Millions of people would struggle if the UK became completely cashless, report finds

Former_MSE_Sophie

An estimated 10 million people would struggle to cope if the UK was to go completely cashless, according to a new report, which comes as bank branch closures escalate and calls grow for the financial regulator to safeguard access to cash.

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Millions of people would struggle if the UK became completely cashless, report finds

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penners324

How do they come up with this figure? 18% of the population!

marlot

That 10 million figure sounds implausible.

I wonder if the survey included biased questions eg. "have you used cash for anything in the last month?". 

I make about one cash withdrawal a quarter.  My last use was an ice cream from a van.  But I suspect they could have taken a card if needed.

For ages, the only use I had for cash was the local baker, but even they take cards now.

Rob5342

penners324 said:

How do they come up with this figure? 18% of the population!

It does seem to assume that going cashless would make the transactions.people use cash for now impossible. In reality we'd only go cashless if there were other ways introduced.to.cover those payments. It also tends to be older people that use cash, but over time the people who are currently happy with cashless.methods will become the older ones.

Sea_Shell

Until everywhere has done away with coin only parking ticket machines... we'll always need that bag of change in the car!!

Plus cash is still king for small local FB Marketplace sales.

Which then supplies the coins for the parking!😉

marlot

>> Until everywhere has done away with coin only parking ticket machines

I haven't seen one for ages - the bag of coins is now moved to the boot of my car, it is used so rarely.

Daliah

I am nearly 70. Only cash I usually use these days is the same £1 coin for the Lidl shopping trolleys. Everything else gets paid with my Apple watch, and very occasionally with a physical card, even when travelling abroad.

I haven't seen a parking ticket machine which accepts cash only in ages. They all seem to have card (incl contactless) and/or pay with a phonecall or with an app now. Even those in remote car parks do. Cashless operation is way easier and way less costly for the car park operator. With a number plate recognition system, they also get rid of problems and costs associated with printed tickets.

Sea_Shell

Well, we've still come across many that are cash only.   It's hit and miss.

And one in town that can take cards sometimes goes "off line"...so you have to pay cash instead.

Unless you want to risk a note on your dashboard saying "card payment broken"!

LateNightHunter

Mainly hairdressers and takeaways are cash only round here

jon81uk

Only place I need to use cash is the barbershop.
Far more places (including car park machines) that insist on card only nowadays. I expect for most car park machines the risk of theft of the cash is quite high.

Ergates

marlot said:

That 10 million figure sounds implausible.

I wonder if the survey included biased questions eg. "have you used cash for anything in the last month?". 

I make about one cash withdrawal a quarter.  My last use was an ice cream from a van.  But I suspect they could have taken a card if needed.

For ages, the only use I had for cash was the local baker, but even they take cards now.

A lot of these reports are badly thought out to start with - they're generally based on the principle of "This is the way we've always done it therefore this is the way it has to be done".    If somebody waved a magic wand and all cash magically vanished overnight (nobody lost the money, it just wasn't cash any more - it's a magic wand), then yes - lots of people would struggle because there are lots of people *today* who aren't set up to handle non-cash transactions.   There are people who for one reason or another don't have bank accounts.   There are businesses who haven't set up cashless payment processing and there are people who have to deal with those businesses. etc.

But this kind of change isn't going to happen overnight - it's been going on for years and it's going to take several more years to complete, even if we intentionally try to make it happen.   There is no logical reason why those people who current depend on cash *can't* switch to cashless.   There is nothing magic about cash.  People are used to doing things in a particular way and can be resistant to change and/or simply can't imagine doing things in a different way - but this doesn't mean they *can't* be done in a different way.