What is your earliest memory of cash? It’s probably the tooth fairy, or is it getting pocket money for doing some household chores?
For me from an early age my grandmother, who hailed from County Cork in Ireland would give me a one-pound note, I know, how old am I.
I loved it, I liked to stack the notes under books to make them totally flat, and If I ever got a five-pound note, well that would blow my mind.
So, when it came to giving pocket money to my two kids it was always cash, when they were a bit younger. We took trips to the toy shop, and I got them to work out what they could afford with two pound coins and one fifty pence piece. It was a real lesson in how to manage cash (no pocket money apps in the Quinn household).
Even now they are 13 and 11, and pocket money is given in cash.
But why is cash important?
For one it teaches kids how to save up, putting coins in their money box, which should start them on the journey of saving and spending.
How would the tooth fairy manage in a cashless society? Write a cheque (so 1980s) or write an IOU, no a shiny coin all the way.
More serious is the many vulnerable groups who are not ready or equipped for a cashless society. The elderly who might struggle with remembering PIN numbers or don’t use online banking rely on cash.
What about people who are financially controlled by a partner, being able to squirrel away cash is a lifeline, and the ability to spend it? (More on that in a minute).
The other major concern is privacy, do we want every transaction monitored by the banks and payment providers or the government.
Cash allows for anonymity. You take £50 out of the ATM and how and where you spend it is down to you, that is freedom.
However, in a recent article in the Telegraph, a government spokesperson said: “We are making it easier for businesses to continue accepting cash – by ensuring the vast majority will be within three miles of cash facilities – but also making it increasingly difficult for businesses to hide their income, using improved targeting with new data sources and increased activity.”
So according to this government all businesses who take cash are tax avoiders? Mixed messages, it seems.
All parts of the cash ecosystem need to be in place, banks and ATMs need to be on the high street, businesses need to have cash deposit facilities close by and shops need to take all payments and not discriminate.
Remove one part and it starts to collapse, as we are seeing with bank and ATM closures, it becomes a virtuous circle.
I was recently in a sports bar in London Bridge, they wouldn’t take cash, so I took out my First Direct debit card, which is a Mastercard, guess what Mastercard was down, luckily, I had a Visa debit to hand, but what nonsense. They still wouldn’t accept cash. The beautiful thing about cash is it doesn’t crash.
Many of the major cities and many parts of London are starting to become cash desert. Big coffee chains, fast food chains and some pubs are all going cashless.
What can be done? Well, firstly, always carry some cash on you. Try and use it when and where you can.
Boycott – if you find a shop which won’t take your cash, go elsewhere.
With a General Election looming in late 2024 cash acceptance will become an election issue, and that’s why we need a payment choice act in the UK passed.
The party which puts this into their manifesto will pick up votes – guaranteed. I’d put a tenner on it.
Martin Quinn works for headlinemoney.co.uk and is a campaign director of the Payment Choice Alliance
Totally agree, especially the privacy element. The tell is the state wanting to ensure it gets its vig. As Bastiat so eloquently put it;
“Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else”.
Bit extreme to boycott a shop that won’t take cash.
Cash has become a burden for many businesses. The world is equipped for every retailer, from one man bands to huge superstores to use electronic payments.
In terms of people seeing what I buy. Who actually cares. I’ve probably been filmed on a CCTV in any case, so the method of payment is not important. My privacy is out the window when I walk through the doors of the shop!!
Kids can be taught the values of money without physically touching it. I use my kids Junior ISAs to educate them. They have learned a lot, but never had to hold the money in their hand to learn.
I get the points made but disagree with the conclusion that we must keep cash. Why do you need privacy when buying stuff unless you’re embarrassed by what you are doing? Kids understand tech better than most adults so I don’t buy the shinny coins argument. And, yes there are some old and vulnerable people that might struggle whom we must help. But, instead of clinging to the old technologies we should be looking forward and coming up with new, better solutions. But, I needn’t worry as the march of technology, and the demise of cash, won’t be stopped. It’s just the way evolution works.