So if you were looking to buy a coffee a couple years ago here in London,
it might have been normal to ask the question, “Do you take cards?”
Now that question is increasingly becoming, “Do you take cash?”
We probably have customers here now that don’t even know we don’t accept cash
because they just tap their card and go.
Ross Brown stopped accepting cash at his London cafe more than a year ago after a trip to Sweden,
where he said paper money was nowhere to be found.
Have you noticed any change in business since you stopped accepting cash?
If anything, it’s been great for our business.
We found that the time it takes to count the cash, go to the bank,
understand, oh you know, "Are we £4 up, £3 down, where’s this money gone?"
It wasn’t an effective use of time.
Browns of Brockley is among a growing number of small businesses in London
that are choosing to ditch cash.
A recent report found the U.K. is the third most likely country in the world
to go “cashless” after Canada and Sweden.
British consumers are more likely to pay with debit cards than cash for the first time ever this year.
So it’s not even an option to use cash on London’s buses.
But they will gladly accept contactless payments on your smartphone.
The city says contactless payments make traveling faster and easier for millions of commuters.
40% of all journeys on London’s transport network are made using contactless payments.
That's up from 25% in 2016.
This transition toward digital and card payments is forcing many organizations
that typically relied on cash to embrace new technology.
Take the Church of England, which recently announced
it will start accepting contactless payments with the help of two fintech companies.
The church is taking card for things like weddings, christenings and one-off donations.
And in the future it even plans to pass around a card reader for collection at services.
One business that would miss out in a cashless society?
The people who make these things, ATMs.
Graham Mott is head of strategy at LINK, which connects 70,000 ATMs around the U.K.
ATMs are still very very important to people. And there’s quite a lot of people who rely on cash a lot.
There’s about 2.7 million who basically pay everything in cash.
All the time?
All the time.
Research suggests many of those 2.7 million people are elderly or low-income.
The transition to a cashless society could be especially difficult for occupations like
builders, gardeners or nannies that rely on cash payments and tips.
Mott said millions of people still rely on ATMs, which he doesn’t see going away anytime soon.
People have a very strong emotional attachment to cash. It’s very important to them.
It's a strong sense of identity. I think it will be a long, long way from getting rid of cash.
Hey everyone it’s Elizabeth. Thanks so much for watching!
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