Can a store refuse to pay by card? The regulations are clear

Although the popularity of cashless payments is growing in Poland, we sometimes find ourselves in stores where we cannot pay by card. Are stores required to have a payment terminal? The applicable regulations do not explicitly require such an obligation, but there are regulations that require some entrepreneurs to accept non-cash payments in one of the available forms.

If not a payment terminal, then what?

As Interia.pl reminds, since January 2022, regulations have been in force requiring entrepreneurs obliged to use fiscal devices to accept cashless payments from customers. This means that anyone with a cash register must enable customers to pay in cashless form. However, this does not have to be done specifically through a payment terminal. Other options include accepting payments via a mobile application, BLIK, payment via a banking application or traditional bank transfer.

In practice, we should be able to pay cashless in grocery stores, clothing stores, supermarkets, beauty and hairdressing salons, pharmacies, taxis and many other commercial and service outlets. However, entrepreneurs who are not obliged to keep sales records using cash registers referred to in the VAT Act do not have to have a payment terminal. The exemption applies to taxpayers who use the so-called subjective or objective exemption from the obligation to record sales using cash registers.

The regulations clearly indicate that we should be able to pay by card in virtually every store or premises. However, there are institutions, especially smaller ones, that do not offer this possibility. This is generally related to the costs generated by the purchase of a payment terminal, its ongoing operation and commissions for operators.

What happens in the opposite situation, when we want to pay in cash but, for example, we don’t have any change? Pursuant to the law, the seller is obliged to accept payment in any form in cash issued by the National Bank of Poland. However, the seller may refuse to deliver the goods if, for example, he is not expected to deliver them and we do not agree to the fact that he owes us the rest.

Poles about giving up cash

A recent survey by SW Research for “Wprost” shows that Poles are still attached to cash. Almost 70 percent of respondents would not be willing to give it up. Only less than 23 percent declare their readiness to pay only in cashless ways. The remaining 8 percent have no opinion.

The study shows that the younger the respondent, the more “cashless” he is. In the group of up to 24 years old, almost every third respondent would be willing to give up cash. Interestingly, the least open to change are not the oldest respondents, but those aged 25 to 34. Only 18 percent declare their willingness to give up cash, while in the 50 plus group – 25 percent.