Card Only / Cash Only

[nailit]

Had breakfast in a cafe in Stoke earlier this week and they were taking cash only.
Had a drink in Cafe Nero in Chester yesterday and they were taking card only.
Whats that all about, I dont get it?

[Theland]

I thought cash was a covid risk?
Don't get that.

[Mamyalynne]

Though I disagree with it,I can understand 'Card only' to minimise contact etc.

'Cash only' may mean they don't have a card reader which is less usual these days.

[douglas9401]

'Cash only' makes it easier to fiddle while Rome burns.

[nailit]

//makes it easier to fiddle while Rome burns//
Ay, that could be the case, couldnt blame them for trying to recuperate a bit of lost business.

[youngmafbog]

The ones catering to the bed wetters insist on card. The real business people take both.

Our local Asian food store has taken cash and cards all through.

[nailit]

In Cafe Nero yesterday, they placed our orders on a 'special' table for us to pick up. The counter seemed to have been out of action. Bonkers!

[nailit]

//Our local Asian food store has taken cash and cards all through//
Same here. And none of the local corner shops (Asian or otherwise) are bothered about masks. And there doesnt seem to have been an outbreak of covid traced to them.

[youngmafbog]

It's not a corner shop it is a proper Asian shop that sells all the spices and bulk stuff. Excellent butcher too.

Out local corner shop also takes cards and cash though.

[10ClarionSt]

When I was in junior school, we were told that a virus cannot live outside the body. It needs a host. We were told the same when there was all the scaremongering about HIV in the 1980's; that it is only transmitted by close and intimate contact. How has this virus managed to become so different than all the ones that went before it?

[Hopkirk]

Because it has mutated. 10c

[nailit]

//Because it has mutated. 10c//
Into what?

[Buenchico]

For 10CS (and anyone else interested in the science of viruses):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zkcvhcw

[nailit]

*NO* We've now got a mutant Covid virus to deal with as well.

[jourdain2]

Months ago I rinsed all my change when I came home and washed my hands - like a good little girl/moron. I stopped doing it. Can't see the problem with cash and our local PO and most shops don't do cards. No problem, no-one, except a couple of oddities, wears a mask and there is a nil Covid infection rate until you reach our market town (10 miles) when there were a couple a few months ago.

Impossible to ask for card only. Most pensioners here draw their pension in cash - none of them has a computer and couldn't/wouldn't use it if they had one. The 'up front' ones need to get real to reality.

[Mamyalynne]

That's two new things I have learned today - there are Post Offices that don't take cards and you can still get your State Pension in cash.

Both news to me.

[gness]

So, Jourdain...you handle cash from god knows where it's been and you don't wash your hands?!

I hope all your non mask wearing pensioners are familiar with the changes to come in November 2021 - because they won't be able to use a PO for collecting cash from their pension unless they have a bank account.

[woofgang]

its kind of a misnomer Mamya. The pension goes into what is called a "simple account" or a Post Office account and the pensioner has a card to draw it out. They don't have to draw it all out at once but many people do....so no you can no longer get your pension paid in cash but its possible to operate the system to mimic getting your pension paid in cash.

[Mamyalynne]

By card then, so they do have a card reader?

It doesn't matter, was a little surprised at the mention of a PO that didn't take cards.

[woofgang]

they may not all have contactless but I can't imagine any that have no chip and pin reader...after all they are bank branches!

[brainiac]

My village PO has a card for PO transactions/cash withdrawals etc, but no card reader for other things (they sell food, confectionery and cards) - meaning I couldn't buy some envelopes the other day as I had no cash with me!