SAMUEL SMITH'S BREWERY  has banned credit and debit card payments in pubs even though many punters don't carry cash.

Brewery owner Humphrey Smith, 73, has issued a cash-only rule in his cut-price boozers around York.

But Sam Smith pubs in central London said they were unaware of the card ban.

It comes after Mr Smith hit headlines for banning texting, e-mailing, mobile phones and laptops in his brewery's chain of pubs.

A member of staff at the Kings Arms in York said the card ban has been in place since he started working in the pub about six months ago.

He told Sun Online: “Most people aren’t particularly concerned about it. Most people carry cash anyway.

CASH ONLY

“I’ve been working here for six months and it’s always been that way.  Most people are fine with it.

“There are plenty of cash points nearby.”

He was unaware why the ban had been brought in.

Melissa McEvoy, who works behind the bar at The Burns Hotel in York, said the ban was brought in about a year and a half ago.

She said: “We have to use cash. It’s a personal choice of the owner of all the Sam Smith pubs.

“He’s banned phones, laptops, cards.”

I support the rule – why should people have to pay more for their beer so the card companies could benefit?

Mick Hilton, landlord of the Brigadier Gerard in York, said drinkers were happy to pay by cash.

He said: "I support the rule – why should people have to pay more for their beer so the card companies could benefit?"

But the manager of the John Snow pub in central London told Sun Online “we use credit and debit cards every day” .

They had heard “nothing whatsoever about the ban” with 90 per cent of the Soho boozer’s trade done with credit and debit cards.

Workers at Samuel Smith central London pubs The Angel and The Fitzroy were also unaware of a card ban.

UK Finance, which represents the banking and finance industry, said 5.4 million consumers almost never used cash in 2018, relying on cards and other payment methods, up from 3.4 million consumers in 2017

Earlier this year, Mr Smith sent a memo to managers of the 300 Samuel Smith pubs across the country telling them to stop punters using their phones inside the premises.

Instead they must go outside to make or receive calls “in the same way as is required with smoking”.

The eccentric owner wants to uphold behaviour that would have been acceptable to the original Samuel Smith when he founded the brewery in 1758.

Sun Online contacted Samuel Smith for comment.

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