Anyone go to Stafford?

[AshimotoK0]

I usually go to Stafford show as my son buys us both tickets and drives but we couldn't make it this time.
Anyone go and got anything to report back ?

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I usually go to Stafford show as my son buys us both tickets and drives but we couldn't make it this time.
Anyone go and got anything to report back ?

I've been going for the last few years - my BiL who was taking me tommorow has Covid so not going this Sunday might mike the Autumn show instead.

Probably a good thing as I w'ont be looking at  Maicolettas.

[Laverda Dave]

I usually go on the VFR but didn't need anything this year so decided to give it a miss and buy a ticket for the Bike Shed Show in May instead. 
I can't remember the last time when I went to Stafford in April (or October) and it didn't rain either on the way there or on the way back!

[davidcumbria]

I was there yesterday. Absolutely rammed - the post covid thinning out is over. Bought a few tools - amazing that many stands didn’t take cards and there was no cash machine at the showground. Didn’t see a single sohc of note. Looks like this show has got staying power after all.

[Moorey]

I was there yesterday. Absolutely rammed - the post covid thinning out is over. Bought a few tools - amazing that many stands didn’t take cards and there was no cash machine at the showground. Didn’t see a single sohc of note. Looks like this show has got staying power after all.

 It is a growing thing cash transactions are on the increase. Small businesses are fed up with paying for card transactions.

[Laverda Dave]

Here's a scary fact about going cashless;
If you have £50 and pay for every purchase with cash then £50 cash will have the same value in terms of spending power no matter how many cash transactions you make.
If however you have £50 in your bank account and you pay for every purchase from that same £50 using cashless payments after 30 cashless payments the monetary value of the original £50 will be worth £5. Why? Because the bank will add a 1.5% surcharge on every card transaction made and in so doing the bank makes shed loads of money on every cashless transaction made.
It is the banks pushing for a cashless society and not the traders. This is the reason for the cash is king campaign.

[davidcumbria]

Well by not having the card option those show traders lost £100 of sales to me yesterday of which they would have given £1.50 to the bank. As they were loading the gear back into the van wonder which they would have preferred ? Now those sales from me will probably go to some eBay seller who is slowly killing them anyway. Trying to go back to cash is raging at the wind.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Here's a scary fact about going cashless;
If you have £50 and pay for every purchase with cash then £50 cash will have the same value in terms of spending power no matter how many cash transactions you make.
If however you have £50 in your bank account and you pay for every purchase from that same £50 using cashless payments after 30 cashless payments the monetary value of the original £50 will be worth £5. Why? Because the bank will add a 1.5% surcharge on every card transaction made and in so doing the bank makes shed loads of money on every cashless transaction made.
It is the banks pushing for a cashless society and not the traders. This is the reason for the cash is king campaign.

That looks a convincing narrative Dave - I think it's essentially untrue but looks convincing on the face of it.
It reminds me of the old conundrum about the three blokes going to buy a Trumpet from a second hand shop.

In fact after the first £50 transaction it is split into £49.25 to the vendor & £0.75 to the bank adding these two amounts still adds up to the original £50 value. Yes it lowers the vendors profit margin but no money is actually lost.

[SteveD CB500K0]

FACTCHECK

I've done a lot of this in the last few years as all of my customers' sites use ecommerce of one sort or another.

The most popular for small businesses is Square who charge 1.5% per transaction.
Stripe charges 20p + 1.0% which is bad news if you are selling newspapers (for example)

For Point Of Sale (POS) applications like a bike show or a market stall, Zettle is the most common. Owned by PayPal and charges 1.75% per transaction.

The vendor pays this, not the customer. If you sell something for £10 only £9.83 is sent to your bank.


Plus of course you have to buy the terminal (card reader) from them at anywhere from £30 to £300 for the iPad version that does stock control as well.

It is the vendor's choice to accept wireless or mobile payments.

[Nurse Julie]

Cash is still King in Lincolnshire. Yes, a majority of places take cards but there are some, including pubs, restraunts, butchers etc that will only accept cash or cheque. I don't blame them either. Some of the places that take cards have signs up saying 'cash is our preferred method of payment'. Most of these are independent businesses and not the multi nationals

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Back in the 1960/70s many banks charged businesses when you banked cash. The cost of handling cash was rolled up into the overall  bank charges to the business.

My late father used to tell me that when he was in the car trade back then most private purchases paid in cash with company purchases being paid  using cheques. He put the rapid expansion of private car ownership to the availability of hire purchase and credit sale agreements that reduced cash handling as finance companies often paid by cheque.

In the last three plus decades we take free personal  banking as the norm. Our "free" banking is in reality subsidised by different forms of fees attached to our transactions.

A local Chinese Takeaway has become cash only quite recently, truth be told cash can be a way to avoid paying income tax.
When I used to sell cars to Farmers they would want you to reduce the invoice price and pay the difference in cash.(Floor board/matress money from selling eggs etc privately) My late boss always like some cash of this type - no surprise when he was paying 95p in the pound including surtax.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_taxation_in_the_United_Kingdom

[taysidedragon]

I always keep some cash on me so that I can pay for items if the card system or bank computers go tits up - which seems to happen far too often. Call me old school if you want, never been caught unable to pay yet.
Of course,  if the shop tills stop working they won't even take cash!

[Moorey]

 As we were market and show traders before retirement we didn't carry a card reader for years and finally ended up getting one. The difference it made wasn't worth talking about we made so few card transactions and it was really a waste of money and effort. Especially when working in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere where a reliable phone signal is as rare as a working card reader. Then the pandemic came and went and the increase since in cash only traders has grown massively. People are also realising a cashless society hands over all control to the already over greedy bankers and gov. Cash payments are on the rise.

Well by not having the card option those show traders lost £100 of sales to me yesterday of which they would have given £1.50 to the bank. As they were loading the gear back into the van wonder which they would have preferred ? Now those sales from me will probably go to some eBay seller who is slowly killing them anyway. Trying to go back to cash is raging at the wind.

Yes they lost £100 of sales but that £1.50 would have come out of the profits on that sale and depending on the item the profit could be very little.  It may not have been so bad if in 2018 it hadn't been made illegal to add a surcharge for those wanting to use a card, the choice then would have been the customers cash or card, instead of forcing the hit on the trader. 

[Rozabikes Tim]

As we were market and show traders before retirement we didn't carry a card reader for years and finally ended up getting one. The difference it made wasn't worth talking about we made so few card transactions and it was really a waste of money and effort. Especially when working in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere where a reliable phone signal is as rare as a working card reader. Then the pandemic came and went and the increase since in cash only traders has grown massively. People are also realising a cashless society hands over all control to the already over greedy bankers and gov. Cash payments are on the rise.

Well by not having the card option those show traders lost £100 of sales to me yesterday of which they would have given £1.50 to the bank. As they were loading the gear back into the van wonder which they would have preferred ? Now those sales from me will probably go to some eBay seller who is slowly killing them anyway. Trying to go back to cash is raging at the wind.

Yes they lost £100 of sales but that £1.50 would have come out of the profits on that sale and depending on the item the profit could be very little.  It may not have been so bad if in 2018 it hadn't been made illegal to add a surcharge for those wanting to use a card, the choice then would have been the customers cash or card, instead of forcing the hit on the trader.

Sore point that re surcharges as Trader. When we were able to do that, people then simply paid by debit card (15-20p charge per transaction) as opposed to up to 2% of credit card transaction which will also include the VAT, we then pay to the Revenue! American Express cards are even worse which is why few people take them. It always makes me snigger when customers ask "do you take American Express?", as few do for obvious reasons.

Now we cant surcharge, people preferably pay by credit card to get their cash back points! I love financing that....

I don't actually think the cash thing is so much related to the actual card charges, as a debit card transaction as I say is 20p or so to the trader. You can actually refuse to take credit cards - (maybe wrong). I think it will be the mobile terminal required, as it would be for me. It is  a special bit of kit that works on the mobile phone platform that has to be rented as a considerable cost for what may be the "occasional event" (with longer term contracts). There are some phone based apps which I know little about but I'm sure that will incur higher charges in some way.

For those with a larger turnover being cash only when VAT registered etc.? The VAT part of the sale is very significant and cash sale very useful to those traders so minded...

[SteveD CB500K0]

You are correct in that transaction charges are vatable. Not an issue if you are VAT registered (as we are) but another hit if you’re not.

We never took Amex (even in the days of slide-over card impression machines) as the fees were exorbitant.


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