Banks must commit to maintaining cash: my open letter

I’m not sure that Which? are in a position to give the banks deadlines, however. I would have hoped they would be in discussions with the relevant parties rather than appearing confrontational.

But you can buy a new oyster card from an “outlet” for cash? Seems good for visitors and infrequent users. As long as this option remains I think it a good system.
You could buy a preloaded credit card for cash presumably for those who will not accept it directly; as long as there are plenty of places this can be done.
But I want cash to remain for all the reasons given in these Convos by many people. I am quite certain it will. There is no substitute for some in some transactions.

My point about London buses is that cash-paying passengers payers are disadvantaged compared to card-paying passengers, because a card-paying passenger can simply board the bus without any prior preparation, whereas a cash-paying passenger needs to visit an outlet first and buy or top up an Oystercard.

I have not used our buses for nearly a year but they still accept cash, though contactless cards remain the recommended option. I like the idea of businesses accommodating the needs of those it serves. Although I now have a bus pass, if I had to pay I would help by using a contactless card to minimise delay.

Robert, what do you believe Londoners are whinging about? Londoners are quite happy with the status quo, whereby we can use cards almost everywhere. The pandemic has improved the status quo in this respect.

Dennis, there is no evidence that either the banks or the government want to control people. They do, however, want to allow consumers to modernise, and most consumers welcome this. Obviously this is inconvenient for technophobes and for tax-evading cash-only businesses.

I think we need to be careful about condemning everyone who will not modernise as a “technophobe”. For some people it is a mental or physical impossibility. I acknowledge that others are just downright recalcitrant but we need an inclusive outlook to the availability of cash. There are other ways of dealing with tax evaders than taking all cash out of the economy.

John, I cited technophobes and tax-evading cash-only businesses as examples of those whom a cashless society is inconvenient. I did not state that everyone who does not modernise falls into one of these examples. You are changing my words.

NFH – Apologies if I misunderstood you, but context is everything and the placing of phrases in paragraphs affects our sense of meaning.

I see no sinister motive in technology helping most of use carry out our financial dealings more conveniently. I use online banking, pay by card – contactless or otherwise – as a routine. However there are transactions for which cash is the only practical solution; many examples have been given in past comments.

In my case, I bowl indoors in a couple of village halls weekly – or did until lockdown. Neither hall has good electronic communication. People turn up and play and contribute £2 for the session. In cash. I see no reason why more complicated payment methods should be forced on people for this sort of transaction. Bank transfer would mean the organiser having to monitor whether each attendee had paid, card transactions seem difficult without good communication, and the existing system works perfectly well.

Cash, will, I believe remain with us for many years to come, certainly until after I stop bowling, because it is useful.

Ivan – The banks are going to continue to close branches because not enough people are using them and that is why it is vital to maintain an adequate provision of cash machines and to create other ways of supplying cash into the local economies. That is the purpose of Which?’s policy and campaign.

I agree with that observation. But we’ve already seen that smartphones can double as payment cards. Furthermore, without a SIM card, a smartphone cannot operate, so a card of some form is still needed.

It should also be noted that not all cashpoint cards are usable as payment cards.

But all of this is really straying from the point that some folk prefer to pay using cash. It is their choice and, on an Internet forum of all places, I fear we may not be hearing from a truly representative number of such folk.

[Sent from my smartphone. ]

Derek, although it’s a moot point, the payment functionality of a smartphone does work without a SIM card. It doesn’t need any kind of connectivity, except for when it is initially set up, which can be done via wifi. Also many networks are moving to eSIMs, which avoids any kind of physical card.

Indeed a moot point. And isn’t NFC connectivity needed for contactless payments?

My friends don’t own terminals so if I owe them for a small purchase I use cash. Also to tip my hairdresser, pay my chiropodist, car-wash attendant, tip my postie, bin men, paper boy, give to the homeless and Big Issue sellers (they can’t afford to run a terminal). After all, we all know that ‘Cash is King’.

Sorry Derek. When I wrote “connectivity“, I should have written specifically “internet connectivity“. NFC isn’t internet connectivity, but even more local than Bluetooth.

Pat, your friends don’t need a card terminal to receive a payment from you. You can simply send a bank transfer, possibly to their mobile number using PayM or PingIt if you don’t have their sort code and account number. There is no need for cash, which is no longer king.

I would be interested in having a Conversation about alternatives to cash, NFH. This one is about maintaining access to cash and most of the contributors are likely to be those who want to keep cash. Pat is clearly one of them and I hope she can continue to use cash for as long as she wants to.

If you like, I am a convert because I have not used cash for over a year. This is partly because of the pandemic. I did not use mobile banking until I had a modern mobile with security software. Once life returns to normal I expect to have to deal with cash (and cheques) on behalf of a charity. I remain interested in how I can collect donations from members of the public where there is no reliable mobile signal.

Looks like the means for offline card payments is emerging technology but not yet completely risk or hassle free:-https://www.mobiletransaction.org/how-to-accept-credit-card-payments-offline/

So cash may still be king of the wilderness.

I suspect very many people have used little or no cash for the last 12 months simply because the opportunities have not been there; in my case anyway.
I am not a convert because of Covid; I’ve used “electronic” payments for a long time and cash regularly but in very small amounts generally, for sport fees, occasional lottery tickets, some parking and the like. I don’t expect that to change as life returns to some semblance of normality.

Thanks for the link, Derek. With so many areas having good mobile coverage there might not be a great demand to find a solution. I’m keen that we can accept alternatives cash because fewer people may carry it in future and our charity could lose out.

According to this https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/mar/07/britons-use-cash-everyday-payments-report-finds
“Eight in 10 Britons rely on cash for everyday payments, report finds
This article is more than 1 year old
Study says 97% of population carry coins or notes after report warned of cash’s demise”
The “report” is 2 years old (and I don’t know how sound the basis is) but I wonder if our practices and habits change so quickly. We have repeatedly seen here the valid reasons that people use cash and want to retain it, even though the amount they use decreases.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1058126/share-of-people-who-carry-cash-united-kingdom-by-reason/ Gives the reasons, although published 2018. I doubt, though, that those reasons suddenly change.