Cash is a “lifesaver” for Nicola*. Due to her ADHD and autism, she struggles to visualise figures in her head and has impulsive spending habits. After getting into more than £30,000 worth of debt, she now relies on cash to budget her day-to-day spending.

“Withdrawing cash is the only way I can physically see what I’m spending and stay within my limits,” she tells The Grocer.

Nicola is one of the estimated 1.5 million shoppers in the UK who rely on cash as their primary form of spending, according to 2023 figures from UK finance.

Their numbers have been falling steadily for the past decade, but there’s evidence the cost of living crisis is reversing that trend. The number of people using cash for day-to-day spending hit a four-year high in 2023, according to the same UK Finance study.

More recently, Nationwide reported cash withdrawals at ATMs rose for the third year in a row in 2024, up 10% on 2023. More shoppers were returning to cash as a way to manage their budgets, the bank said.

So, in the face of this minor resurgence, how are retailers catering for cash shoppers? Who’s affected most by moves towards a cashless society? And what does the future of payment look like?

While card remains the dominant form of payment, major retailers have no plans to phase out cash acceptance completely, says Chris Owen, the BRC’s policy advisor for finance.

“Cash will still be around for the foreseeable future. Retailers are actively planning for cash to continue as a payment type as there’s consumer demand to still use it,” he says.

However, there’s clearly an impression that cash-paying customers are becoming an afterthought. The sentiment came through in a poll of 3,000 members by food redistribution charity The Bread & Butter Thing for The Grocer this month. As many as 72% agreed retailers could make it easier to pay in cash.

Meanwhile, 52% of shoppers polled in December by Link, the UK’s ATM network operator, said they’d been somewhere that did not accept cash or discouraged its use – a 22% increase on the year before.

As an example, premium bakery chain Gail’s stopped accepting cash payments across all 150 of its UK outlets last year. Owner Bread Holdings did not respond to The Grocer’s request for comment – but in its FAQs, Gail’s claims going cashless reduces the risk of crime and has environmental benefits by eliminating the need for collection. East of England Co-op, Itsu and Pret a Manger  have also begun trialling cashless branches.

At the mults, nearly a fifth of payments are still in cash, according to the BRC. All major supermarkets remain publicly “committed” to accepting cash in stores. However, some have begun phasing out cash payments across other parts of their businesses.

For example, Asda made 96 of its petrol stations card-only in 2024 by removing the manned kiosk from forecourts. Similarly, Tesco drew ire from some shoppers in 2024 after piloting card-only digital screen kiosks in 40 of its in-store cafés. Waitrose only accepts card payments across its entire self-checkout estate, while M&S, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons have been minimising the number of cash-accepting tills on self-checkout banks to make stores more efficient.

In response, more than 70,000 people have signed a Change.org petition urging decision-makers at Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco to “stop discriminating against cash users at self-checkouts”.

The most vulnerable groups

The backlash is about much more than a stubborn affection for cash, campaigners say. It’s often society’s most vulnerable people who rely on cash as their primary form of payment – and therefore are most affected by refusal to accept it as tender.

People with learning disabilities or other conditions are, on average, more likely to be among the nearly one million “unbanked” adults in the UK, with no bank or credit account.

In 2024, 49% of disabled people had difficulty accessing banking products and therefore relied solely on cash, according to disability charity Mencap. Likewise, many blind or visually impaired people also rely on cash as they cannot use digital screens.

People on tight incomes are another important consideration. This demographic is three times more likely to rely on cash, according to the Financial Conduct Authority. The Bread & Butter Thing’s poll found the same skew. Cash accounts for 34% of payments at its food clubs – double the national average.

“For many of our members, it’s the only way to ensure the budget stretches to the end of the week,” says Bread & Butter Thing CEO Vic Harper. “Take cash away and you’re not just changing how people pay, you’re cutting off a vital way they manage their money.”

Another benefit of cash is that it’s untraceable. For that reason, it is often relied on by people trying to escape domestic abuse, Nicola says. Her son took his own life at 19 after leaving an abusive relationship and being unable to find homeless accommodation.

“If people are in abusive relationships and their bank accounts are being controlled, if they’ve got cash, they might be able to keep themselves safe and truly out of danger at that point in time,” she says.

In these corners of society, the desire for cash is only growing. According to a 2024 poll of 2,000 NatWest customers, the proportion of “vulnerable individuals” that consider cash to be essential has increased over the past year, from 47% to 54%.

Limiting options for cash payments risks creating a “two-tier” society that excludes vulnerable people from key services, campaigners warn.  Inclusivity isn’t simply about accepting it as tender, says Martin Quinn, spokesperson for Campaign for Cash.

Cash-reliant shoppers are already on an “uneven playing field”,  as retailers increasingly digitise day-to-day shopping through app-based loyalty schemes and smart shopping tools, he points out.

So although shoppers might still be able to pay with cash somewhere in store, those without access to smartphones or who are unbanked cannot access the wider benefits of loyalty schemes.

Another point made by campaigners is the issue of security. Recent cyberattacks on Co-op and M&S, as well as major tech glitches at supermarkets over the past year, have highlighted the need for cash, they say. The point was also raised by retail trade union Usdaw when giving evidence to a Treasury committee on cash acceptance earlier this year.

In March 2024, Tesco and Sainsbury’s were temporarily unable to process card and contactless payments in a significant number of stores due to a “technical glitch”. Shoppers paying in cash were unaffected. “Cash doesn’t need power, it doesn’t need the internet,” points out Quinn.

Lack of banking access

What it does need, however, is a bank. Ron Delnevo, chair of the lobby group Payment Choice Alliance, is concerned by the declining banking infrastructure.

Since 1986, the number of bank and building society branches in the UK has fallen from 21,643 to 6,870, according to the ONS and the British Banking Association. The problem is particularly pronounced in rural areas.

“It’s robbed people of convenience,” Delnevo says. “Some businesses are so far from a bank where they can deposit cash that they don’t want to accept it any longer because it’s such a difficult trip.”

As availability of cash dwindles, retailers are paying ever larger sums in card payment fees. The total amount paid by retailers to banks and payment providers hit £1.64bn in 2023, up more than 25% and £380m on the previous year, according to the BRC.

That’s no coincidence, says the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which points to cash as the cheapest payment option for businesses to handle.

“Having cash as a widely used and viable alternative to card acts as a downward pressure on fees, which take a bite out of every sale paid for by card,” says Martin McTague, national chair of the FSB.

For this reason, the FSB, BRC and the ACS have lobbied the government to do more to ensure businesses have access to banking and cash-handling services.

Labour is starting to listen. In its Small Business Plan, it has pledged to introduce banking hubs to 350 of the UK’s most cash-deprived areas by the end of parliament. The Post Office has also committed to maintaining its cash counters to ensure small businesses can access banking services locally.

This comes alongside new rules introduced by the FCA for 14 banks and building societies in September 2024 to ensure they step in to provide additional cash services deemed necessary by local councils.

It’s a welcome step in the right direction, but campaigners like Delnevo say far more needs to be done to replace the shortfall in banking services and ensure vulnerable people and businesses have access to cash.

Campaign for Cash and Payment Choice Alliance have urged the UK to introduce laws making it mandatory for businesses to accept cash. Ireland, France and Kenya have all recently introduced similar legislation.

The government ruled out any such move in its response to the Treasury committee inquiry into cash acceptance in July – a conclusion supported by the BRC and ACS. However, economic secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds conceded future government intervention may be necessary to protect cash payments. For now, the Bank of England will continue to track cash use as part of its annual consumer survey, alongside the aforementioned banking hub plans.

In lieu of a forthcoming legal solution, campaigners  are calling on retailers to be more proactive about protecting and promoting the use of cash. Plenty of recent examples show it’s not too late, campaigners say.

In 2019, US salad chain SweetGreen reversed a long-standing ban on cash payments across its 94-store estate after backlash from shoppers.

Quinn cites Booths’ move to strip out self-service checkouts in 2023 as an example of a UK retailer that’s listening to its customer desire for more manual interactions. Meanwhile, Delnevo praises Tesco for reversing its decision to make 40 of its in-store cafés cashless. At the same time, the retailer has been increasing the number of ATMs across its estate. It now has 3,450 – about 7% of the UK’s total – across Tesco and One Stop stores.

Still, some shoppers are keen to see retailers do more. Of the food club members polled for The Grocer, 24.7% called for more staffed or cash-accepting checkouts, 9% wanted to see more clearly displayed ‘cash accepted’ signs, and 7% were concerned by the removal of self-service checkouts that accept cash.

“Retailers should keep cash as an easy, visible, and stigma-free option. That means staffed tills, clear signage, and no assumptions that ‘everyone’s gone digital’,” The Bread & Butter Thing concludes in its briefing to accompany its survey of 3,000 members.

Increased awareness would certainly be welcomed by shoppers like Nicola, who admits she often feels stigmatised for wanting to pay with cash.

“I’ve been going to pay before and the cashier instantly pushes the card button. When I whip out a £10 note they get a little surprised, but I always say to them: cash is king now.”

*Name changed for anonymity