Cash is increasingly out of favour, but not in rural areas

It is becoming increasingly difficult to pay for goods and services with cash and this needs to be changed, the Dutch central bank said on Thursday.

The bank visited 4,300 shops, cafes, cinemas and other outlets to check whether cash was still welcome and found that markets are the only place where notes and coins are still accepted everywhere.

One in five cinemas, 16% of libraries, 16% of car parks and 12% of pharmacies only accepted digital payments, the bank’s researchers found. Some 4% of shops do not accept cash, but many had signs on display urging customers to pay by card.

‘It is important that shopkeepers continue to accept cash as a legal method of payment,’ the central bank said. ‘Making payments should be easy for everyone.’ In addition, the bank said, shops should make it clear if they do not accept cash when customers enter the premises.

Cash was more likely to be accepted in smaller villages and outside city centres.

The use of cards to make payments outstripped cash in the Netherlands in 2017.