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

Rob5342

GingerTim said:

Sea_Shell said:

What about buskers or street artists etc, who rely on "money in the hat"?

All the buskers I see at tube stations now also have a contactless 'tip jar' set up in addition to taking coins.

I'd be a bit uncomfortable with that as it is a "pull" setup where they decide what will be taken. I'd be much more comfortable with a "push" setup where I could enter the amount on.my phone and then wave it near there's.

GingerTim

I think it's set at £1 as a default but you can alter the amount. Haven't looked too closely as I've become a Proper Londoner over the last couple of decades, and regard buskers as adjacent to mime artists and silver yodas in the hall of irritants!

Sensory

eskbanker said:

Sensory said:

eskbanker said:

Sensory said:

AstonSmith said:

Ergates said:

Regarding cost - it has cost you over the last 30+ years, you just haven't seen the costs because they're embedded, they're part of the cost of doing business and all consumers are paying for it whether they use cash or not. Exactly the same as with card transactions.

What stops card processors/merchant services from jacking up the processing fees dramatically when there's no alternative? Are the fees regulated by law?

In a word: yes.
Plus market competition.

Brexit necessitated changes when EU regulations no longer applied to the UK.

In the complete obsolescence of cash, new laws would undoubtedly be introduced and/or existing ones changed to adapt to any unforeseen consequences.

But those regulatory interventions only cap interchange fees between issuing and acquiring banks, and don't impose any controls on the fees charged by acquirers to merchants, which will typically be more significant....

Yes... hence the other parts of my post.

Yes, conscious that it's not really meaningful to try to condense a reasonably complex issue into a one-word answer, but if doing so then personally I'd say that 'no' would be a more accurate answer to "Are the fees regulated by law?" than 'yes', given the limited scope of legal control!

OK. Then "in a word: yes" should be changed to "partially". Does that satisfy you?

brewerdave

I've been dipping in and out of this thread without commenting but something happened over the Easter weekend which threw a new light on the cash vs card argument - I paid for a meal at a pub - expected to have to approve the amount and add on a tip and enter my pin - but I was just asked to tap the card, only possible since the limits were lifted - no opportunity to add a tip.
We scraped around but had virtually no cash to leave as a tip for the waitress! 
Recently I was also asked to pay a small amount of a gardening bill in cash as well so that the contractor could pay his labourer - the black economy is still alive and well !!

Rob5342

The sooner we see the end of tipping the better in my opinion. The employer is responsible for their employees and should pay them accordingly with the cost covered by charges made clear to the customer.

Sea_Shell

I just paid for a TV magazine with small loose change.  The shopkeeper was glad of the coins, as they're always running low.

They do take contactless, but many probably just hand over £1 coin.

While he's still dealing in cash, I'll help him out, whilst offloading my loose change.

Angelica123

I guess the problem is there is a proportion of the population who are unable to easily open accounts (such as refugees or those without fixed abodes). Until everyone can access a  card, we cannot go cashless.

I personally only keep a 1 coin for swimming pool lockers/shopping trolleys but otherwise I use card for everything, mainly because of cashback deals (or Avios). But also nice to easily track expenditure. I hate it when people try to pay me back in cash rather than transfer it directly to account.

I do wonder how people who rely on receiving spare change (primarily the homeless) have fared in a post Covid world where everyone is paying by card. 

ZeroSum

Rob5342 said:

The sooner we see the end of tipping the better in my opinion. The employer is responsible for their employees and should pay them accordingly with the cost covered by charges made clear to the customer.

My OH always insists on leaving a tip, drives me mad as I fully agree with you.

Anyhoo, we were away somewhere & got talking to the staff after the discussion around adding tip onto card payment. They told us, they don't see any of it as company just keeps it.
I've told her before that lots of places do this, but not sure she believed me.

[Deleted User]

Yeah if you're going to tip then do it directly, adding it to the bill the staff aren't likely to get the benefit off it.

MrFrugalFever

Deleted_User said:

Yeah if you're going to tip then do it directly, adding it to the bill the staff aren't likely to get the benefit off it.

Or the restaurants could just pay their staff correctly. Tipping is a dirty American habit.