Physical cash should never be obsolete
Paying with a wave of a phone or card is convenient, but Covid-19 won’t wipe out cash payments
W aiting to pay for a few tasty snacks at a furniture retailer’s food hall, I spotted a sign fixed to the plastic sheets protecting the cashier from the airborne particles that have kept us locked down so much over the past 18 months. The sign didn’t ask people to stay 2m back, wear a mask or wash their hands. Instead, it declared: card payments only, no cash.
That was a problem for the customer ahead of me. She had the coins to cover her bill of £2.20, but the retailer wouldn’t accept physical money. The cashier had no way to accept coins, the customer had nothing else to pay with.
Turning to me, she asked if I would pay for her, and happily I did. The coins she handed me were the first I’d had in my pocket for the last year and a half, and with a wave of my Monzo card her immediate challenges were solved. Clocking my brightly coloured card, she asked: “Is that card hard to get? What do you need to apply?”
That may sound like an odd question, but for various reasons she laid out to me (which I won’t detail here), this lady has limited means to apply for a traditional bank card. She’s one of Britain’s 1.3 million unbanked – a cohort of financially excluded people that includes recent immigrants, the homeless, those without formal identification and those facing financial hurdles. My bank Monzo could likely help her, as the “challenger bank” has strived to find ways to provide cards to the unbanked, so I hope she followed my advice and gave them a call.
The situation has worsened because of Covid-19. Research from
Which? in January 2021 revealed that a third of shoppers have had cash refused since the pandemic began. Pubs and restaurants have shifted to apps for at-table ordering and payments, impossible for someone without a smartphone or bank account, while shops and cafés have refused to take coins or notes on safety grounds. W
hile frontline staff need to be protected, it’s now clear that this coronavirus doesn’t easily spread through touch, but instead transmits through aerosols or droplets from our mouths and noses. It’s technically possible to become infected by touching money and then your face, but it’s unlikely. Research from the Bank of England found that the risk of handling currency was less than touching shopping baskets or self-checkout terminals. Indeed, to protect shop staff, it’s best to stand back as far as possible when tapping in your PIN, as the virus spreads mostly through the air.
I hate cash, so paying by card or a phone app is ideal for me. I lose change – be it a 20p coin or a £20 note – in bags and pockets. When I bring a winter coat down from the loft in the autumn, odds are I’ll find a waddedup face mask next to a handful of money, long forgotten in a random pocket. If I pay with a card, that change is instead automatically rounded up into a savings pot in my bank account, meaning I now have actual money rather than coins and notes scattered in nooks and crannies in my house. Regular
PC Pro readers may recall my joy at not having to take Australian dollars out while on a trip through Queensland; I don’t even know what their money looks like and I’m thrilled by that fact. Paying via an app, just tapping a few buttons and having a pint and chips brought to my table, is modern magic.
But that doesn’t mean Britain should ditch cash. Vulnerable people would be the hardest hit, leaving them excluded from even more of life. Retailers shouldn’t be banning cash until it’s as easy to apply for, receive and manage a bank card as it is a handful of coins. C
ovid-19 shouldn’t be used as an excuse to shut down a system so many people still rely on. No one will starve if they can’t buy meatballs from a furniture store, but what happens when it’s a pharmacy or the only late-night corner shop? Let’s not make life harder for those who already face the most hurdles, and instead give them the dignity to pay how they choose and remove the stress of wondering if their perfectly legal tender will be accepted.
One day, banknotes and coins will likely disappear, to be remembered with the same type of nostalgia that older Brits hold for other outdated payments such as shillings. But when technology impacts something as wide-ranging and socially important as money, change needs to be slow and careful to avoid leaving behind the people who need it the most. Otherwise, the costs are too high.
I hate cash, so paying by card or a phone app is ideal for me. I lose change – be it a 20p coin or a £20 note – in bags and pockets
Let’s not make life harder for those who already face the most hurdles, and instead give them the dignity to pay how they choose