ONE in five of us now rarely carries money and experts predict the days of using notes and coins are numbered.
Many of us admit to carrying less than £20 of cash at any time [ALAMY]In an increasingly cashless society he realised that he was losing customers who wanted to buy his magazine but were not carrying change.
So he invested in a small portable card payment system from Swedish firm iZettle. “It’s a cash register in your pocket, basically,” says Mott of the black box which he links up to a smartphone to accept payments.
“This is a way of capturing those sales that may disappear.” His entrepreneurial spirit – which accounts for the sale of between five and 10 of the 80 to 100 issues of the magazine he sells each week – is indicative of our rapidly changing attitudes to cash.
According to latest figures at least one in five Britons rarely carries cash and a quarter of us would walk away from a shop or restaurant if it didn’t take debit or credit cards.
Earlier this month it was revealed that three quarters of all retail spending is on plastic – up from less than half only a decade ago. And London is leading the way.
The capital is becoming an increasingly cashless city, with contactless payments soon to be the norm. Millions use an Oyster card every day and this weekend all buses will go cash-free, bringing to an end the need for drivers to carry change.
“I don’t carry cash because I don’t like the weight in my purse,” says Isabel Wain-Smith, 36, a mother of three from Wisborough Green, West Sussex.
“I haven’t carried cash for many years. I pay for everything by debit card, even small amounts.” She increases her purchases to the £5 minimum in smaller shops and says: “I find using my debit card easy and convenient.”
People like her would have felt right at home in Beech Road, Manchester, last month where an experiment was conducted by 32 shops and businesses to trade without cash for 24 hours one Saturday.
This glimpse of a truly cashless future was an intriguing joint venture between the traders’ association and card payment company Handepay. The intention was to test claims that most shoppers are now so used to paying for everything by card that they would welcome a cash-free society.
So was this the case? By polling visitors to the Beech Road cashless Saturday, Handepay discovered 53 per cent of people would shop locally more often if they knew they could pay by card everywhere, while 60 per cent had left a shop in the past because they were unable to make a purchase by card.
Could carrying cash in our pockets become a thing of the past? [REX]We’re carrying less cash in our pockets than ever before yet more than half of small businesses still don’t take card payments
“When I first had this shop everyone paid in cash or by cheque,” she says. “Now I’d say it is 85 per cent card payments and growing each year.” Even for some of the smallest transactions Pauline expects people to pay by a debit or credit card.
Mark Latham, who set up the experiment for Handepay, says: “We never expected that we would discover we’re ready to give up cash just yet but we’re delighted so many independent businesses took the opportunity to engage their customers on how they like to spend. We’re carrying less cash in our pockets than ever before yet more than half of small businesses still don’t take card payments.”
If the results of his experiment are anything to go by these businesses are missing out. Detractors believe older people – used to a cash and cheque culture – may find the inevitable cashless transition particularly challenging.
However Rosemary Ewer-Smith, 74, a retired caterer from Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, always uses a credit card, not only for convenience but also for the cash-back incentive. “I only use cash for small amounts,” she says.
“If I use my Waitrose credit card I get around £25 in gift vouchers twice a year.” But not everyone thinks cashless technology is a good thing.
That argument aside, the system is attractive. There’s no more fumbling to pay the driver as the fare is charged to a credit card held on file.
But taxi drivers are not the only people concerned about the rapid transition to a cashless future. “I’m happy to swipe my card as I rarely ever have more than £10 in change,” says Kirsty Nick, 39, from Edinburgh.
“But I do worry that my two young children have no concept of ‘money’ and are part of a generation of children growing up unable to work out their change and so on. Understanding costs and change is only textbook and theory to them.
“Every time they are given some money they give it to me straight away so that I can transfer it to their bank accounts and check it online through my bank app. They don’t even want the cash.”
If the cashless society continues to gain momentum that may eventually be true for us all.
THE HIGH-TECH ALTERNATIVES
And services such as Zapp, Tab, Droplet and Barclay’s Pingit turn your mobile phone into a wallet, making it easy to send payments or buy items by simply scanning a QR (quick response) code.
The major high street banks have launched Paym, which enables you to pay the window cleaner or give back £5 you borrowed by pressing a few buttons on your mobile phone.
The use of biometric fingerprint recognition to trigger payments is also under development and new generation smartphones from Apple and Samsung, above left, will soon be able to offer this service.
One of the more intriguing cashless technologies is Square, recently launched in the US by billionaire Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
With this system a white plastic block plugs into a phone’s headphone jack and allows small traders, such as market stall holders, to take instant card payments.
An accompanying app enables you to book into a restaurant and automatically charges your pre-loaded card on departure so there is no need for you to wait around for the bill.
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