The cost to small businesses of going cashless

With the number of contactless card transactions doubling last year, The UK is moving towards a cashless society. But that would make many small businesses much worse off.

The UK is moving towards a cashless society contactless card transactions doubled last year but firms that make money from electronic payments would like to see the trend accelerate. Visa, one of the two dominant card networks in the UK, told the BBC last week that it is considering an incentive scheme to encourage UK businesses to go cashless. The scheme would be based on Visa's US initiative, under which it offered bonuses worth $10,000 each to 50 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) if they only accept cards.

Visa claims that cashless transactions are more convenient and secure. However, in reality, the merits of card payments remain finely balanced for many SMEs. For very large numbers of small retailers, restaurants, market traders and mobile tradesmen from plumbers to builders the advantages of card-based payments are undermined by the cost.

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David Prosser
Business Columnist

David Prosser is a regular MoneyWeek columnist, writing on small business and entrepreneurship, as well as pensions and other forms of tax-efficient savings and investments. David has been a financial journalist for almost 30 years, specialising initially in personal finance, and then in broader business coverage. He has worked for national newspaper groups including The Financial Times, The Guardian and Observer, Express Newspapers and, most recently, The Independent, where he served for more than three years as business editor.