Edition 18 - Can We Bank On The Post Office?

A Payment Choice Alliance Newsletter

We Wish all our Supporters a Happy Christmas and a Wonderful 2026

Can We Bank On The Post Office?

As bank branches close, more and more former banking transactions are being forced into Post Offices.

That, of course, costs the Big Five UK banks some money - BUT only a tiny fraction of the amount it would cost them to keep their bank branches open.

The banks are using the Post Office to cover their desertion of thousands of UK communities, saving £BILLIONS in the process.

Bank branches boarded up and ATMs ripped out, often leaving dark town centres.

The Post Office has now been given a contract by banks which expires in 2030, by which time there will be almost no bank branches or bank ATMs in the UK.

After that?

Having got rid of 15,000 bank branches, will the Big Five banks turn their attention to rendering the remaining 11,500 British Post Offices uneconomic?

It would be easy for them to do - they could simply refuse to sign a new contract to fund the cash and other face-to-face banking services now virtually only obtainable at Post Offices.

Starting in January 2026, the Payment Choice Alliance will be revealing the ENTIRE story of how the Post Office has been very poorly treated by the banks for decades - and allowed to do so by successive British governments.

This MUST stop.

The purpose of revealing this sorry story is to ensure the power to decide the fate of the future funding of the Post Office - and community Financial Services, including cash access - is NOT left in the hands of the Big 5 UK banks!

The British government needs to intervene to ensure an independent regulator has the power to ensure that funding by the banks is at a level to guarantee the Post Office can continue to deliver community financial services, including 24/7 cash access via ATMs.

That way, all 60 million adults in the UK will be able to ‘Bank’ on the Post Office for the foreseeable future!

‘Cash is here to Stay’: Why Cash is King in Emergency Planning

A quote from this Irish article, referring to systems failures:

“……..cash may be the only method of payment available, for hours, days or even longer, and needs to be protected.”

Meantime, the UK ‘Authorities’ close their eyes and have ears only for the anti-cash lobby, who keep up the pretence that there is a digital answer for EVERYTHING and that financial inclusion can be solved by a pre-paid Mastercard.

This is a completely clueless approach.

CASH IS NOT A PROBLEM IN NEED OF A DIGITAL SOLUTION.

The ‘National Payments Vision’ was hurriedly thought up by HM Treasury and collaborators in the dying months of the previous UK government, a government that has stood idly by and allowed the UK’s bank branch and ATM networks to be destroyed.

The deliberate undermining of cash has been long-term but the tremendous acceleration has been since 2015, when elements of the financial services industry took advantage of years of political chaos surrounding the UK’s exit from the European Union to do more or less as they liked. It would be easy to name names - but that is for another day, though their ears must be burning already.

2026 will be a TREMENDOUS year for Payment Choice.

The current government WILL see sense and our commitment and energy WILL lead to ‘cashless’ being swept off the streets of the UK - and out of the ‘National Payments Vision!’

New Zealand Central Bank wants Cash kept within easy reach

A telling quote from New Zealand:

‘Small firms are especially exposed, with 72% of New Zealand’s small businesses saying they would be adversely affected if cash stopped being an option.’

Why is the Bank of England not asking the same questions AND publicising the responses in the UK?

Why is it being left to anti-cash elements in the UK financial services industry to continually play down the importance of cash, whilst undermining cash access and encouraging non-acceptance? In New Zealand, 80% of the public still use cash to some extent. The figure in the UK is nearer 90%. These people - the vast majority of the populations of both countries - agree:

Cash is NOT a problem in need of a digital solution.

Fair warning.

2026 is the year when the ‘War on Cashless’ REALLY starts in the UK. There will be NO survivors on the other side!

A Happy Christmas and Prosperous Cash filled 2026 from Ron and the Campaign Committee

Please Tell Your Friends About The Payment Choice Alliance

The PCA needs all the active supporters we can get! So please tell your friends about YOUR support for the Payment Choice Alliance - and urge them to visit our website to register THEIR support!

THANK YOU.

Take Action to Protect Cash

About Us

The Payment Choice Alliance, founded in 2014 and relaunched in 2023, is a campaigning organisation committed to ensuring the right of the British public to use cash is safeguarded by the passing of a Payment Choice Act.

The Act would give everyone in the UK the right to use their cash, when and where they choose.

The Payment Choice Alliance, which is run by committed volunteers, is also focused on ensuring every community in the UK has convenient cash withdrawal and deposit facilities. The provision of such facilities, along with the legal obligation of businesses to accept cash, will ensure cash remains a viable Payment Choice for the British public for as long as they want to use it.