Demise of the city centre

[Teeblerone]

Literally millions of people, I would have thought a big time businessman would have known that.

Yep.
You can disinfect plastic notes.
I probably carry cash more than I used to now after a card got stopped for 'suspicious activity' and the bank system f-ups over the past few years.
And there are some shops that I wouldn't trust with my card details... remember the petrol station card skimmers from years back?

 

[Lardbeast]

Usually big queues at the few remaining branches, there's still plenty of demand.

But cheaper to close branches and inconvenience customers.

 

[bobthebuilder]

Yep.
You can disinfect plastic notes.
I probably carry cash more than I used to now after a card got stopped for 'suspicious activity' and the bank system f-ups over the past few years.
And there are some shops that I wouldn't trust with my card details... remember the petrol station card skimmers from years back?

Cash is now down to about 25% of all payments in developed countries. It’s still the majority method for minor transactions (less than £5), but it now less accounts for less than half of those transactions. Between £5-15, debit cards and cash are near equal. Above that and non-cash payments are dominant. Debit cards represent about 70% and cash’s share share is being squeezed out by buy now, pay later (BNPL) apps.

As for paranoia about security, a card skimmer cannot skim a card that is set up on Apple, Android or a Google Pay and used with biometric recognition. It’s far more secure than cash. ATM fraud is and always has been a far bigger problem than skimming.

I can’t remember when I last carried cash. At least three years ago. And our businesses, which take payments in the range £25-500, takes next to no cash. In our experience, the demographic that used to pay us in cash now pays with AfterPay, the local BNPL provider. Almost all retail businesses round here take AfterPay and a couple of other BNPL apps; if they didn’t, their customers walk away.

 

[PhotEx]

Cash?
I even pay for a packet of crisps with a card now.

 

[bobthebuilder]

But cheaper to close branches and inconvenience customers.

Problem for the banks is that many of them aren’t really customers; they’re consuming free services that the bank can provide far cheaper on line.

If people want to use cash, crack on. But why should it be free; moving cash around, providing ATMs, filling them, receiving cash over the counter all cost the bank money to provide them.

 

[stacker1]

Yep.
You can disinfect plastic notes.
I probably carry cash more than I used to now after a card got stopped for 'suspicious activity' and the bank system f-ups over the past few years.
And there are some shops that I wouldn't trust with my card details... remember the petrol station card skimmers from years back?

Literally billions of pounds in normal cash are spent every year, some smart businessmen cater for the public use of it and others don't.
I don't have a problem using plastic but I understand if I was running an average bricks and mortar shop, there is no way I would be stupid enough to ban the use of cash.

 

[anglo]

Problem for the banks is that many of them aren’t really customers; they’re consuming free services that the bank can provide far cheaper on line.

If people want to use cash, crack on. But why should it be free; moving cash around, providing ATMs, filling them, receiving cash over the counter all cost the bank money to provide them.

This is one reason,

Britain's biggest banks defy Brexit gloom to post a bumper combined profit of £22bn

HSBC made the most, with an £11.8billion profit, trade mag The Banker said
Lloyds was in second with £4.3billion, followed by Barclays on £2.4billion
UK banking sector starting to look 'increasingly healthy' the magazine noted

Profit is the driver not service, screw the customer as much as possible,
that's why they give next to nothing in interest on savings and offer me loans at 6.5% APR

 

[bobthebuilder]

This is one reason,

Britain's biggest banks defy Brexit gloom to post a bumper combined profit of £22bn

HSBC made the most, with an £11.8billion profit, trade mag The Banker said
Lloyds was in second with £4.3billion, followed by Barclays on £2.4billion
UK banking sector starting to look 'increasingly healthy' the magazine noted

Profit is the driver not service, screw the customer as much as possible,
that's why they give next to nothing in interest on savings and offer me loans at 6.5% APR

The profit isn’t made from retail banking though is it? Not from over the counter transactions anyway.

 

[anglo]

The profit isn’t made from retail banking though is it? Not from over the counter transactions anyway.

All part a parcel of banking, it's either a part of banking or not,

"Banks and building societies generated revenues of £8.8billion from current accounts in 2011 – the equivalent of £139 per active account, figures revealed today.

On average, banks made £146 in revenue from a standard current account in 2011, compared with £300 on a packaged account and £34 on a basic account, a report from the Office of Fair Trading found".


I think the above covers counter transactions

Do you work in the banking sector perchance?

 

[Yokel]

Problem for the banks is that many of them aren’t really customers; they’re consuming free services that the bank can provide far cheaper on line.

If people want to use cash, crack on. But why should it be free; moving cash around, providing ATMs, filling them, receiving cash over the counter all cost the bank money to provide them.

The counter argument might be that servicing and stocking ATMs and moving notes around provides lots of security type jobs. Also what about when the computer networks go down - as they all do from time to time.

What fallback is there? From ARRSE I have learnt that large companies keep stocks of cash for crises.

 

[Mr_Relaxed]

This is one reason,

Britain's biggest banks defy Brexit gloom to post a bumper combined profit of £22bn

HSBC made the most, with an £11.8billion profit, trade mag The Banker said
Lloyds was in second with £4.3billion, followed by Barclays on £2.4billion
UK banking sector starting to look 'increasingly healthy' the magazine noted

Profit is the driver not service, screw the customer as much as possible,
that's why they give next to nothing in interest on savings and offer me loans at 6.5% APR

And that will be the evidence the Government use when the High Street banks all start bleating on about ending free banking.

 

[anglo]

And that will be the evidence the Government use when the High Street banks all start bleating on about ending free banking.

What they would like is for me to leave my savings with them, but take my
current account somewhere else, not going to happen.

 

[br9mp812]

It isn't just the high streets closing down, some of the out of town shopping malls are also feeling the pinch, particularly those that dropped their 'parking validation' schemes recently, and they found to their cost that even more people stayed away (funny old thing).
The Lowry centre in Manchester used to be good. Relatively quiet, a few decent shops where you could get a bargain, a big theatre, a decent cinema that started screening at 10am during a school week day, loads of good restaurants and validated parking.
Out of the blue, they binned the free parking, cue shops closed left right and centre, I'll bet less than a third of the shops are in use, even less now since Covid. I cannot see it ever recovering, which is such a pity as it's a clean and tidy place, well enough away from moody teenagers hanging around.

Been 3 times in 5 years but only to take kids for driving theory test can think of no reason to go full stop

 

[heard_it_all_before]

Cash?
I even pay for a packet of crisps with a card now.

I used to own a small shop and every card transaction cost ME 25p + VAT, whereas cash payments cost me nothing. Banks hate cash as it costs them money whereas, they love card as that makes them money.

 

[bobthebuilder]

I used to own a small shop and every card transaction cost ME 25p + VAT, whereas cash payments cost me nothing. Banks hate cash as it costs them money whereas, they love card as that makes them money.

The world has moved on. There are now multiple independent, non-bank providers of point of sale (POS) systems.

The independent POS gateways like Stripe and Square offer a percentage fee. For small turnovers, they charge 1.7%-1.9%. Some are free. Ours is free, providing we hit a minimum throughput threshold, which is sometimes hard because of all of the BNPL users.

And cash isn’t free for small businesses; counting and banking cash takes time and therefore costs money.

 

[monkey123]

I used to own a small shop and every card transaction cost ME 25p + VAT, whereas cash payments cost me nothing. Banks hate cash as it costs them money whereas, they love card as that makes them money.

I like to think any cash spent with a small retailer, public house or takeaway is hidden from the tax man & wisely spent on booze, fast cars & slappers...

 

[Mr_Relaxed]

I like to think any cash spent with a small retailer, public house or takeaway is hidden from the tax man & wisely spent on booze, fast cars & slappers...

The taxman looks at your "receipts", looks at what your business does and compares it with what the taxman "knows" your business should be taking in. Makes their assessment.

And then invites you to disagree with them.

HMRC have a tendency to go through phases where they are either very aggressive, or very helpful. As they get more data driven it will make the landscape very interesting. Making Tax Digital for VAT is the very tip of the iceberg, but it was explained to me when I went to a seminar on the topic that HMRC don't have the data analysts yet, but watch out when they do!

 

[History_Man]

Down here in rural Wiltshire - I decided to get a Fish Supper last week - queued up outside the Chippy in Amesbury (letting in 2 at a time max). When I got inside, there was a sign on the counter saying “Cards not accepted - Cash only.”
I had to come back out, pay a visit to the nearby cash point and rejoin the queue! Only in Wiltshire!

I'm not sure that debit cards and chip and pin have made their way to Wiltshire yet... My local chippy here in Swindon is cash only too.

 

[History_Man]

I like to think any cash spent with a small retailer, public house or takeaway is hidden from the tax man & wisely spent on booze, fast cars & slappers...

The George Best strategy then?

 

[Yokel]

I'm not sure that debit cards and chip and pin have made their way to Wiltshire yet... My local chippy here in Swindon is cash only too.

Has COVID-19 made any difference? The fish and chip van I go to takes cards. All the shops in the village/town up the hill take cards - with the exception of the butcher, but he was talking of changing.

Cards can be an issue for small business, but with the need to reduce things people have physical contact with, you would have thought the banks would help.