More than half of businesses want cash removed as a payment option

The poll of 1,200 businesses, by www.merchantadviceservice.co.uk, shows that 86% of businesses favour card and contactless payments over any other option.

The top reasons businesses cited for wanting to remove cash payments were found to be removing the need for cash to be on-site (51%) and reducing the number of trips required to the bank (30%).

The survey shows 95% of businesses believe the pandemic has changed consumers’ attitudes to cash, 34% even noted that customers are apologetic when having to use cash when making a purchase.

Libby James, co-founder of www.merchantadviceservice.co.uk, said: “Contactless payments have been incredibly popular from the moment they became an option, but with everything that’s happened over the course of the past year, we’ve definitely seen a shift in less and less people carrying cash on them than ever before. Whether that’s because they’re not going to the bank or to their local ATMs to withdraw it, they’re weary of the amount of people who can touch one single note or simply because they’re unsure of whether businesses will or won’t take cash in the current climate.

“The results here definitely show the need for a further contactless payment cap increase, even though we’ve just had one, or for it to be removed altogether. That being said, the payment cap does offer some level of safety and security to the bank account owner and processes would need to be in place beforehand to ensure everyone’s money is as safe as possible, especially if their card were to be lost and fall into the wrong hands.”