…I thought a separate thread on reducing cash usage might be useful.
For me, one area of life that’s always been incredibly difficult to escape cash in has been independent takeaways. But now my favourite local kebab van and pizza van both take cards through iZettle. It makes a massive difference - no needing to hunt down an ATM, touch god-knows-what on the keys and then handle filthy notes, just to be left with change that I’ve got no use for (and I use a card holder instead of a wallet, so I end up just stuffing it in my pockets).
Whether a vendor accepts cards or not is now pretty much a deciding factor for me as to whether I’ll give them my custom (with the unfortunate exception of a certain Chinese in my city, which does the best pancake rolls you’ll ever taste in your life).
In the village I recently moved from, one of the local shops there stopped taking cash payments altogether. He had a notice in the window advising this. He told me that he no longer wanted the hassle of dealing with cash and/or the threat of robbery. Fair play to him.
This is a very good argument. The village barbers (that, surprise surprise, only accepts cash) has been robbed about three times. The old local convenience store - a McColls - was subject to multiple armed robberies for the cash in the till, and it left the staff in an absolute state. One of them developed really bad PTSD and anxiety as a result.
The thing I find is, even if you don’t do delivery through JustEat and collect instead (so no delivery fee), the prices tend to be inflated anyway compared to ordering direct - presumably to cover the fees JustEat take.
Very true. My local independent pizza place went on Just Eat during the pandemic. I priced an order with Just Eat at £23. On their own website it was £19. I phoned the order through to them even though they I hadn’t pay their minimum delivery charge of £21.
Sounds about right. My normal order from the local pizza shop is £27 through JustEat (excluding delivery fee), or £16.50 direct. Ridiculous difference.
That’s interesting. My two local takeaways (Indian and Chinese) both charge the same price on Just Eat as they do when ordering direct.
The Indian has a £12.00 minimum order with no delivery charge (just the 50p Just Eat service charge), the Chinese has a minimum order of £16 + £2 delivery, plus 50p service charge.
I generally order delivery from the Indian, for the Chinese I order on Just Eat for collection - costs 50p but saves me waiting around for my order (I don’t order enough to get delivery). Interestingly, they have a CASH ONLY sign on display, but have a card machine hidden under the counter, which I’ve used on occasion.
It’s very strange as the just eat t&cs state prices need to be the same on just eat than in the shop and own services I know from dealing first hand with just eat when running a chip shop
Yes. And Mastercard and Visa Ts & Cs state that merchants aren’t allowed to set a minimum transaction amount for card acceptance. But many do.
I suspect that Just Eat (and Mastercard and Visa) don’t really care too much unless it’s egregious or pointed out to them. If McDonalds were breaking Just Eat rules, there’d be a conversation, if Joe’s Chippy broke the rules, it might not be worth it.
You are correct that a minimum spend isn’t against the law, but it might (I don’t know for sure) be against MasterCard and Visa’s own terms and conditions. Not that they can do much about it if it is, other than send the merchant a reminder. They are hardly going to threaten the merchant with ending their contract as it would mean losing business.
There’s a very interesting divide and paradigm shift going on, particularly in rural areas, I think.
Where I live, a lot of the newer small business have gone card only and have those little square readers for card payments. It’s very nice. It’s become a lot more common that I had anticipated. I’m not sure if larger towns are seeing a similar thing, but in a small rural community it’s very noticeable.
But then, on the other hand, a lot of the older more established local businesses have remained cash only. Annoyingly so, because I despise that I need to withdraw cash for pizza at the weekend, when everything else is Apple Pay.
I think it’s complacency. These are very successful businesses who have fended up threats from the likes of Iceland, Subway, and Burger King. Their fiercely loyal customer base just don’t care for big chains or new startups. It personally baffles me, because the food at some of these places isn’t nearly as good as the locals make them out to be.
A month ago I’d have confidently backed @Anarchist on this. I was arrogantly adamant that minimum spend had been abolished along with the fees. Then a toy shop wouldn’t let me buy my Lego with my card because it was under £10. It wound me up to the point I was prepared to challenge them legally on this. Until my mother told me I was wrong.
First time I’d seen anyone enforce a minimum charge since the rules RE fees, mind you. But thinking back, I perhaps got confused in that places used to just charge a fee for spending under a certain amount.
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