BANKING - 22.09.2020

Q&A - can we refuse cash payments?

Q. We’ve read about several businesses that have refused to accept cash payments from their clients and customers. We thought that this practice was illegal. Is it or can we also say “no thank you” to cash?

A. It’s not unlawful to refuse to accept cash payments in the UK. As a seller of goods and/or services, you have every right to decide on your own payment terms. For convenience and the security aspects, you may decide that you will only accept card payments, online transfers, mobile payments, such as ApplePay, or all three. The downside to saying “no cash payments” is that there are around 3m people who rely on cash for their everyday transactions.

From a practical perspective, where you only take card or electronic payments, you could easily run into problems if there is a sudden loss of power or internet connection. Ultimately, it’s your choice and will depend on your own business - one option is to say that you prefer card/electronic payments for safety reasons.

It’s not unlawful to refuse to accept cash payments. As the seller of goods and/or services, you set your payment terms. However, around 3m people still use cash for everyday transactions. To avoid excluding them, you could say that card payments are preferred.

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