Manchester street goes cashless

A Manchester street will provide a glimpse into a cashless future tomorrow when its merchants ban notes and coins for one day.

  13 6 comments

Manchester street goes cashless

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

Grocers, bakers, pubs and restaurants on Beech Road have agreed to ditch cash for 24 hours in an experiment dreamed up by local card payment terminal firm Handepay.

Handepay says that the experiment will test consumer and business reaction to the inevitable future, when paper money becomes redundant.

Earlier this month the British Retail Consortium claimed that there has been a 14% decline in the use of notes and coins in the last five years as customers switch to cards.

However, despite the predictions of its demise, Payments Council figures show that cash was still used for 19.9 billion payments, worth £260 billion, last year - 52% of all payments.

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Comments: (6)

A Finextra member 

Kudos to Handepay! One would have expected the likes of Zapp or Powa to be first to do such a trial.

Geoffrey Barraclough

Geoffrey Barraclough Founder at The Business of Payments

Standard contactless chip & PIN machines are the best route for grocers, bakers and laundretttes. Mobile POS linked to smartphones (the mPOWA route) is unusable in most real-world retail environments - too slow, too complex.

Matt Jones

Matt Jones Director at Payments Culture

Handepay have done a great job in organising and publicising this event!

A Finextra member 

A cashless society is so close I can almost touch it. There is no question in my mind that a globe without cash is within reach. Two months ago in Australia I signed up for a cashless purchasing card for a new drink and snack food vending machine trial by Coka-Cola Amatil. that also have an app for my iphone. Both the card and the app are joined to the one account. I can check all past transactions, set up auto pay with a credit card or pay manually. I can use any card and even use PayPal to top up.

Russell Bell

Russell Bell Director at Fastbase Ltd

The merchants aren't banning cash for the day.  From the Guardian a few quotes from business owners, first a deli owner "...given that we have a minimum value of £5 to pay by card, I don't think it will be possible to go completely cashless..." A newsagent "...if someone doesn't want to pay by card, or is unable to, they will of course be able to pay with cash - you're not going to turn trade away" a pizza restaurant owner "...we are going to encourage all our customers to enter the spirit of the day and pay by card..."

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

"...merchants ban notes and coins for one day". One day - how lame is that? Private zones are far more promising for cashless to happen than high streets: A leading bank with its tech center located a few miles south of Manchester has been cashless - every day since 2007. On another note, will these merchants tell us how they found "the morning after the night before".

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