Banks to be fined if they fail to provide free access to cash under new laws

Zanderman

Zanderman said:
and (clearly!) it is still needed by many. And probably will be for some time to come.

It is not clearly needed by many though, want and need are not the same thing. Many of the refusnics could easily function without cash, there will be a very limited number who will need assistance to transition, supplying that assistance would be far cheaper than dragging out the death of cash. 

You seem to believe all those who use cash are 'refusnics'. That's fairly derogatory.
And almost certainly untrue. 
You seem to be suggesting them (all) of doing something (what exactly?) wrong.
They're not doing anything wrong.
It shouldn't be compulsory for everyone to behave - and pay for things - the way you think fit.
The government, quite rightly, recognise the ongoing need for cash.
It is still the simplest way of making and taking payment, no need for a phone, pc, tablet, wifi, phone signal, battery or even mains electric - no need even for PIN numbers, fingerprint scanners, account details, names or indeed anything.  Just pay or be paid. Easy.
I have no idea why some people hate it so much - it's ridiculous to do so, it's not doing you any harm! You don't need to use it if you don't want to.
My faith in government, particularly the last decade or so, is pretty low, but they are, remarkably, showing a better understanding of this than most things!

MattMattMattUK

Zanderman said:

Zanderman said:
and (clearly!) it is still needed by many. And probably will be for some time to come.

It is not clearly needed by many though, want and need are not the same thing. Many of the refusnics could easily function without cash, there will be a very limited number who will need assistance to transition, supplying that assistance would be far cheaper than dragging out the death of cash. 

You seem to believe all those who use cash are 'refusnics'. That's fairly derogatory.
And almost certainly untrue. 
You seem to be suggesting them (all) of doing something (what exactly?) wrong.
They're not doing anything wrong.

No one has said that they are doing anything "wrong", that is a straw man.

Zanderman said:

It shouldn't be compulsory for everyone to behave - and pay for things - the way you think fit.

Straw man number two... I do not want everyone to compulsorsly behave in a certain way, I have not said that, I have said that the natural process of depreciating services should be allowed to happen. Yet you want people to be able to pay the way you deem fit and you want businesses to be forced to provision that service against their will and the cost of that to be placed on their other customers...

Zanderman said:

The government, quite rightly, recognise the ongoing need for cash.
It is still the simplest way of making and taking payment, no need for a phone, pc, tablet, wifi, phone signal, battery or even mains electric - no need even for PIN numbers, fingerprint scanners, account details, names or indeed anything.  Just pay or be paid. Easy.

Something being simple does not mean it is best, barter was simple, we moved on.

Zanderman said:

I have no idea why some people hate it so much - it's ridiculous to do so, it's not doing you any harm! You don't need to use it if you don't want to.

I do not hate cash, you are assigning emotions to others based on no evidence of said emotions, that is an irrational position. You then go on to state that it is ridiculous to hate something based on your wrongly assigned emotion, you are once again attempting to build a straw man, for a third time.

I do not hate cash, nor love card payments, I merely recognise that the transition from physical money to digital money is both inevitable and well under way and to try and stop it, rather than accept and adapt to that is like trying to hold back the tide with one's hands. I also object to the cost of that attempt to hold back the tide being passed on to others.

Zanderman said:

My faith in government, particularly the last decade or so, is pretty low, but they are, remarkably, showing a better understanding of this than most things!

My faith in government is not particularly high, especially the current bunch who seem at beat serially incompetent. If they were competent then they would be attempting to ease the inevitable transition, rather than fighting against it.

friolento

MattMattMattUK said:

 
  I also object to the cost of that attempt to hold back the tide being passed on to others.

So do I. A lot of the people who want cash facilities to continue as is don't appear to have thought about the cost associated with handling cash. Worse still, if they have thought about it, they seem to be perfectly happy to load the cost onto those who never need, or want, cash. 

Another consideration is crime. Drug dealers and tax evaders love cash. To be frank, I am all for any and all measures that kills their ability to commit crimes.

 

English_Electric

MattMattMattUK said: 

Another consideration is crime. Drug dealers and tax evaders love cash. To be frank, I am all for any and all measures that kills their ability to commit crimes.

 

 Criminals commit crimes. It's what they do. They adapt. Do you think crime did not exist before cash? Instead of paying for drugs in cash they will be paid for in goods or services. I came up with that in 20 seconds and I don't even have a criminal mind.
 I personally would like the ability to keep my lawful transactions private from the peering eyes that would seek to monitor my every spend in order to monetize in in marketing and spamming. that is the beginning. The end is a Chinese style social credit system based on your spending behaviour. If you think it can't happen in a democracy the last few years have demonstrated the unthinkable can become reality very quickly in an apathetic population.

Richard1212

Any Government intervention to ensure customer access has to be a good thing, as Banks don't give a hoot about the matter. They have been closing branches as they see fit in their own interests ( instead of their customers' interests) for far too long. Not that a fine will bother banks   (who are already swimming in profits from all the tricks they play to take as much customers' money they can).

friolento

English_Electric said:

MattMattMattUK said: 

Another consideration is crime. Drug dealers and tax evaders love cash. To be frank, I am all for any and all measures that kills their ability to commit crimes.

 

 Criminals commit crimes. It's what they do. They adapt. Do you think crime did not exist before cash? Instead of paying for drugs in cash they will be paid for in goods or services. I came up with that in 20 seconds and I don't even have a criminal mind.
 I personally would like the ability to keep my lawful transactions private from the peering eyes that would seek to monitor my every spend in order to monetize in in marketing and spamming. that is the beginning. The end is a Chinese style social credit system based on your spending behaviour. If you think it can't happen in a democracy the last few years have demonstrated the unthinkable can become reality very quickly in an apathetic population.

I have not used cash since beginning of 2017, when I got an Apple Watch. 

No marketing and spamming has resulted. 

GeoffTF

English_Electric said:

MattMattMattUK said: 

Another consideration is crime. Drug dealers and tax evaders love cash. To be frank, I am all for any and all measures that kills their ability to commit crimes.

 

 I personally would like the ability to keep my lawful transactions private from the peering eyes that would seek to monitor my every spend in order to monetize in in marketing and spamming. that is the beginning.

I do not give to figs whether my bank knows where I spend my money. My bank does not spam me with retailer adverts. My bank statements are useful to me. I like to be able to see where my money is going.

huw01

Brie said:

I think there will remain areas where 3 miles cannot be practical as already pointed out - in the highlands and other remote locations.  

What will remain allusive is coins.  ATMs are fine for notes (as long as the ATM is functional of course) but I've not seen any that provide coins which some of us require for certain things.  Country food sales where eggs are on sale at a farmer's gate for instance.  I can't imagine the farmer will be too happy making change for the £20 notes that one predominately gets from ATMs.  

And there's the comment about post offices providing a way of depositing and withdrawing money.  Well yes and no.  I've yet to see a post office that will let me deposit a random amount of coins into my account.  And not all accounts can be accessed from a post office even assuming it's a post office that offers money services.  

What also continues to astonish me is the lack of ATMs that will accept deposits.  I know of 1 bank branch locally that has an ATM that will accept coins and notes.  And this is in an urban area of about 300k people.  Other countries where I have lived and travelled have had these ATMs since the 80s so I'm not sure what the problem is with using them in the UK.

On the post office point , I have on numerous occasions deposited a random amount including coins into my Santander current account at the local post office, they are happy to take it. Not sure about withdrawing a random amount but I have withdrawn say £50 and asked the cashier for 2 x £20, 1 x £5 , 4 x £1 coins and 5 x 20p pieces. You just need to ask the cashier, they usually are very willing to accomodate.

TO be honest, not many post offices do not offer the current account servicing service, you don;t need to go to a big post office. My local village shop has a small counter at the end of the shop counter and I can use it for most of my cash and deposit needs. Most current accounts can be accessed at the post office, there aren't many that cannot be accesed. Many of these within shops also operate more or less the same hours as the shop, the one in town in the convenience shop is open till 10pm 7 days a week.

Using the post offices for operating your cash needs for some reason doesn't seem to be well publicised, no bank has a major advertising campaign on it, it is tucked away on their websites.

Only my opinion, the proposed banking hubs will eventually go down the same routes as branch closuers. I don;t actually think they will in the long run be that busy

GeoffTF

There are free ATMs all over the place where I live:

https://www.link.co.uk/consumers/locator/

I do not live in a city centre, but there are about eight of them in a square mile. There is a post office just down the road too. There must huge numbers of people who use cash. Who are they? Well, here are some statistics:

https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/news-and-insight/blog/how-consumers-in-uk-use-cash-snapshot

https://www.thersa.org/blog/2022/04/card-or-cash-patterns-of-cash-use-in-the-uk

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8570/

enthusiasticsaver

A lot of supermarkets and even our local Spar shop does free cashback although I appreciate you have to use a card to get the cash alongside shopping. Personally I rarely use cash now but given the closure of banks I think part of a banks remit is to provide availability of cash so I welcome this. They must be saving a fortune with closing bank branches and making staff redundant so they should have to bear the cost of running ATMs.