A major focus of The Big Issue and The Big Issue Foundation is financial inclusion for vendors.
Big Issue vendors were reporting that more and more customers said they have no cash and therefore can’t buy a copy of The Big Issue. This obviously has an impact on vendors sales and therefore their income.
This isn’t the biggest surprise as the UK is now making contactless payments up to 200 million times a day. This means 80% of total payments in the UK are now made via contactless with approximately two thirds of the population using this payment method.
The Big Issue has been working on several schemes to implement contactless payments for vendors. The Big Issue had it’s first trial with iZettle in 2018 and partnered with them in 2019 to provide low cost devices for vendors. iZettle offers Big Issue vendors the devices for just £9 (normally £35) and charges a reduced transaction fee of 4p per £2.50 transaction.
Tony Flynn, 62, who sells the Big Issue in Barnstaple, Devon, said that the card reader had made a huge difference. “Just about every other day I am hearing someone say, ‘Ah, you have a card reader, great, I don’t have any change.’ I get about four or five card payments a day. It definitely has increased the number of sales.”