Context
Even before COVID-19, an increasing percentage of Americans were using non-cash payment options, including credit cards and apps like Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Now pandemic-era social distancing measures have made many customers even more reluctant to physically handle cash, a surface which can carry the virus for
two to three days.
More and more businesses are declaring themselves cash-free, and that’s legal. “All United States money… are a valid and legal offer of payment,” the Treasury Department
explains. “There is, however, no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a state law which says otherwise.”
States including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey have
banned businesses from refusing cash...
