Credit cards or cash in restaurants in Cotswolds and Cornwall?

While more and more places are accepting credit cards, I would carry cash and be prepared to use it in many restaurants. (Particularly family run places) Even when places accept CC, we still tend to pay cash to help these smaller places keep more of their profits. One of the charming things about visiting England is that there are still a lot of pubs and family owned restaurants. If paying cash helps them stay in business, I am more that willing to pay to do that. Many B&B's still don't accept CC as well. The fee that family owned businesses pay to the CC company can just be too much to stay in business and that is why so many cannot accept credit cards. Have a great trip!

We were in the Cotswolds in May 2016, and every pub and restaurant we went to took credit cards. It's always a good idea to have extra cash with you anyway.

fewer English folks are using notes and coins. I personally almost never pay cash at the moment, all my debit and credit cards are contactless now so if it is a small purchase - under the £30 limit - I either tap the card reader or use Apple Pay. I've had the same notes in my wallet for some weeks and I am slowly using up a small stash of pound coins that I was given.

Pretty much all restaurants take debit and credit cards, most have contactless. Small tea rooms may still be on cash.

Taxis prefer cash.

My experience in the places I go in the Cotswolds specifically is that way.

I can't speak for Cornwall; when I was there last I couldn't get a phone signal let alone wifi. There are lots of NotSpots in the southwest.

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A business I know well has to pay a higher fee to deposit cash takings than their contactless debit card sales.

Fast credit card transactions rely on good internet.

Charges for taking credit / debit cards are at the level in the UK where not taking them is more expensive to all but the smallest of businesses. Requiring to pay in cash across Europe is almost becoming a cultural rather than a business cost-related one. The UK is right towards the top of the tree in accepting both, but that doesn't mean to say you won't find hold-outs but these are more in the likes of businesses with small value transactions, and even they are being won over by contactless.

You can never go wrong with cash, but I tend to use a rule of thumb, maybe 20 Pounds, maybe a bit more, where if less I pay cash, more I will try to use a card. Saves me having to carry a wad of cash, but eases things with the small shops and pubs.

Thank you for these great replies. It's mostly what we were thinking. I wish I could remember where we were - but somewhere in the last year - we were caught by surprise to find that the restaurant district we were in was mostly cash basis - so we just didn't want to get caught by surprise.

While most places take card, the one thing i did come across quite a bit is not taking cars under 5-10 quid. So when I was wanting a small breakfast or coffee- that's when I had a problem, if I ran out of cash. Happened a couple times in Cornwall in smaller towns.

if you are in real small fishing villages in Cornwall, you might find that there are no ATMs. We were in Mevagissey, no ATMs in the village that was in 2014, so not sure if they have them now .