For centuries, London has sustained a street-level economy where performers and vendors make a living from the spare change of strangers. Known as buskers, these performers are being forced to adapt as cash falls out of fashion. The story comes from AFP.

Vying with London's most iconic attractions to earn a living can be a tough gig. And, as cash continues to fade out of fashion, buskers like Charlotte Campbell are having to adapt to survive. She started accepting card payments a few months ago, using a contactless card reader that automatically debits £2 at a time through her phone. Now, cashless donations make up to 10 percent of her daily income.

CHARLOTTE CAMPBELL BUSKER "Things are changing in London and people tend to use cards to pay for things, so even though busking is usually associated with spare change and putting coins in a guitar case, that makes busking a dying art if people aren't carrying cash any more."

And it's not only buskers who are taking up contactless payments. This church in the capital's south-east began using a small contactless card reader in a trial scheme last year. The technology has yet to replace donation dishes during Sunday service, but it's proving advantageous for larger one-off donations formerly paid by cash or cheque.

MARGARET CAVE RECTOR AT CHRIST CHURCH EAST GREENWICH "You know it's safely and securely going through to your bank account, no one can take it -- so it's much better than having cash from that point of view."

But not everyone is sold on the prospect of cashless transactions. Author and finance expert Brett Scott has written extensively on the problems a completely cashless society could create.

BRETT SCOTT AUTHOR AND FINANCE EXPERT "So there's like the surveillance element -- that you can be watched -- there's the financial exclusion element -- that you might be excluded from the system -- and then there's a whole cyber security question, which is like as soon as you become dependent on these systems, you can suddenly have whole payment systems going down."

And here in the upmarket borough of Islington, a sign that the public has yet to fully embrace cashless donations. Charity Cancer Research UK has a tap-to-donate contactless panel installed in the window of their shop. But over three hours one afternoon, not a single shopper stopped to make a donation.