Who Suffers in a Cashless Society?

Our trouser pockets are finally safe. We get irate at a minimum card spend and don’t really understand cashback. Recently, even Sainsbury’s have started taking contactless. We are hurtling headlong into the long-awaited cashless society. Of course, many of us hold a romanticism for the solid form of a pound or a wad of notes. We too would like to reference Homer Simpson in his Casino victory ‘I would like to withdraw half this in cash and the rest in briefcases to carry the cash.’ However, most of us with cashless buses, bars and supermarkets are content with our pockets empty and unweighted, but for an Oyster and bank card.

Romanticism aside, what economies depend on hard cash?

Tip Culture

Cloakrooms. Bars. Hotels. Most service industries traditionally appreciate a pound or two. This varies from the mohicaned youths on the pavement in Camden with the placard ‘Help Punk Get Drunk – Photographs £2’ to the attendants of the Savoy. With the five pound note very much seen as a blue drinking voucher, the seventy pence or so returned can be easily dropped into a jar to get the helpful and hardworking staff just somewhere closer to a living wage.

The Homeless

While everyone has a different view regarding donating to the homeless, it remains we are all regularly asked for ‘spare change’. Already card payments have provided an easy excuse for anyone who does not wish to donate that way. This has inspired the somewhat ambitious retort ‘There’s a cash point over there!’ However, it remains that those who really do depend on small offerings to see them through will struggle.

Charities

We are awash with chuggers- the ‘charity-muggers’ of our streets. This process mimics a game of British Bulldog as the friendly student smiles at you making eye contact and you edge steadily to the side. Then the words ‘Hello my friend! Can I talk to you for just a moment?’ and the mental crisis of neither wanting to appear rude and greedy nor sign up for yet another direct debit each month. Charity used to be about buckets outside supermarkets. Hardly a business model- the old ladies could have made more for the charity by knitting shreddies- but a heartfelt enterprise from both sides. Contactless cashless payment is never going to be cost-effective for the odd 50p.

Drunk People

We extol the virtues of carrying a booze-budget in cash. This makes it difficult to overspend and drink too much. However, counting your remaining change towards the end of the evening can make either a concluding half pint or a realisation that you should really head home now that the Queen’s head is talking to you. Plenty of us have seen the struggle as an inebriated customer at the bar struggles to punch in his pin whilst remaining upright. However, contactless payments now make this process dangerously easy! No more saving up your change for Sam Smiths!

Travellers

You need an Oyster card. As in, you really need an Oyster card. A one day off-peak travel card is £12.30 from the age of sixteen and £33 for an anytime week. This affects casual visitors as well as travellers from afar who are faced with this confusing and expensive cashless system. Tossing coins in a hopper would be far easier. In contrast, Londoners travelling out can be utterly perplexed at the cash-based focus of much of the rest of the country. Carrying change for the bus is unheard of!

 

Cab Drivers

Everyone knows the joy of Uber is not having to carry cash, which is reassuring when getting into a stranger’s car. However, black cab drivers have reacted to this by advertising card payment. The downside to this is, like the bar staff, customers are unlikely to add a few pounds to the bill as they would by refusing change from a note. Given the number of passengers per day, this has a significant impact long term.

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