Growing numbers of retailers are abandoning cash payments, raising fears of a divided high street that excludes those unable to pay digitally. And yet with so much concern over online fraud and growing access to the black market via alternative payment methods, why is cash losing out in the battle against the increasing con in the convenience of digital?

Around one in seven high street shops stopped accepting cash over the past year, highlighting a renewed shift towards digital payments.

A survey of 1,116 firms conducted by the Link ATM network found that 14 percent of retailers have gone exclusively cashless in the last 12 months. However, cash remains widely used by 77 percent of businesses, accounting for 46 percent of in-person transactions, particularly in independent shops, cafés, pubs, convenience stores and launderettes.

The general trend towards a cashless society continues to raise concerns. A recent inquiry by the Treasury Select Committee warned that, without intervention, the UK risks developing a “two-tier high street” where some customers are excluded from shops and services because they cannot pay digitally.

Businesses cited several reasons for abandoning cash, with fraud prevention the most common, followed by security concerns and reduced customer demand. More than four in five SMEs said they would value improved access to deposit services such as Post Offices and banking hubs. Meanwhile, 53 percent support mandating cash acceptance.

“It’s becoming more common to see a sign next to the till in a shop or cafe saying “card only” – twenty years ago it may have been ‘cash only’,” commented Joanna Wallace, chair of Link’s Consumer Council. “The ways we want to pay are changing and so are the ways we are able to pay – this research shows the complex range of factors that affect any business owner’s choice of payment types. But the continued importance of cash on the high street rings true through it all.”

You’d like to think so, and yet  cash  is still struggling?

Business has been seduced by new methods of payment, and the tech savvy marketeers are happier than a pig in shit in getting their message across to a younger generation who only see the convenience of non-cash payments, but not the con.

Cashless is clearly the way forward – but  cash advocates are not Luddites, they’re just practical. 

So much emphasis in the anti-money laundering campaign has been focused on  the rabid pursuit of those carrying suitcases of illegal cash, that they hadn’t noticed they’ve opened the door to cyber criminals who they haven’t got a clue how to deal with them, let alone beat them.

Cashless is a fabulous convenience, but not so much when you get your phone carrying all your personal and banking details nicked, or your card cloned by some scumbag in a convenience store. 

And it’s not much fun either when the banking sector starts to impose rampant card and banking charges on purchases.

Cash was never the perfect payment system.And likewise its new replacements.

But customer choice is the perfect system for both business and customer. And it’s tantamount to commercial fascism not to take cash.

As much as it is a government not allowing the amusements, gaming and gambling sector to accept debit cards, credit cards and digital payments.