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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business

Cost of cashless society on our rural community shop

Flying saucer sweets.
‘Schoolchildren buy sweets for £1 on their phone card, not realising this costs us 4p a time to process.’ Photograph: shinypix/Alamy

Re the costs of our cashless society (Editorial, 1 May), I volunteer in a rural community shop. Finances are tight in this age of inflation and we need to watch every penny. We ask our customers to use cash where they can, particularly for small amounts. It costs us nothing to bank cash but a £10 payment on a credit card costs us over 11p to process. We have a free to use ATM, but nowadays many people only have a card on their phone, so they can’t use our ATM.

This is especially so with schoolchildren who buy sweets for £1 on their phone card, not realising this costs us 4p a time to process. We have noticed that when children do carry cash they seem to find counting out change difficult as they rarely carry it.
Ruth Anderson
Chair, Kirkoswald community shop, Cumbria

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