Payment Choice Alliance - Latest News Feed

New York State Compels Businesses To Accept Cash! Body of text:

New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a consumer alert recently reminding New Yorkers that stores throughout the state must now allow customers to pay in cash. Under a new law going into effect on March 21, 2026, it is illegal for a New York food store or retail establishment to refuse payment in cash for goods or services. The new statewide law mirrors a similar New York City law that has been in effect since 2020.

Businesses which fail to comply will face a $1000 fine for a first contravention of the law. Each subsequent contravention will see a $1500 penalty imposed.

This is BRILLIANT news, following so quickly on Sweden and Jersey also acting to compel cash acceptance.

The public are having their right to use cash confirmed by legislation EVERYWHERE - apart from here in the UK!

Time for Sir Keir Starmer and his Government to prove they do NOT believe the British public are 2nd Class Citizens by passing immediately Payment Choice Legislation that guarantees cash is accepted by every business in the United Kingdom!

Source: ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/attorney-general-james-notifies-new-yorkers-about-new-state-law-requiring-stores

EVERY Community Needs 24/7 Access To Cash!

With bank branches disappearing at the rate of two a day for the last ten years - and ATMs being ripped out even faster - retailers are becoming more important than ever in supplying cash to the British public.

And no retailer is more important than Tesco.

Tesco now have more branches than the total operated by the UK’s Big Five banks. And most of those Tesco’s branches have busy ATMs, machines which may soon be delivering 20% of ALL the cash used by the British public as they live their daily lives.

And the GREAT news?

THEY ARE ALL FREE TO USE.

Many communities now have Tesco stores but no bank branches. Some of the cash issued to the public by Tesco ATMs of course gets spent in their own stores but, in communities up and down the UK, a lot of that cash circulates to ALL the local businesses. Prosperity for all, due to the presence of a Tesco 24/7 ATM, delivering cash to the British public, where and when they want it.

And this is what EVERY community in the UK MUST have - 24/7 convenient access to cash!

Source: youtube.com/watch?v=vJnkZ1AoSMg

“Cashless” Is DEAD In Sweden!

Brilliant news from Sweden!

The Swedish government has submitted a bill to parliament that requires grocery stores and pharmacies to accept cash.

And why?

Because the Government has realised that a “cashless” Sweden cannot be fully inclusive or completely resilient.

The same, of course, is absolutely true of the UK!

Time for Keir Starmer and Rt Hon Rachel Reeves to discover the wisdom and good sense of the Swedish Government and to bring in legislation making the acceptance of cash obligatory in the UK.

This will not cause an issue for the majority of businesses in the UK. A LINK Scheme survey recently revealed that 77% of UK businesses continue to accept cash, although that % is decreasing fast.

Far fewer businesses in Sweden currently accept cash BUT the Swedish Government does not consider that an obstacle for their legislation.

The British Government clearly has even less reason to be concerned in this respect!

So just get on with it, Prime Minister!

The British public are growing VERY impatient with your procrastination - and so are we!

Source: euractiv.com/news/cash-free-sweden-backpedals-on-banknotes

Ron Delnevo Explains To The Times Why Cash Is Again Growing In Popularity!

Our Chair was delighted to talk to Harry Wallop at Times Radio.

Ron is always pleased to shatter the dreams of the anti-cash mob!

Ron Delnevo Speaks to Ben Jackson at the BBC

Ron Delnevo Tells Ben Jackson At The BBC About New Banknotes - And A Whole Lot More!

The PCA’s Ron Delnevo Speaks to the BBC’s Rick Jackson

The PCA’s Ron Delnevo Tells The BBC’s Rick Jackson That Cashless Loo’s Are A Busted Flush!

The Swedish Central Bank - Better Than The Bank of England ?

The Sveriges riksbank is the Central Bank of Sweden.

Sweden was meant to be “cashless” by now - Visa and Mastercard have been praying for this for the last 20 years - but the Swedish Central Bank and Government have realised the folly of such a course of action.

The Sveriges riksbank now recommends the Swedish public keep cash at home to guard against inevitable systems failures, including via hacking.

Also the Central Bank makes clear that the Swedish public should use cash - “The general public is also encouraged to use cash at regular intervals during normal times to keep the cash systems running.”

The Central Bank has indicated previously that obliging businesses to accept cash is a natural extension to recommending the Swedish public keep cash at home and using cash regularly.

Visa and Mastercard have gone very quiet about Sweden all of a sudden ….

Meantime, here in the UK, ZERO from the Bank of England on the same subjects as addressed by the Swedish Central Bank.

No tentacle of Government - HM Treasury, Financial Conduct Authority or Payment Systems Regulator - has anything to say about keeping cash at home or regularly using it. Nor will any UK bank or their playthings - LINK Scheme Ltd and Cash Access UK - make any positive statement about cash, including about the need to keep it at home to protect against systems failures and to use it regularly.

Instead, we get the pap served up by LINK Scheme Ltd yesterday about cash acceptance, which induced falsely dramatic headlines and patchy reporting, reporting which failed to reveal, for example, that just across the Channel in France “cashless” is banned by law.

The headline yesterday should have been “ Nearly 80% of British Businesses Continue to Accept Cash” - BUT that would have been too positive for the anti-cash vested interests, who specialise in creating negativity about all things cash.

Similarly, every arm of government and the banks in the UK keep on waffling about total “digital financial inclusion”.

This is as realistic as promising to put an end to World Poverty - AND ignores CHOICE. IT IS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.

As the Chinese government, for all the sophistication of their payment - and public tracking - systems has realised.

Does anyone think the Chinese government WANT to have cash circulating?

Of course not!

BUT they recognise it is vital for the Chinese public and economy, so “cashless” is banned by order of the Chinese Central Bank - and fines imposed on those businesses that try to dodge their obligations.

These are the FACTS- not the pap served up in the UK by the anti-cash, pro-digital vested interests.

Cash is NOT going away - and NOR are WE.

Source: riksbank.se/en-gb/payments--cash/payment-preparedness/recommendations-to-the-general-public

Nearly 80% of UK Businesses Still Accept Cash!

Despite the headline on this article, this report also contains the important information that nearly 80% of UK businesses still accept cash.

ALL BUSINESSES SHOULD BE OBLIGED BY LAW TO ACCEPT CASH.

As for the cost of cash handling for businesses, highlighted in the article, these are reported as if they are a natural phenomenon.

THEY ARE NOT.

These costs are largely imposed by banks, aiming to make cash expensive for businesses.

These are the same banks that have made cash withdrawing and depositing much less convenient, by closing down two bank branches every day since 2015 and ripping out 7 free-to-use ATMs every day since 2018.

LINK Scheme are quoted in the article as calling for the maintaining of cash deposit options for local businesses.

In fact, LINK Scheme, which depends on the support of the major banks for its survival, has since 2016 had a transaction available which allows cash to be deposited at any ATM.

This would have gone a long way towards making cash deposits ultra convenient.

The only problem?

NO BANK HAS IMPLEMENTED THIS TRANSACTION.

Why?

Because banks haven’t wanted to make ATMs more useful or cash deposits at ATMs convenient. Why do either in 2016, when they intended to rip out seven ATMs every day from 2018 onwards?

20,000 ATMs, which could have accepted cash deposits, have inconveniently disappeared since 2018.

Finally, for now, the article refers to some countries taking limited measures to make cash acceptance obligatory.

This is quite wrong.

MANY COUNTRIES OBLIGE BUSINESSES TO ACCEPT CASH.

Even China, a country which has the planets most sophisticated digital payment systems, continues to compel businesses to accept cash. The Chinese Central Bank fines businesses if they fail to comply.

The Chinese experience demonstrates that the call in the report issued by LINK Scheme for programmes to encourage digital inclusion is pie in the sky.

If the Chinese can’t ensure full digital inclusion, how can the UK ever hope to do so? The UK Government will go on making noises about full digital inclusion but the harsh reality is that it is NEVER going to be achieved - AND NOR WILL DIGITAL EVER BE THE PAYMENT METHOD OF CHOICE FOR EVERYONE.

So a nice little report from the LINK Scheme - BUT LETS CUT OUT THE WAFFLE.

Just across the channel in France, the public have the legal right get to use their cash, when and where they choose.

Oddly, this isn’t mentioned in this BBC report - but the reality is that we can wave the Union Jack as much we like BUT, as far as cash is concerned, the French public have more rights than the British public.

The same is true in Spain - also not mentioned in this BBC report - where ALL shops MUST accept cash payments up to €1000.

The truth?

From the Payment Choice Alliance.

ALWAYS.

Source: bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm211jnz568o

“Cashless” Retailer Falsely Yaks About Being Inclusive!

Lucy & Yak don’t accept cash - and offer only online receipts.

Both practices are terrible customer service - and should be illegal.

The Alliance has received a complaint from a customer using their Edinburgh store, who rightly points out that Lucy & Yak are making a false claim that they are “diverse and inclusive”.

“Cashless” is NOT inclusive.

The Government still has a chance to make a popular decision for a change - bring in a UK Payments Choice Act NOW and please the 80%+ of the electorate who have made clear they want to retain the option to use cash.

Are you listening, HM Treasury? Rt Hon Rachel Reeves? Lucy Rigby KC MP ?

The British public - including Elayne in Edinburgh - are getting VERY impatient with you.

And, therefore, so are we.

Jersey To Show UK How Payment Choice Laws Work?

Interesting article by Georgina Barnes at the BBC.

The Payment Choice Alliance fully supports legislation on the island of Jersey to oblige businesses to accept cash.

Businesses cannot be allowed to dictate payment methods customers can use.

And that includes the Jersey bus operator, who clearly need to improve their cash management systems. The figures they quote for cash costs are, frankly, nonsensical.

Our Chair Ron Delnevo worked in his dad’s shop as a youngster, running it directly for a time. He accepted ALL payments, including cheques.

Years after that experience of retailing, Ron worked in other prominent retail businesses. So Ron knows all about retailing and retailers - and he definitely does NOT accept that they should have the right to dictate to their customers as to how they must pay.

If shops and other businesses find bank charges related to cash too high, then they must put pressure on the banks, via their elected representatives, to lower those charges.

The banks have deliberately made cash more expensive and inconvenient for businesses - but it is NOT the public that should be penalised for this by losing their Payment Choice!

Source: bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8egp8l3d30o