By Press Release
Slowly, they’re turning us into a nation of zombies, unable to think for ourselves. Previously I related the story of handing a shop assistant a £20 note and 15 pence to pay a £15.15 bill, hoping I would be handed back a crisp fiver. These days whenever I attempt these highly complex and challenging transactions, the poor shop assistant is usually paralysed with fear. We were in Cowes when I tried it last, and I felt sorry for the clueless young woman serving me.
It’s clear the young no longer need mental maths, so when using cash, you end up with a pocket full of shrapnel. Last Sunday, I attended the excellent County Show. Congratulations to all involved; it seems to be going from strength to strength. My companions paid £25 cash for their two entry tickets, but they were in the minority. Of course, we can expect the same at the upcoming Garlic Festival (August 19-20). At last year’s show, very few people had cash; the majority used cards, although a significant number bought tickets on-line from the garlicfestival.co.uk website.
Wightlink stopped accepting money ages ago, and now Britain’s rail ticket offices are set to close. The supermarkets don’t want cash (or cashiers), and within a decade, it’s estimated that just 6 per cent of all UK transactions will be cash. More incredibly, 23 million people claim they didn’t use any cash in the past year!
I’m not paranoid, but this really isn’t a good thing is it? At work, the majority of clients pay by card, so each and every month, we pay £1,500 to £2,000 in card processing fees. To say I am unhappy with this outrageous level of commission is an understatement. Our card processor earns almost as much as our lowest-paid employee. We do get cheques and BACS payments too, but it can’t be right that we pay so much for so little.
With 5.5 million small businesses in Britain, it’s no wonder banking is so profitable. As ever, the government is completely uninterested in our plight and does nothing to help. Little people like you and I bailed out some of these rotten banks – and this is how they repay us.
Shanklin Chine put out a social media post this week, explaining why they no longer accept cash. Announcements like these create a social media backlash, and almost 100 people commented, some claiming they would no longer visit. The Chine responded by saying they want to protect their staff from theft, which begged the question, ‘How often have you been robbed?’ There was no answer – but feeling the pressure, they said that handling cash and finding somewhere to pay it in is becoming impossible. Amen to that.
We all spend far more when paying with cards instead of cash. They’re inflationary too – because spotting those sneaky price increases is much harder when you’re using cards.
A few weeks ago, I used some of that pocket shrapnel and paid £3.90 for a single ice-cream cone – without a flake! I’ve seen families spend more than £20 on four ice-creams on a card, I don’t believe they’d be quite so keen to hand over 20 £1 coins or four fivers, for their Mr Whippy sweet treats.
On Sunday, chatting to the attendant of a fun-fair ride, two little kids aged 10 or so attempted to pay him using a phone. The poor kids only needed £4, but their payment was declined. They left, crestfallen, but returned five minutes later – presumably after a parent had put more credit on the phone. Thankfully the payment went through easily, and they boarded the ride smiling.
What is the world coming to when people send little children off to the fun-fair without cash?