Wave of IT glitches brings importance of cash back in the spotlight

Martin Quinn, campaign director, Payment Choice Alliance, said: “With the IT glitches suffered by recently by both Sainsburys and Greggs, cash has rightly become the default payment option.

Businesses though must realise that it’s time to stop discriminating against accepting cash with the march of card only self-service tills, because with these IT outages getting more frequent, it going to severely hit their balance sheets, and the beauty with cash is it doesn’t crash.”

Andrew Martin, founder of SMEB, which aims to deliver a spectrum of payment services to SMEs, commented: “The card payment issues experienced by some of the UK’s largest businesses over the past week have shone a fresh light on the continued importance of cash in today’s society. It is the latest sign that the march to a completely cashless society is a bad idea.

“Millions of customers still recognise that cash is a convenient and secure payment method, and they like that it won’t simply disappear – even if your internet reception does.

“Unfortunately for businesses, getting your hands on it is not as easy as it used to be.

“The UK has lost 6000 branches of banks and building societies since 2015, meaning that access to crucial financial services, such as the ability to withdraw and deposit cash at the end of the day, is no longer possible in many areas.

“Action is urgently needed to solve the UK’s banking deserts. For every day that we have to wait, local businesses will suffer.”