Money matters

Funny after I spent the entire month of November 2021 in London I posted on the Forum about London being ALL about tap debit and credit cards.

So NOT just last month has that been a reality.

Yep. Covid changed travel.

Heading there in April. Guises we won’t be hitting the atm machine.

The trend started before Covid. I was already using tap credit cards and my phone on my January 2020 trip. Makes it so easy and I don’t have to hit the atm. Still have some sterling notes left from previous trips. I’ll spend them down eventually.

I live here - the last time I used an ATM here was in 2019.

I was surprised this morning when I looked in my wallet to count how many Pounds I have the only thing inside was Euro left over from our September trip to Frankfurt. I had had to use a paper note to buy apple pancakes from the school girls at the Apple Fest.

I'd never swapped out the currencies...

I spent four of the last seven months in the UK. I used cash six times:

Three times in taxis...two of which only took cash. (Scotland)

Twice to get a haircut where they didn't take credit cards. (Scotland)

Once at a restaurant in York when their credit card terminals crashed. They told customers if they didn't have cash they could go to a machine a couple of blocks away. They would trust them to come back.

I keep some cash on me just in case but prefer contactless.

One of the good things to come out of the cashless payment option is that it is much easier to identify those establishments that like to evade paying tax. I can think of very few reasons why a restaurant would be cash only and tax evasion is the main one. Consequently I don't patronise such places and I like that they make it so much easier to identify. Of course there might be other reasons but it's also inconvenient for me to pay cash as I never have any so I would walk on by anyway if I saw a 'cash only' sign.

JC--
One reason some establishments might not accept cards is they don't want to pay the fees merchants are charged by the card companies.
That can be 4% or more.
I've seen some places that charge lower price if paying with cash for that very reason. I don't know if it's a discount as much as charging more to the customer who uses a card in order that they cover the added expense to the business.

the question is about England - the 4 percent fees quoted above don't happen in England. It isn't allowed. The fees are pennies.

The first part of my trip in April will be driving the Cotswolds so I'm guessing I'll need to carry some physical coin, just won't get as much from the ATM at the start so I'm not stuck holding cash at the end ... gonna be a tough one to resist the 'what if' urge to hit the ATM when I see only a bill or 2 in the old wallet with a week to go before leaving London for Amsterdam.

"The trend started before Covid. "

Before Covid it was estimated over 50% of transactions were cashless in the UK, now it is between a whopping 80 > 85%. Which some say is probably the ceiling for the time being - Covid accelerated the inevitable. The only card retailers tend to don't like are American Express, particulary outside the major cities.

I pay restaurant and cafe tips in cash. I haven’t been to a cash point in about a year but I am almost out of cash so will need to go soon.

The only card retailers tend to don't like are American Express, particularly outside the major cities.

Only the ones that signed up with poor value card processors or haven't checked things out in the last few years. Shouldn't need to pay much more at all for Amex these days & it is often the same as MC/Visa (can sometimes take a little more for the money to be credited though). Amex users have a higher spend profile so for many shops it is more than worth paying a few extra pennies not to put them off.

A lot of small businesses have gone card only because it’s cheaper and easier for them to process. Cash transactions require counting up and taking to the bank and a lot of bank branches have closed making this more difficult.

I do find I want to have some cash when travelling around the country. In the city I live in I do not take cash out with me usually, but it can be needed to pay for parking or ice creams at more remote locations.

I was just over there end of December to middle of January. I always get $$ at the airport, not much, just 120.00
The first cab ride we were in asked for cash if possible, so that's what we did.
The main reason i get cash is because I always leave money for the cleaning people in the hotel. I have no idea if that is done here, but I am accustomed to that practice, so I leave some money...
Towards the end of my visit if I have any cash left, I might try and use in stores, even at the airport, but I know I am taking the cab ride back to Paddington so I have money for that...
Other than that, cashless primarily....

My son and I went through London and Edinburgh before heading to Amsterdam, Italy and Spain.

There are generally cashless options in the urban areas of the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, but it is on a different level in the UK. You can't really tip at all in Italy without cash (if you're the type that tips in non-tip societies), but even the street performers have tap terminals in London and Edinburgh and you can tap on public transportation which is much less stressful than finding tobacco shops to sell you paper tickets.

Since it looks like most of London (and I would guess Scotland) tap and go is ubiquitous, am I out of luck with a US credit card that does not have a chip and pin? Especially on the Underground? My card per Capital One is a chip and signature MasterCard and I do have a Citi that is also chip and signature. No pins on either one.

You don't need a pin when you tap and go, that's the whole idea. Just make sure you have that wave symbol on your card.

My May 2019 trip was almost completely cashless, there were a couple of pubs with a £10 minimum for cash. I was in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Durham and Manchester.

My May 2022 trip would have been completely cashless except for one pub where the card machine was down, I quite liked the look of their pints so I went to get cash. This was London, Liverpool, Lancashire

"Only the ones that signed up with poor value card processors or haven't checked things out in the last few years."

There may be a stack of reasons why and misconception may be one of them - the reality is however, a signicant number run of the mill businesses (pubs, resturants, shops) particulary outside of the larger cities don't accept American Express.

I always think it's a good idea to keep a little cash on hand. Certainly not hundred of dollars but even at home I keep a bit of change on me. you never know especially as there are small business still like cash in Europe.

I don't know if it is useful at all. I remember in 2020, pre-Covid, and I used my cash ONCE just because I was buying a cup of tea. The kid looked at the Scottish 10 pound note and took it to his boss to make sure it was OK...

I don't know if it is useful at all. I remember in 2020, pre-Covid,
and I used my cash ONCE just because I was buying a cup of tea. The
kid looked at the Scottish 10 pound note and took it to his boss to
make sure it was OK...

LOL. My last trip to the UK was in November 2018. By the time I got home I was accustomed to tapping my phone to pay for everything. It was an unpleasant surprise to find that businesses here at home were behind the tech curve on that, and I often had to get out my credit or debit cards. (The local businesses have of course long since caught up and my daily life is - not just cashless to the max but also that I use my phone more often than an actual card.)

I also came home in 2018 with £55 in notes and a handful of £1 coins - and of course no idea that it would be 4+ years until my next trip. I don't think I'll need to make ATM stop during my upcoming trip (mid-May).

I was in the UK in September 2022 - I split my time between London and a small village in the Chilterns. I did not need to use cash during my London sojourn, but in the Chilterns, there were situations where only cash was accepted. Local taxis wanted cash. One actually drove me to a cashpoint/ATM to get cash since I did not have enough to pay for the ride. I also found situations where small, local shops would not accept CCs for payments below a certain amount - for example, at the greengrocer, they only accepted credit cards if you made a purchase adding up to more than 5GBP.

Thanks. That's good to know!

Well yes, you always need a few bills and coins for small purchases. Unless you always buy enough at one time to hit the spend limit, but if you're quickly grabbing something at a quickie mart type operation that might not be possible.