Those who prefer to use cash mustn’t be penalised

OLDER people and poorer families tend to rely on cash for day-to-day transactions. Yet with high street banks and ATMs closing every day those who use cash are penalised. Some may find it difficult to travel to the nearest branch.

And while sometimes it seems as though cashless card transactions are taking over, a Which? report has found that 98 per cent of Britons regularly use cash and only one in 20 rarely uses cash at all.

A nation’s currency defines it – just one of the reasons why Britain was so reluctant to adopt the euro. A cashless world is unimaginable: the simple exchange of goods and services for notes and coins is part of our culture.

Banks and many businesses would prefer us not to use cash. Card payments add to their profits and give all sorts of organisations the ability to follow our movements, chart our shopping preferences and mine our data shamelessly. In paying by cash we regain some of the control that cards strip away from us. Paying with the readies allows us to keep tabs on our finances while card payments can be a nightmare for those who are not very clever when it comes to balancing their personal accounts. Credit cards are an open invitation to scam artists.

The Government must not allow so many of its citizens to be disadvantaged because they prefer cash. It is a right to use a nation’s legal tender. Save the pound in our pockets!