All the UK supermarkets making major changes to scrap cash payments

Supermarkets across the UK are scrapping cash payments. Many stores are making the transition to card-only payments for some services.

It comes after Tesco announced 40 of its cafe sites were going cashless. At these sites, customers order food through a self-service machine with payments only available through cards or contactless on phones.

Asda said 270 of its petrol stations will only allow customers to pay by card at the pumps. Morrisons still allows customers to use cash or card at all of its locations.

READ MORE: New pay-per-mile scheme will see these drivers charged 'quite a bit more'

Don't miss the biggest and breaking stories by signing up to the BirminghamLive newsletter here.

But some stores do have card-only self-service checkout machines. In stores where there are these machines, there are options for manned checkouts with cash payments.

A number of large supermarkets are still accepting cash through self-service or manned tills. This includes Aldi, Co-op, and Waitrose.

Aldi has both manned tills and self-service checkouts across its 1,000 UK sites but does not have any cafes or petrol stations - which have been the main target of cashless schemes so far. Co-op has both manned and self-service checkouts across its 2,400 stores, with some self-service being card-only.

Waitrose does have manned tills which accept cash but its self-service checkouts are card only across all of its 300 UK locations. All businesses in the UK are legally allowed to refuse cash or card card payments if they want.

The previous government clarified in 2022 that it does not plan to bring in any policies which legally oblige a business to take cash payments. Confusion around the matter often arises from the term 'legal tender'.

While some customers may insist a business must take cash because of this, it is not the case. The Bank of England has clarified that legal tender is a 'narrow technical meaning' which is not applicable to everyday life.

For example, if you offer to fully pay off a debt to someone with legal tender, you cannot be sued for failing to repay.