…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.
I do think cash is dirty in respect of the fact that it is without doubt, filthy, germ and narcotic ridden. I also don’t use public transport because I don’t live in a city and I have a car which is my only effective means of transport. I definitely don’t float through mid air because I’m so fat, gravity wouldn’t allow it Neither myself nor my Wife have any time to wipe down our shopping after purchase, especially with wet wipes because they are entirely environmentally unfriendly and cost too much.
I wouldn’t have responded to your post, but your final paragraph wasn’t at all necessary in my opinion as it has nothing to do with the topic in hand.
Rubbish. I hate cash and I regularly use public transport. You may be surprised to learn that most, if not all, forms of public transport now take contactless payments. In fact, at the height of lockdown last year, the local bus companies banned cash fares and you had no option but to use contactless.
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Neither myself nor my Wife have any time to wipe down our shopping after purchase, especially with wet wipes because they are entirely environmentally unfriendly and cost too much.