Can a business refuse hard cash? 💶💰

Any place that only takes card payments wont get my business.

No.

Even the cases of having consumed the coffee somewhere that states card only does not actually create a debt in the normal way - this has already been gone through in detail on this thread.

But if you insist on paying cash for a takeout coffee in somewhere that doesn't take cash, you just won't get the coffee.

Simple,If these "hipster type cafes don't want your cash and your buisness" go down the street to the next one (and they are plenty) who will gladly accept your custom and your cash.

You'd have to consume the coffee before a debt is created

Yeah, I don't care if they miss my business or not. its not a protest by me, I just prefer not to give them my money.

Lodging is a few minutes.

You either bag it and drop it into the Dropbox or for small lodgements you put into the machine.

Doesn't take more than a few minutes especially as you would know the less busy times if you did it regularly.

Coin is ordered by email in almost all cases. Simply go to the business desk and collect.

Whilst banks will always charge for lodgement, they tend not to charge that often if getting coin.

I don't think any cash lodging business uses the regular cashier desks.

Yes, if there's a debt, an offer of legal tender cannot be refused.

But most consumer purchases don't involve a debt.

What’s a cheque?

What are these "cheques" of which you speak? I haven't written a cheque since (checks stub on old but still unfinished chequebook at back of desk drawer) 2006. Cheques are not the alternative to cash nowadays.

Today I bought The Big Issue from a street vendor. It was a card transaction.

I'm genuinely struggling to recall the last time I used cash to purchase goods of any kind. I used cash to pay for a small job on my car a few weeks back because, at the time I came to pick it up, the guy's card reader was offline, and I preferred not to pay a surcharge to use a credit card. Last time before that I paid in cash for a service, I can't recall. It was probably paying cash on a bus because I had forgotten or mislaid my SmartRider card.

If I think about it, the only thing I use cash for with any regularity is to donate to street charity collections. And there are many fewer of these nowadays, because they don't raise much money, because people don't carry cash.

OK, I'm living in Australia, where the move away from cash may be further advanced than in other places. But don't imagine that, in time, it can't happen like that where you are too.

Obviously my sarcasm wasn't obvious enough.

I know what a cheque is, but I don't see what it has to do with a business refusing to accept cash in the OP.

I suspect that you are wrong about personal funds Tax Evasion becoming impossible. I suggest that if the authorities were on course to eliminate it, the judgements would be kept quiet. The current "leaking" or reporting these judgements is probably seen as a deterrent.

Are coalmen a real thing? I thought they only existed in Mr Men books.

Youd prefer to pay in cash than write a cheque? It's not the 1980s, there's other ways to pay than those two.

Nope.

You need to understand the legislation and put it in context.

For a debt to be created you need to create an account and have that account creation accepted as a credit account for you to put your purchases on. Shaws are a classic example. They now operate a chargecard, but previously it was a docket with your account number, purchases and your signature.

You then went to the hatch every week/month and paid an amount off your account. In that scenario, "legal tender" cannot be refused as you have created a debt.

If you don't have an account and are buying something, a debt with shaws (or any other place) has not been created in the context of payment by legal tender. Hence the "legal tender" argument does not exist.

It's not as formal as that. Debts can certainly arise without that kind of documented account arrangement.

If I order a meal in a restaurant, and they serve it, and I eat it, I have a debt due to the restaurant for the cost of the meal. The restaurant cannot refuse cash in settlement of the debt — unless, and this is an important exception, I have already accepted a contractual obligation to settle the debt by e.g. a card transaction. If it was made clear to me at the time the contract was formed - i.e. when I ordered the meal - that it would have to be settled with a card transaction, then I have entered into a contractual obligation to pay by card. That could be done by, e.g., a prominent signs that say "card payments only", a statement on the menu to that effect, the restaurant staff telling me this when I am seated or when I order, etc. I don't have to accept the "card payments only" condition either verbally or in writing; it's enough that I proceed to order, accept and eat the meal when I know or ought reasonably to know that I will be required to pay for it with a card.

Different situation if I go into a coffee shop and order a coffee, and am expected to pay before the coffee is served to me. At the point where I offer cash there is no debt - the contract remains unperformed on both sides. The coffee shop can decline my cash and I walk out with no coffee.