UK Customers Favour Stores Accepting Physical Cash

Brits Favour Stores Accepting Physical Cash

There are currently no regulations which require businesses to accept cash, which could be a problem for some institutions and vulnerable people.

Almost 6,000 people have responded to a cash-related Yahoo survey, with 95% saying they believed UK stores should be obliged to accept notes and coins.

In an online post, Yahoo noted that the debate over whether people should still be able to use cash in stores and businesses is continuing as a committee of MPs called for evidence on whether new rules are needed to make it mandatory to accept physical money.

It added that the use of cash in the UK has declined over the past decade, with industry data showing it was used in just 12% of transactions in 2023. The number of people who don’t carry cash has tripled since 2019, according to research by ATM network LINK, despite 71% of people still relying on it to some extent on a daily basis.

There are currently no regulations which require businesses to accept cash, which the aforementioned Treasury committee suggests could be a problem for some institutions and vulnerable people.

Setting out a new inquiry into the issue, the committee points to research suggesting that cash “can provide a vital lifeline to groups such as those with long term poor health or people at risk of economic abuse”.

It says the Bank of England has “noted that the decline in cash usage is increasing the infrastructure costs of retaining physical cash as a viable payment method, which could lead to disruption for businesses and consumers”.