There are several groups of people who seem to be overlooked when insisting on cashless transactions:
- children <18 years old, although older ones are now permitted to run some types of supervised bank accounts
- individuals whose poor credit-worthiness (for whatever reason) means that they cannot open and maintain a bank account
- individuals with mental health issues or mental incapacity who are incapable of running a bank account
- foreign travellers whose cards are not accepted
Until these issues are addressed, it is inappropriate to ban cash payments entirely. There will also be issues with getting rid of cash for transactions of low value, small charitable donations including those at places of worship, tips for services rendered, and payment for illicit services (including sexual ones, particularly by those in the closet).
Historically, non-cash payments, particularly those of low value, were discouraged because of the costs of these transactions, with some retailers refusing to accept card payments for low value transactions, imposing a transaction charge for payments below a certain value, or not accepting them at all. It is only recently that most car parking ticket machines and on street meters have accepted card payments. Banks also used to limit the number of transactions per month for personal accounts and would impose a fee per transaction if the number of such transactions in an accounting month exceeded a specified figure. I am uncertain that all such restrictions have been abandoned.