Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

We had a family city break in Chester last October before things started locking down again. I got £100 out of an ATM in the city centre for kids' pocket money and whatever, but then almost everything we did all week was paid by card and I've barely left the house since we got back home. I still have £90 worth of pristine polymer Bank of England notes in my wallet.

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

My village butcher won't accept cards on orders less than £8. He's the only one.

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

Are ye Scottish ;)

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

Our village shop will only accept cards for greater than £5.0

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

I don't know why shops impose minimum payments for card payments. Shops pay a %, usually based on turnover, so it doesn't matter if one customer spends £100 on their card or 100 spend £1 on their cards.

In days gone by it could be argued that it takes up too much time to process piddly little bits at the till, leading to queues, but these days with contactless it's probably quicker than a cash customer as they don't need to check the note under UV light, check & give out change etc.

All minimum payments do is irritate customers, which can lead to lost sales.

Perhaps there's evidence that supports the view that imposing a minimum charge increases average customer spend??

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

Yes it is the village shop that you are thinking of, I have not been to that shop for some years and the may have changed their policy.

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

Although that's true now, it is the case that the fees used to be per transaction, so it's possible that some retailer agreements are still based on that.
I always thought it was a combination of the per-transaction fee (same reason why Amex acceptance is so spotty due to their higher fees), and the floor limit for cards that trigger a 'full auth' transaction, rather than an offline one.

Now that pretty much all card machines are always connected then the full auth thing is less of a problem but again that may depend on the setup.

As a related observation, my local pharmacy is still cash only (or was when I went last year). So I generally end up using others.

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

I guess it goes both ways then, as the policy will make some spend more, but put other customers off.

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

Once cashless it becomes possible for someone "in control" to prevent you buying or selling. They could monitor what you buy and sell, where you do it.


Again it's not the powers now that would be a concern but what a future regime could do if the tools and mechanisms are in place.

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

But they can do this already. It is functionally impossible for you to maintain a normal, 21st century British lifestyle while spending only cash. You have to interact with the financial system, and someone 'in control' and with malign intent could already make that very difficult for you.

Cash is in reality now only used for small purchases and there is little more an oppressive regime can do to you by interfering with that, than it could already do by interfering with the systems by which you pay for transport, housing, insurance and utilities.

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

True but with cash it is possible to "go underground" and use cash. You could even sell stuff to get cash to buy other stuff. Without cash that becomes a whole lot more difficult.
With cash "dishonest" traders could accept cash at a premium because they can use cash too.

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

Perhaps, but you’re now so far down the rabbit hole you’re describing a dystopian fantasy, very far removed from anywhere we could plausibly find ourselves in the foreseeable future. If you think that future is plausible enough that you need to argue for measures to help you cope with it there are other things you also ought to be doing, like digging a massive bunker under your house and filling it with long-life rations.

The reality is that when a domestic money system fails, or doesn’t enjoy the confidence of the people, the people find other tokens of exchange. Hence the widespread use of the US Dollar in 1990s Russia. I believe cartons of cigarettes were quite popular currency too.

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

Yes, if/when cash is made obsolete, i'm sure that something else will be used as currency, particularly by the criminal underworld.

It's already happened with online currency by the use of cryptocurrency.

Re: Contactless cards and the future of cash
 

Cryptocurrency is a way of doing it, but let’s not forget that gold and other precious commodities are also a universally accepted store of value. There will never be a shortage of ways to pay for something that a government can’t track - none of which need seriously concern us here. The barrier to our financial system isn’t caused by our government, nor is it ever likely to be. It is the increasing use of technology and remote customer service that makes it harder for those who have difficulty engaging with such things, for whatever reason. Cash in some form is therefore unlikely to disappear any time soon.