Access to cash in our communities

She shares her customers' nostalgic connection to cash, particularly for teaching children the value of money. However, with the increased costs and difficulties that come with some card payments, Gemma worries that future generations may lose the simple, tangible relationship with money that cash offers.

"People like that their kids can come in and spend cash, accept the change, work it out and do the maths. Children learn the value of money of what they're buying, as opposed to just waving a card at a machine because that doesn't hold any relevance to anything. It's also not teaching their kids anything about the value of money. So I find that most people with kids especially like to come in here and spend cash."

"It's not just about the way that people shop, cash is a part of their history and heritage and people get upset about fact that they're losing the ability to use it. It's a teaching and a learning tool."

"When the wi-fi has been down, or there was electric cut, the whole market had to shut, nobody could trade because very few people carry cash."

"It costs us more to take card transactions and the cost is constantly inflating and deflating. Banks are a bit steadier with what they charge when we put cash in." 

"If we lose cash, I worry about the nostalgia of it. I think there's going to be a situation where the next generation have no idea how to handle money because it's invisible to them. Physically having cash in your hand teaches you more than you'll ever know.

"She'd [talking about an older relative / acquaintance] prefer to take money out and carry cash on her because it helps her keep track, because she doesn’t have access to apps and she doesn't have use of online banking. It's all very daunting for her."

Seth finds security in tangible money, yet increasingly, he feels isolated on his own campus where cash is no longer accepted, from vending machines to the student union. 

"All of the vending machines in the university are cashless, they're all contactless now. All of the food outlets on the campus, none of them accept cash. Nothing in the Students Union accepts cash, none of the music venues at the university accept cash. A lot of the cafes on the university are completely cashless. So it's a little difficult out there."

"[Cash] feels real, you know, there's a real gamification of consumerism going on with the whole paying for things as if it's nothing.  It's all digitized.  With cash, you know, you feel it in your hand, you can tell it's going." 

"At uni I don't really carry any cards around except for my student ID and I use cash for basically everything – in shops, at pubs, cafes. It's just the way I go about things.  If there's a homeless person, you can give them a bit of spare cash so they can get a room for the night. If you're tipping at a restaurant you can tip with cash, and it's all very secure."

I always had cash when I was growing up. When I first got a debit card, I thought that was very grown up! But I've always come back to cash. It has the appeal of something that has a sort of culture behind it." 

"One of the big things about cash for me is how anyone can use it. So international students coming here and not being able to set up a bank account right away. If they don't have cash, they're going to have to figure that out in a different language immediately. It's difficult for them."

Cash is essential to her as she pays her caretaker and hairdresser this way, feeling safer than with cards or cheques. As society shifts to digital payments, Pamela fears being left behind, alongside countless others in her position who may struggle to adapt to a world without cash.

"Cash is very important to me. London pavements are not very comfortable and I can’t leave the house much. I rely on someone else to do my shopping and would not wish to give them a card or a cheque. Cash works perfectly well for both of us."

"I’ve only ever known cash. Even from a young age my father gave me my pocket money (very reluctantly!). It never occurred to me that there might be a time when you can't get cash!"

He is a single parent of two daughters and lives in Blackwood in the South Wales Valleys. Noah relies on cash to help budget his finances and feels it is a safer way of spending when facing the fear of being scammed.

"Cash is an everyday part of life and it has been all of my life, I've never been someone who's just only used card because you can't in so many ways. If you're trying to buy anything outside of a massive commercial environment, you can't as easily with a card. You can’t get something at a reduced rate or buy something at a charity shop or a car boot sale, which is how I live on a low income. That's how I clothe myself, that's how I clothe my children."

"Cash helps me to budget my finances because it's so easy to forget one of the spendings you've made when you're tapping your card. I prefer to have that cash budget with me and know this is what I've got when I'm out."

"I think everyone uses cash but I think without having a real imminent threat of losing it, because it's such an ingrained part of life, people can't quantify it. So they're, "Oh, yeah, cash is there", and you know that old adage, 'you don't know something's there until it's gone'. I think sadly, we're in that position where people don't realise how important it is to have cash because it's been there all their life. They've never known life without it."

Fabio has been busking in London Underground stations for the past 23 years. He has seen the shift from cash to cards, especially since the pandemic. While he’s started accepting card payments, he still prefers cash for its personal connection and simplicity. Fabio feels that digital payments reduce the spontaneity and charm of street performances. For him, cash offers an immediacy and authenticity that card payments cannot replicate.

"I've been busking in London since 2001. I don't really like cashless payments, I prefer cash. I prefer to be connected to people than to all these machines. I don't really like the mentality that we have to always be online, always using everything electronically, because it disconnects people."

"The majority of buskers know how to use technology, so they have adapted to the cashless life by using card machines. But there are a group of buskers who don't use much technology and for them it is hard to even book their busking spot online. So it's going to be very, very difficult for them to adapt. I hope they don’t remove cash from society. Otherwise it's like you're killing a group of artists that cannot adapt to the new generation."

"Some buskers started taking card payments four or five years ago. But it took a lot longer for me, until after the pandemic. I didn’t like the idea of having to ask people to pay by card. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the point where I’ll accept card payments only. If cash is there, I will take it. I hope that we’ll never lose cash as I don’t want to become like an electronic busker!"

Mika came to the UK from Azerbaijan aged 16 along with her deaf mother. Her asylum process took seven years before she was granted refugee status and during those years, she faced many challenges of having to rely predominantly on cash.

"Over the seven years I spent in the asylum system, I really understood the difficulties of depending entirely on digital payment systems. In my home country, using cash was a much more straightforward and mainly accepted method for managing everyday financial needs". 

"With cash, I had immediate access to funds and could easily engage in a wide range of transactions, from buying groceries at a local market to paying for a bus ticket." 

"Using cash made me feel safer."