I didn't realise it was legal to refuse cash if that was how a customer wished to pay. I have never believed that the customer is always right, that's an out of date pompous philosophy but dictating to the consumer how they pay for items seems a little, well, dictatorial! Cash used to be the strongest form of currency.

As someone who works in the hospitality and events industry, I cannot tell you how much of a nuisance handling cash transactions is. It’s an incredibly time consuming and therefore expensive method of taking money, especially on the scale of the amount of people attending a football match.

I am unsure of the total amount of outlets at Selhurst but each one would have to have enough change to satisfy everyone that pays with a £10 or £20 note. Trust me, even a lot of those who may have the change will still purchase things with a note as they don’t want to stand and count the change when told the amount. If the change runs out it must be transferred from another outlet or from a central hub, so there will be 1/2 people on game day who probably just look after change. The cash from each outlet then has to be counted and checked at the end of the day. There are now high fees to pay for banking cash, regardless of whether it’s banked or done by securicor etc. Then there is the trust issue of staff handling cash and alcohol, a potent mix to anyone who is even slightly tempted. That’s before the increasing amount of forgeries that exist on some notes and certain coins. It adds up to a massive undertaking when card payments are much easier and slicker.

I am always surprised when people say they don’t carry a card, we get that sometimes but then I do wonder what would happen if they get a puncture on the way home or have some other emergency that the cash they are covering doesn’t cover. Surely it’s just a damn sight safer for younger people too?

We work across the UK and each year in London we find that card payments increase by around 10% from the year before. It’s the way of the world.

though we had run out of dosh!

No problem with cashless transaction, however, I reckon it should be made compulsory that Sterling cash payments should be accepted in any f-2-F transction.

This cashless stuff is a bit big brother for me, and i still don't trust internet banking enough to fully commit.

Physcologically there needs to be something tactile about wealth, otherwise it become totally philosophical.