is cash now dead?

I think at least the larger businesses will because many people are still cash only (reducing all the time though), the smaller ones may well not.

In the Netherlands many small businesses seemed to take card only, but the supermarkets tool cash or card. One country which I believe is very nearly cashless is Iceland, where even rural unmanned petrol stations are card only.
 

underbank

Established Member
Joined
26 Jan 2013
Messages
1,486
Location
North West England
One of my clients is a convenience store - cash takings are still over 50% of the total, with only a slight fall this week, so can't see cash stopping being widely used for a long time yet. Maybe in "trendy" areas like big cities and universities, but out in smaller towns and more rural areas, cash is going to be here for a while.
 

Non Multi

Member
Joined
11 Dec 2017
Messages
1,117
Funnily enough nearly all the people I've seen behind tills are now wearing nitrile or latex gloves... Only 1 store has told me that they will not accept cash from next week. That store's sales person was not wearing gloves!
 

RichT54

Member
Joined
6 Jun 2018
Messages
420
When I bought my train ticket from the guard on Monday, as I had the exact change, he ask me to just drop the coins straight into his money pouch. "Nothing personal" he added. I said I quite understood his caution. It's often tricky paying by card as the train travels towards Crowthorne as the ticket machine fequently loses the signal there.
 

3rd rail land

Member
Joined
30 Jan 2019
Messages
623
Location
Where the 3rd rail powers the trains
Funnily enough nearly all the people I've seen behind tills are now wearing nitrile or latex gloves... Only 1 store has told me that they will not accept cash from next week. That store's sales person was not wearing gloves!
I haven't seen shop workers wearing gloves but I went to my local Royal Mail sorting office this week to collect a parcel and the staff serving people were wearing thin see through gloves, the type you might find a doctor wearing.
 

causton

Established Member
Joined
4 Aug 2010
Messages
5,504
Location
Somewhere between WY372 and MV7
I took a taxi earlier this week and the driver asked me to pay by cash, instead of card, as "card payments take time to come through"

I did appreciate what he was saying, but said "I don't carry cash anymore, nowhere is accepting it these days"

He replied saying "Surely you will use some cash in the next 24 hours?"

...No! Everything I do I pay by card these days... he really didn't understand. Must be a generational thing as he was about 20 years older than me!
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,531
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
When I use taxis I just book and pay via the app. I have it set to (I think) 10% tip. If one demanded cash they would get 0% tip and reporting for it.

What I think he really meant was "if you give me cash I can evade tax more effectively".
 

Meerkat

Established Member
Joined
14 Jul 2018
Messages
7,416
Physical cash will not disappear for some time. Too much resistance by electorally significant older folk, and concerns about the harsh end of society where they can’t get bank accounts etc.
Wasn’t there an announcement in/around the budget to protect access to cash?
 

Typhoon

Established Member
Joined
2 Nov 2017
Messages
3,486
Location
Kent
Physical cash will not disappear for some time. Too much resistance by electorally significant older folk, and concerns about the harsh end of society where they can’t get bank accounts etc.
And others. I was in our local outdoor market this morning, I don't know of a single stallholder who takes cards.
Wasn’t there an announcement in/around the budget to protect access to cash?
Quite right. https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/03/budget-2020-chancellor-poised-to-protect-access-to-cash/
Summary:
The government has today confirmed measures to preserve access to cash that will help protect the millions of people across the UK who still rely on notes and coins.
which is sort of right - it has promised legislation!
 

najaB

Veteran Member
Joined
28 Aug 2011
Messages
30,691
Location
Scotland
With businesses (including TOCs) all over the place saying that they won't take cash due to contamination risk...will they start again, or is cash now dead?
No, it isn't dead yet. But it's usage will decline more this year than it otherwise would have. The long trail has been shortened a little, that's all.
 

bussnapperwm

Established Member
Joined
18 May 2014
Messages
1,506
I think it's stupid shops refusing to accept cash. It's still legal tender. It's easier to budget when you've got the physical cash in your hand then a card. At least with the cash you can still physically feel the amount you've got left. You can't with cards!
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,531
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
I think it's stupid shops refusing to accept cash. It's still legal tender. It's easier to budget when you've got the physical cash in your hand then a card. At least with the cash you can still physically feel the amount you've got left. You can't with cards!

Actually quite easy if you go with one of the modern mobile-phone based bank apps.
 

507021

Established Member
Joined
19 Feb 2015
Messages
4,670
Location
Chester
Get one. Basic ones are cheap and by choosing not to have one you are shutting yourself out of increasing parts of society.

Excuse me? A lot of people in this country can barely afford to buy food and pay their bills, let alone go out and buy a basic £30 smartphone just so they can use online banking. As Jeremy Clarkson once said - what is the matter with (physical) money?

Your condescendence has no bounds.
 

JohnB57

Member
Joined
26 Jun 2008
Messages
722
Location
Holmfirth, West Yorkshire
I think it's bloody stupid shops refusing to accept cash. It's still legal tender. It's easier to budget when you've got the physical cash in your hand then a card. At least with the cash you can still physically feel the amount you've got left. You can't with cards!
"Legal Tender" has no meaning for any retail purchase. Shops are free to accept or decline any form of payment they might wish to.

I agree that declining cash makes little commercial sense though!
 

Bertie the bus

Established Member
Joined
15 Aug 2014
Messages
2,781
With businesses (including TOCs) all over the place saying that they won't take cash due to contamination risk...will they start again, or is cash now dead?
Is a couple of people handling a bank note or a coin really a more serious risk of contamination than hundreds of people paying by plastic touching the same keypad? This no cash thing just looks silly and counterproductive. The sort of nonsense you always get when anything at all goes awry.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top