No cash needed at all. I live in the UK and used cash on Sunday for the first time in a couple of years at a market stall that said “cards taken but cash preferred.”
Restaurants will expect you to pay cards. There may be a 10-15% service charge added, so no need to tip beyond that.
What might happen instead is that the card reader will have a screen asking you if you’d like to leave a tip and show you options - say a choice of 10, 12, 15, 20 percent to add to bill. 10 or 12 is perfectly acceptable if the service is good. I’m sure the 20% button is aimed at Americans! :-)
Otherwise, just ask the waitperson if you can leave a tip using your card when you pay the bill.
Some people might say we don’t have a tipping culture. But personally I’ve always been 10-12 percent tipper in restaurants if the card reader allows it and if the service is decent.
I once asked for the service charge to be removed when service was incredibly slow and chaotic and half our food didn’t arrive, and politely explained why. But I don’t do that often.
I do tip taxi and Uber drivers - taxi drivers by rounding up - I’ll say something like, “take ten pounds” if the ride comes to, I dunno, £8.75. Uber drivers I tip on the app, depending on their general friendliness tbh.
I guess I might tip a pre-booked pre-paid driver if they were really helpful, cheerfully helped with luggage etc. But I’m not sure how I’d do it without cash. Honestly I’d probably say “I’d like to tip but I don’t have cash… will you take a card?”
