The Battle to have your Money accepted

One increasing trend as retailers adapt to and reopen in the Covid-19 environment has been to change payment systems typically replacing traditional cash for contactless debit or credit cards for small transactions.

These are typically small stores that sell items of low value which traditionally we'd of payed for by cash such as Bakers  like Chatwin's locally who sell marvellous bread and cakes and Greggs who famously sell sausage rolls following sector advice not accept cash in case the virus is on it.

That can be a problem for those who don't have bank accounts with cards or for shopping for others who may find it too difficult or are staying home because of extreme vulnerability to infection who even if they had a card should not be providing some one else their PIN number.

This might even had worked had such stores accepted regular credit or debit cards but these store are refusing to accept the UK's chip and pin system where a chip is read and you are prompted to enter a four digit PIN.

This is because they also fear transmission of the virus from your hands to others via the touch pads.

The contactless card currently with a £45 per transaction limit just requires being held and waved over a reader that then  beeps when the transaction is made.

The problem is some typically older customers were never given the option of having the contactless sort at the outset and others were refused because they would not be issued to those whose credit score fell below a set figure.

Thus in this much altered world we've added social exclusion from certain shopping for sections of society.

After a half an hour trying to get someone at their bank because bank staff are working from home, my elderly folks were elated to get a person issue them new cards which are contactless as they were increasingly struggling to shop because of this issue.