Saved by the app

SIR: Margaret Dibben worries (September issue) that hole-in-the-wall machines are going the way of the cheque. Not surprising. Since finally mastering Apple Pay on my iphone and the appearance of contactless card machines in cabs, I’ve almost forgotten the code needed to persuade an ATM to disgorge the folding stuff.

But there are dangers of going cashless. Staying at a posh B&B in deepest Sussex, I was asked by the terrifying chatelaine if I wished to pay ‘cash or cheque?’ When I stuttered about having neither, the former deb (who would have been a retired brigadier had women’s lib come along earlier) barked, ‘Well, it’s the washing-up then.’ My phone came to the rescue. The bank app allowed me to transfer £150 directly into her account and escape enforced drudgery. Peter Bill, Maidstone, Kent