Ice cream van serves a scoop of awareness with "use cash only week"

Tony's Ices, an ice cream van that serves Hillcrest and the wider Stafford area, has launched a campaign to turn shoppers away from using cashless payment options and instead return to cash.

The "use cash only week" aims to educate shoppers on the advantages of using cash over card payments, and aims to spread awareness of the effects of transaction fees on smaller businesses.

Stafford resident, Zara Taylor, managing director of Tony's Ices, said: "We have done card for about 8 years now, when we started the total amount of card transaction was about 10 per cent and 90 per cent cash, but now that's increased.

"We now have majority card payments, I think it's about 80 per cent card now. Where it affects us is that we used to have to pay about £30 a month for card fees, whereas now we have to pay closer to £400."

Zara said the issues lie with people using cashless payments because of its convenience without realising the damage it is doing to small businesses.

Ms Taylor continued: "It all adds up really, you have to pay for the terminal first, then you have to pay per transaction and then go on to pay the bank fees, it all adds up.

"The idea is to make people more money aware and to educate them on the effect that cashless payments are having on smaller businesses that have to pay the charge."

The ice cream seller has said that since cashless payments have become more popular, the business is struggling more than usual

She said: "This year has been slightly harder because of the weather, but we have absolutely found that over the years you do see a difference in the profit margin because of the use of card machines.

"If someone pays one pound, in the end, we really only make about 75 pence, which is really quite a hit when it adds up. It's not really good for smaller businesses."

The ice cream seller is now asking for other smaller businesses to support "use cash only week" with Zara saying that the public is reacting positively to the campaign.

Zara said: "The reaction from the public has been really good, we have got a few local businesses who have said they will also go cash only, and we have had a good few customers that have said that they will start paying cash from now on.

"We don't want to alienate people who pay by card and we don't want to push people away, we just want to help make people aware of the effect that card payments are having on smaller businesses."