Cash is being ‘replaced by cards’ – Important message for Holiday Cottage owners

Holiday Cottage owners have been warned that cash payments will account for less than half of all transactions in five years’ time, according to research. The Payments Council, which oversees the strategy on payments systems, said that 80% of cash transactions made at present were for less than £10.  It claimed that “cash is king no more” as card payments accelerate and notes, coin and cheque usage declines. The phasing out of cheques, has been planned for October 2018.  Best of Wales can offer the Holiday Cottage owners the ability to accept payments online 24/7 265 days of the year.

The Payments Council, which set the deadline should alternative payment systems be developed, has published a report giving its vision of the future of how UK consumers spend. Although cash will not disappear in our lifetime, the continuing payments revolution will make it an ever smaller part of our spending   Mike Bowman, Payments Council Do mobiles signal future of money?  It suggested that by 2018, one in 50 people would be paid their wages in cash, compared with one in eight in 1999.  It predicted that cash would account for 45% of transactions by 2018, compared with 73% in 1999, whereas debit card spending would increase from £65bn to £490bn over the same period. “Although cash will not disappear in our lifetime, the continuing payments revolution will make it an ever smaller part of our spending,” said Mike Bowman of the Payments Council. “The noughties have been the decade of the debit card. Especially since chip and pin, which has speeded up transactions, it has become socially acceptable to buy small items by card now too, for example in a sandwich shop or a pub.” The Council also said that cheques accounted for 0.8% of spending in shops. However, representatives from the Council faced some persistent questioning from the House of Commons Treasury Committee in March about the proposed winding down of the cheque system by 2018.  Committee chairman John McFall questioned whether the “terminal decline” of cheques was in fact a “fudged, managed decline”.  Online shopping and internet banking had become more convenient with cards, according to Paul Smee, chief executive of the Payments Council. If you own a Holiday Cottage now could be the perfect time to capitalise on the online growth, visit www.bestofwales.co.uk for more info