A cashless economy? Careful what you wish for say business owners

So the idea Australia will have a cashless economy in the near future - potentially by 2030 or sooner - rankles owner Jemal Airey.

In her village in the Bega Valley, she said many like the idea of maintaining their privacy.

"We have all sorts of options for payment, we accept everything from fuel cards, different credit cards, cash and we even take cheques from some of our old regulars," she said.

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Cash is encouraged at the monthly markets where the electronic payment system often crashes due to a weak internet signal.

"I've been surprised when I've gone to the city and you're in a business and they don't accept cash," Ms Airey said. "It strikes me as very odd and not very helpful, I think people should be able to pay however they want to."

However, Ms Airey said card is now the most common form of payment in keeping with the national trend.

According to a 2023 report by the Australian Banking Association (ABA), Australians rank among the top users of cashless payments globally.

Cash has fallen from 70 per cent of all consumer transactions in 2007 to just 13 per cent in 2022.

It's also harder to find an ATM. As the demand for cash decreases terminals are being removed - more than 8,000 have disappeared since 2016.

Ricci Bishop is the president of the Lions Club of Narooma. She has noticed a similar decline in cash payments at the club run community markets.

Stallholders at Dalmeny mostly receive payment by card, Ms Bishop said. However she only needs to cast her mind back to the Black Summer bushfires to remember the importance of keeping cash alive.

"Everybody realised how dependent people were on cards and ATMs and electronic means for paying for goods," she said.

Ms Bishop has also been the victim of scammers when using her card.

"I don't carry a lot (of cash) with me if it's a big transaction, but we've been scammed by our card being used which happened once in Canberra and once in Melbourne," she said.

The decline of cash has also been felt in other areas. As a Red Cross volunteer, Ms Bishop said the organisation no longer door knocks for fundraising appeals.

"That is not happening anymore because people don't have cash and we can't go around with Square card readers," she said. "A lot of the fundraising is now done with phone marketing."

Annette Kennewell feels the same. She is president of the CWA Branch at Tilba and said cash is important, especially when fundraising through the sale of raffle tickets.

"Personally I prefer cash as a preferred method of payment - with cash we retain 100 per cent of its value while using card there is a processing fee," she said.

"Most small businesses and farmers' markets I buy from prefer cash and for security and to avoid scams I don't do internet banking and avoid buying products online."

Processing fees are a challenge for Bomaderry florist Catherine Kaye. The owner of Shoalhaven Flowers offers payment via card, Afterpay and PayPal.

"I opened my business three years ago and the amount of cash coming through the door has probably gone down by 75 per cent," she said. "The impact of having the fees on us has been huge, I've only recently started to pass that on to customers."

"People are getting responsive with it every day, they understand that it has to be passed on (but) at the beginning I had people very unhappy about it. Being a small business it's not something I can actually wear anymore."

As a luxury item, Ms Kaye understands the need to offer a diverse range of payment options. However these services, like buy now pay later provider Afterpay, charge a transaction fee plus a commission fee of more than 6 per cent.

In the current operating climate, Ms Kaye would like to see a rise in cash sales.

"When you look at the margin we're making off our sales or giftware you automatically take the 10 per cent GST, that's a big hit, then you've got 6.8 per cent if they've paid on Afterpay - that's really chewing into what we're actually making," she said.