Martin Lewis said stores have their rights to only allow card payments during the Covid-19 pandemic – and not break the law by refusing to accept cash.
The question arose on ITV’s Martin Lewis Financial ShowOne person asked: “If cash is legal tender, companies break the rules by only accepting cards.”
Money saver Martin’s answer was simple, and she is Mirror Reports.
He said, “No, they are not breaking any rules.”
“You are only allowed to take the card as long as it is not discriminatory due to race, disability, or something like that.”
But this raised the question of what exactly was legal bidding.
“The subject matter of the legal tender is interesting,” Martin said.
“Legal tender has a strict definition.
“This means that if a court rules you for a debt, if someone tries to settle and pays the legal tender, you cannot refuse it.
“And that’s all it means.”
He noted that in some parts of the country, the only thing considered legal tender are coins.
“In Scotland, there are no banknotes – neither the Bank of Scotland nor the Bank of England are legal tender.”
But this does not mean that they are illegal.
“They are all legal currencies,” he added.
Regarding whether it is time to switch to a cashless society, Martin made an excellent point.
“I know a lot of people say ‘Why don’t we just move to a cashless society? “I don’t want that, because there are many vulnerable people who need money.”
And there was good news coming for people who depend on cash, but are finding it difficult to deal with the closing of bank branches and the removal of ATMs.
“The government said that once we left the European Union in January, it will change the rules, so if you want to get money from the supermarket, you don’t have to buy anything,” he said.
“With the closure of ATMs and bank branches, this will be beneficial.”
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