LEE BOYCE: It’s vital we have the choice to pay with cash

When will our leaders —and I’m mostly talking about ministers, council chiefs and major company bosses — wake up and realise that this digital future they’re hankering for isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?

Three times in three days, I’ve experienced an absolute nightmare paying by debit card because of computer ‘glitches’.

Each time there has been a big song and dance about accepting cash (or rather, not accepting it).

First, it happened at a small cafe in London. The barista couldn’t get the card machine to work.

Count on coins: The easy, reliable options of making payments (i.e. cash and paper) are being taken away from us 

I had exactly £3.50 in cash. Would he take it instead? Nope. So I waited five minutes for the machine to be rebooted, got fed-up and walked off.

Second, I was in a local pub (again in London) and the internet went down.

I took the drinks away and headed to the garden and waited 20 minutes for bar staff to come out and take payment. Because, again, cash wasn’t acceptable. 

The third time this happened, I was at an independent gift shop in Essex, where I live. They were awaiting a new card machine to take payment, as the only one they have was on the blink.

‘We’ve had to go back to accepting cash for the time being,’ I was told by the staff.

‘Maybe that should be a permanent change,’ I suggested.

Fat chance!

Whether it is making payments, closing bank branches, forcing us to pay by phone for parking, replacing supermarket staff with self-scan machines, or scanning a QR code to get a restaurant menu — the easy, reliable options (i.e. cash and paper) are being taken away from us left, right and centre. Is that really ‘progress’?

It’s vital we have choice over how to make payments in our everyday lives. And that means ending this total madness of forcing everyone to depend on unreliable modern technology. Time to bring back cash, I say!

Loyalty matters

A week ago this column reported on a suggestion from Money Mail reader Keith that loyal bank customers should get a reward for every decade they stick around.

Dozens of you got in touch to give his idea the thumbs up. Some of you say you’d be in line for your seventh gift under his plan — that’s how long you’ve been with the same bank.

Yet a fair few say the only ‘gift’ they can remember receiving in recent years has been the closure of their local branch.

One reader, Peter, says he started banking with Midland Bank — now HSBC — in 1957. That’s 66 years of loyalty.

He adds: ‘The only way they thank me is by closing down the branch in my home town of Burgess Hill in West Sussex — the nearest now being five miles away in Haywards Heath. Not much of a loyalty reward.’

Peter also asks if 66 years is a record. I’m afraid not, judging by our postbag.

Gordon, 85, from Southwick, West Sussex, tells me he opened his Lloyds Bank account in 1955 — before Elvis released a studio album and the average UK house cost £1,937, according to Nationwide Building Society, or £63,169 at today’s prices.

He says: ‘I’ve been a Lloyds customer for 68 years, but this has never been acknowledged by the bank. A small token of appreciation would be very welcome.’

Big banks, it’s time to start showing your gratitude.

Thank you…

This week marks my last writing this column. It has been a great privilege editing these pages and devouring the thousands of letters and emails you send us.

Your clever ideas, thorny questions and enthralling stories are the lifeblood of Money Mail — long may it continue.

They’ve made me laugh, cry and fizz with anger at the way so many companies treat you. Don’t stop reading — and certainly don’t stop writing in!

If you don’t mind a small plug, you’ll find me in future over at Money Mail’s sister website, This Is Money, which is packed with personal finance tips and tricks to make you richer.

For now, adios — I wish every reader a prosperous future.

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This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk