Shops with no facility to accept cash or cards

[Porkscratching]

Well if I'm not there I don't get paid, But I get, (and infinitely prefer) cash in hand, thanks!..

[tigerburnie]

Cash seems to be on the decline, but there are still businesses who's profits are too small to afford card machines, these go to the wall and we lose our high streets and choices, in a lot of towns the choice is one of the major supermarkets or nothing. We shop at local farmers markets directly from suppliers, cuts down food miles and all that, most still only take cash. Oh and the produce isn't wrapped in plastic and most importantly is tastier than the stuff flown in from half way round the world. As cash goes and with it the need for less and less employees, who is going to be putting salaries into these phone accounts(bearing in mind that Apple is an American company and if all follow suit, we won't have any British Banks)

[njee20]

I don’t buy that. Lots of small markets are card only now (even more so in London), much easier;  no carrying cash, no dealing with change, or large denomination notes. Card readers can be incredibly cheap. 

[tigerburnie]

2 hours ago, Talltim said:

You also got paid if you weren’t in on payday, off sick, on holiday, away for work, etc

You try having some time off sick and see how long you keep your job these days, a relative has had a hip replacement operation and the employer is demanding they go back to work after three weeks, still cannot walk yet.

[Ozexpatriate]

44 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

Cash seems to be on the decline, but there are still businesses who's profits are too small to afford card machines, these go to the wall and we lose our high streets and choices, in a lot of towns the choice is one of the major supermarkets or nothing.

No business is "too small to afford card machines". 

 

There are card swiping options that plug into a tablet or mobile phone. These are quite inexpensive. These are quite common in very small businesses like food carts.

 

There are businesses who choose not to pay the percentage points to the credit card companies for the convenience of using credit card transactions, not wanting to lose that profit margin. There are business who choose cash only operations for their own reasons.  Businesses who are truly required to opt out of accepting electronic transactions are a very small minority.

 

I agree with your premise that cash is on the decline.

[njee20]

It’s not a premise, it’s fact. Card transactions now outnumber cash. If you look at transactions over £20 it’s not even close. This gets done roughly monthly. 

[Steamport Southport]

There is a generation coming up that use cards and phones for every transaction. My niece hardly ever carries cash. Just swipes at the till for everything using contactless.

 

 

 

Jason

[Gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

 

If any state institution or corporate entity advertises their product that cost millions to develop as either, easy to use, cheap or even free, then it is very likely that YOU are the product that is to be sold.

 

Gibbo.

[Talltim]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

You try having some time off sick and see how long you keep your job these days, a relative has had a hip replacement operation and the employer is demanding they go back to work after three weeks, still cannot walk yet.

Longest I’ve had was 3 weeks with a broken leg, no problem, arranged to work at a more plaster-cast friendly site to ease back in afterwards. Colleague had 6 months off after internal operation with complications, no problem. 

[Ozexpatriate]

A related area where cash is not used for products and services is the rideshare business (like Uber and Lyft).  Uber goes IPO this week making many people instant millionaires.

 

As you might expect the data mining done by these companies is intensive. Uber has discovered that there is a gender gap in the payments they make to drivers. This has nothing to do with gender-based discrimination but rather the law of unintended consequences. The payment rates are the same for any driver irrespective of gender. What Uber learned is that male drivers (on average) drive faster and therefore collect more fares than female drivers (on average). They are thinking about tinkering with their payment algorithm (which they do frequently) to bias payments more to distance driven rather than time taken to alleviate the differences in pay.

[62613]

7 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I hope you will edit this post.

 

I have been unemployed, it is degrading, going to the job center the staff make you feel worthless, and attitudes like yours do not help. 

 

Most unemployed people are not lazy they unfortunate.

 

I hope that you never are in the position of having to sign on, if you are then I think your outlook on life will change.

Sorry Clive, you misunderstand me; I was quoting the sort of thing that The Fail, Sun or Express might say; I should have put a smiley of some sort after that remark. I was, from 1985 until I retired in 2016 a contract piping designer, so I know full well how the treatment of unemployed people by governments has changed. I can well remember going into Jobcentres at the start of the 1980s, you were paid,  virtually no questions asked, for the first 6 months you were unemployed. That went to being allowed to look for a position in your line of work if you had a skill. However, from about the 1990s you had to fill a form in to show you'd been looking for work. The big change came in 2012, since when Jobcentres offer you no help at all; in fact in my experience, from standing a protest outside Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre every Thursday morning, their main job seems to be actively hindering anyone on social security from claiming their entitlement at all

Of course, wages and hours at the bottom end are so poor (average wages are still lower than they were, in real terms, in 2010) that those on them have to claim to top up. If they are in an area where JSA, tax credits, and so on, have been replaced by Universal Credit, they are in a truly terrible position. I could go on and on about that and what it does to people, but I'd still be here this time tomorrow.

Edited May 6, 2019 by 62613

[62613]

7 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

 Of course we will be assured it is only about rewarding "good" behaviour and not an impingement on freedom etc but people opting not to conform will very quickly find themselves marginalised. 

Already happening. You will no doubt have heard of the "hostile Environment" as applied to immigrants; the same thing has also been applied to people on social security since 2012 ; it's called Universal Credit. Recently the SoS for Health flew a kite whereby your entitlement to free healthcare might depend on your modifying your lifestyle. We are always told that the UK is a free country; it seems to me that the poorer you become, the less free you are.

Edited May 6, 2019 by 62613

[south_tyne]

The mind boggles. I still predominantly use cash, unless there is absolutely no alternative....... I am an awkward so and so though 

[MJI]

What happens if you eat an item and offer tto pay cash or card and they do not accept.

[njee20]

Well they do accept cards, just only at one desk, so that’s moot. 

 

You’d also be a massive prat for being one of those people who can’t possibly get around a supermarket without eating something. 

[brianusa]

As an expat watcher of "Question Time" and being away from the UK for a while now I have never understood the ubiquitous  'Universal Credit'!  It seems to do more harm than good and JC excoriates it at every opportunity.  There must be a simple answer pro and con.

       Brian.

[MJI]

1 hour ago, njee20 said:

Well they do accept cards, just only at one desk, so that’s moot. 

 

You’d also be a massive prat for being one of those people who can’t possibly get around a supermarket without eating something. 

 

Not so much that but force someone to use a telephone to shop, stuff that.

[Clive Mortimore]

2 hours ago, 62613 said:

Sorry Clive, you misunderstand me; I was quoting the sort of thing that The Fail, Sun or Express might say; I should have put a smiley of some sort after that remark. I was, from 1985 until I retired in 2016 a contract piping designer, so I know full well how the treatment of unemployed people by governments has changed. I can well remember going into Jobcentres at the start of the 1980s, you were paid,  virtually no questions asked, for the first 6 months you were unemployed. That went to being allowed to look for a position in your line of work if you had a skill. However, from about the 1990s you had to fill a form in to show you'd been looking for work. The big change came in 2012, since when Jobcentres offer you no help at all; in fact in my experience, from standing a protest outside Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre every Thursday morning, their main job seems to be actively hindering anyone on social security from claiming their entitlement at all

Of course, wages and hours at the bottom end are so poor (average wages are still lower than they were, in real terms, in 2010) that those on them have to claim to top up. If they are in an area where JSA, tax credits, and so on, have been replaced by Universal Credit, they are in a truly terrible position. I could go on and on about that and what it does to people, but I'd still be here this time tomorrow.

Thank you.

[62613]

37 minutes ago, brianusa said:

As an expat watcher of "Question Time" and being away from the UK for a while now I have never understood the ubiquitous  'Universal Credit'!  It seems to do more harm than good and JC excoriates it at every opportunity.  There must be a simple answer pro and con.

       Brian.

Most of the pros are in the minds of the Department for Work and Pensions; the cons are experienced by those in receipt of it.

[chris p bacon]

8 hours ago, njee20 said:

I don’t buy that. Lots of small markets are card only now (even more so in London), much easier;  no carrying cash, no dealing with change, or large denomination notes. Card readers can be incredibly cheap. 

 

The problem with an issue like this, is that so many think that what happens in London and it's suburbs is the same throughout the country, and it just isn't.  I don't have a particular preference for payment options but I am noticing that my bank charges (business account) are increasing every month as more payments are by card and every line on the statement is chargeable.  I can guarantee it won't be long and those same charges will start applying to personal accounts.

 

7 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

There is a generation coming up that use cards and phones for every transaction. My niece hardly ever carries cash. Just swipes at the till for everything using contactless.

Jason

 

From my experience it is the same generation that seems unable to survive without using credit, and has no idea of their spending.

[J. S. Bach]

14 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

 ...snip... Some older members will remember this Tennessee Ernie Ford song, based on American experiences, but equally true of the UK one:-

'you load sixteen tons, what do you get?
another day older and deeper in debt
saint peter don't you call me 'cause i can't go
i owe my soul to the company store'

 

Oddly, I spun that just the other day:

[Porkscratching]

8 hours ago, chris p bacon said:

 

The problem with an issue like this, is that so many think that what happens in London and it's suburbs is the same throughout the country, and it just isn't.  I don't have a particular preference for payment options but I am noticing that my bank charges (business account) are increasing every month as more payments are by card and every line on the statement is chargeable.  I can guarantee it won't be long and those same charges will start applying to personal accounts.

 

 

From my experience it is the same generation that seems unable to survive without using credit, and has no idea of their spending.

That's exactly what the banks want, suck them into the whole racket at a young age and they're in hock to them for life...

[TheQ]

12 hours ago, brianusa said:

As an expat watcher of "Question Time" and being away from the UK for a while now I have never understood the ubiquitous  'Universal Credit'!  It seems to do more harm than good and JC excoriates it at every opportunity.  There must be a simple answer pro and con.

       Brian.

JC is against anything not his idea,

Universal credit is a good idea i.e. No longer having to filling dozens of forms to claim each seperate benefit, as usual all governments manage to make a big cockup with the implementation of any good idea.

 

In this case not enough staff to do the work, saying to someone with no money, the old benefits stop the day you apply, so you'll have to wait six weeks to get any more.

[TheQ]

16 hours ago, njee20 said:

I don’t buy that. Lots of small markets are card only now (even more so in London), much easier;  no carrying cash, no dealing with change, or large denomination notes. Card readers can be incredibly cheap. 

Rarely been to a market that takes credit cards, most don't bother because they can't get a phone or wifi signal reliable enough to use the machines, as well as having to keep the machines charged all day with no access to electricity.

 

If you are meaning a small shop then, I've never seen one that doesn't accept cash, anywhere.

[Izzy]

I have been bemused by the idea that having card facilities is a cheap and easy option. Yes, I know they could be seen as almost universal now, but my Dentists of nearly 40 years will only accept cash or cheque (the only time in a year I might write one) because of the costs involved. This is not someone stuck in their ways, there have been 3 different dentists owning the practice, and the latest has taken them paperless, everything via tablet, but still the same with payment.

 

Recently I tried to pay by card somewhere - I use it a lot along with internet banking - and the owner said sorry, I can’t afford a card reader for my level of turnover, my bank won’t allow/provide one. A bit off-topic I know, but does show how the one-size-fits-all ideas aren’t quite so universal.

 

Izzy