How an Aussie pub's ban on cash backfired spectacularly

A new brewpub which opened this week in Western Australia caused a stir on social media after it declared it would not take cash and only accept card payments.

Froth Craft Brewery, across the road from North Beach in Perth's north, celebrated it's opening on Thursday in preparation for the weekend crowds, with the brewery's two other pubs in Exmouth and Bunbury already highly popular.

But potential customers on the Hey Perth Facebook group took issue with the refusal to accept cash saying they would avoid the venue.

'Will not be supporting you if you cant accept cash,' one Aussie said.

'Venues not accepting legal tender should be boycotted,' agreed another.

'Cash is key, you won't see me there and I live a few minutes away,' added a third.

'No cash... been to two venues like this and when the bank's system keeps stuffing up so you can't buy anything they'll be whining business is slow,' yet another said.

'We'll all be laughing at you when the next online banking or telecommunications outage happens,' agreed another.

A fifth said: 'No cash = no business from me.'

But some argued there was a good reason the business had opted to not have cash on the premises.

'No cash is more security for businesses and more security for patrons,' one commenter argued.

'Less than 15per cent pay by cash,' another agreed.

'I really don't think the small number of people refusing to go there because of that will affect their sales.'

Australia is shifting to a mostly cashless society with digital payments soaring and banks streamlining their operations by ditching cash, but some argue the switch leaves business and customers vulnerable to hacks or computer outages.

Digital payments also incur a fee whenever they are made, chipping away and both businesses' and customers' savings, in contrast to cash which keeps its set value.

Speaking at a conference this week, RBA governor Michele Bullock said the share of consumer payments made using cash declined from 70 per cent in 2007 to 13 per cent last year.

Although the federal government and the central bank are committed to keeping cash as a failsafe payment option in Australia, RBA governor Michele Bullock says its declining popularity is posing a challenge.

The number of ATMs and bank branches where people can get money out has already been declining, though Ms Bullock said the distances people needed to travel to access cash 'has been little changed in recent years'.

'But this may not be the case in the future if access points continue to decline,' she said at the AusPayNet Summit on Tuesday.

The RBA was keen to maintain 'a broad coverage of ATMs at reasonable prices, particularly in regional and remote areas' and was open to hearing from industry on ways the central bank's regulation could help, she said.

The economics of the distribution system, which includes firms that physically transfer banknotes, coins and credit cards from one place to another, is also under pressure.

The strained economics of this business model was one of the reasons the consumer watchdog approved the merger of the two largest cash-in-transit businesses, although Ms Bullock said the sustainability of the model was still in doubt.

Australia could be considering alternative models, such as a wholesale distribution arrangement, she said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Froth Craft Beach for comment.