How to spend a weekend in London using just your cards

Diarmuid Sheehan managed to have a busy weekend in London without ever using the cash in his pocket. Instead, it was cards all the way

IT WAS in the open expanse of Cork Airport’s arrivals hall that it dawned on me. I hadn’t spent a brass farthing to get here. My flights, parking space, petrol — even the bag of salt and vinegar crisps I ate in the car on the way — had all been bought with plastic.

Like every football supporter heading off on a junket around Europe, I set myself a goal. And like those faithful, and usually delightfully delusional, followers of soccer, it was a goal I knew I was never likely to achieve.

My mission impossible was to see how far I could get into my two-day trip to London without having to handle cash. As a lover of the old wad in the pocket I was hoping to fail miserably.

The sceptic in me thought this challenge would end on the plane, or at best in the taxi, at the other end. But to my surprise, I was wrong.

Ryanair, the London taxi man, even the hairdresser at Bounds Green Unisex Hair Salon, took cards. Not only that, they expected cards.

It didn’t matter. I was sure to be stumped in the city later that night as myself and my sister headed into town on the London Underground to an old man’s bar off Piccadilly.

Again to my dismay I paid for the five-zone Tube ticket by card and, most surprisingly, all my pints, a quantity I won’t relay at this juncture, were paid for by plastic.

By 1.30am, and unable to secure the services of Uber (the online taxi service that supposedly guarantees quick collection and security for passengers) I and my sibling took our lives in our hands and headed for the dreaded night bus.

Surely this was it. Surely a bus after midnight in London won’t take cards... Not for the first time on this epic challenge I was proved wrong. London Bus refuses to take cash at night. Furthermore, they use contactless transactions (no need for the people operating on autopilot late at night to remember their pin).

I was impressed. I sat on that bus for over an hour with the night’s liquid contents swashing around inside me, wondering would I get out of this country without having to feel the texture of a note or without having to struggle to make sense of the surprisingly big, awkward British coins. I should have known the answer would be yes.

Now let’s be clear. At some stage my body will pay for the untold damage caused by a night on the tiles in London Town and my credit card bill isn’t likely to be at the lower end of the available balance when it arrives, but in cash terms I came back with the same £100 I left with.

Is this the way it’s going to be? When archaeologists of the future dig up the next generation in 1,000 years, will they find old coins lying beside us? Will they even know what a coin is?

Barry-John Ryan, a certified financial planner with Brosnan, Boylan Golden Financial Brokers in Mallow, Co Cork, thinks not.

“It is clear there is a shift away from cash. There has been for quite a while now, although at the moment the speed of change is really ramping up.

“From the Government dropping the charge on cards, and replacing it with a charge on withdrawing cash, to the recently announced rounding up or down of smaller coins, it is clear that cash is on the way out. The Central Bank is now saying it is too costly to make money, so effectively money costs money and the banks don’t want to pay for it.”

While Barry-John believes cash will be a thing of the past eventually, he is also clear it won’t happen overnight, as there are a few really serious impediments yet to be overcome.

“Security is something that hasn’t yet been addressed properly. Data protection issues are hugely important to people and having all your information floating around scares a lot of people. People will need to be very sure they are protected before fully embracing the end of cash.

“There is also the issue of the personal touch. Cash still brings people together. Handing over cash is an interaction with people that you just don’t get with cards, and particularly with contactless cards.

“Some people also require cash for budgeting purposes as it is easier to keep track of your available funds when you can see them. Having said all this, cash will be around for a while yet, but clearly its days are numbered.”

Temptation is a curse but the truth must out. On my return from London I bought a packet of Fruit Pastilles at Cork Airport’s newsagent shop.

I paid with for the sweets with...

Surely a bus after midnight in London won’t take cards... I was proved wrong