Now’s not the time to refuse to take cash: don’t give consumers a reason not to shop with you.

High Street shops are increasingly accepting only card or phone payments, taking security, costs and the way customers are behaving into account. This comes from research among small businesses by Link which runs the UK’s biggest cash machine network. About three quarters of the businesses asked still accept cash but of the other quarter who don’t, have gone cashless in the last year.

Retailers are worried about the security of handling cash especially as bank branches are thinning out, making it harder to bank cash at the end of the day. Some also worry, sadly, about the temptation of cash for the people working with them. Despite that, seems that around half of shop transactions are still being made in cash.

Last year MPs on the Treasury Committee concluded that the government should be ready to force shops and services to accept cash to protect vulnerable people who still want to use cash. They were concerned that we’d end up with a two-tier system which would push up prices in places that still accepted cash and mean that people who use cash as a way to budget would end up paying morel what’s called the poverty premium. Some countries already do rule that cash has to be accepted for essential services, but in the UK shops and services can accept whatever form of payment they want. Some have decided that being cashless is more secure, ultimately costs less than handling cash which is time consuming, will save them money lost to fraud or theft, and that it won’t stop their customers using them. On many high streets there’s a mix of shops taking cash, taking non-cash payments or taking a mix.

At a time when customers may be harder to attract and have less money to spend, making it easier for them to pay may be the best option. A lot of people do not want to carry cash and only use card or phone for payments. However, as money gets tighter many prefer to take out the amount they can afford to spend, in cash, so they can budget better and stick to that cash amount. You don’t want to deter them from shopping with you and drive them to spend money with competitors, because you don’t accept all types of payments.

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