Businesses will be allowed to ONLY accept card payments in ‘slap in the face’ for cash users
Businesses will be allowed to ONLY accept card payments in ‘slap in the face’ for cash users
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UK BUSINESSES will be permitted to refuse cash payments if they choose to do so. The government has greenlit the move which has been labelled a "slap in the face" for those who prefer paying with bank notes and coins. Businesses will no longer be forced to mandate cash payments, Economic Secretary Emma Reynolds confirmed during an appearance before MPs on the Treasury Committee earlier this week.
![[Contactless payment with smartphone at a cafe.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/smartphone-qr-code-payment-credit-747326511.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The committee said they would launch an investigation into the acceptance of cash back in November. The policy switch received some pushback from those who feel the move would exclude older Brits who were not as digitally capable as well as domestic abuse victims who have testified that cash is their only escape route.
Reynolds responded by assuring that the government would address both demographics and said she was confident that the UK wouldn't become a cashless society in the distant future. Martin Quinn, the director of the Campaign for Cash, slammed the move as "a slap in the face" for cash users.
He said: "Millions of cash users are being ignored, and if you want to use cash, this Government is basically saying you are a second-class citizen. "All of this plays into the US credit card companies and payment giants who are making millions of pounds of profit at the expense of individuals who want to use cash and shops and businesses who are at the mercy of ever-increasing card fees.".
