Most Britons Back Banning Tipping After London Pub Adds 4% ‘Optional’ Charge

A majority of Britons want tipping to be scrapped, according to polling that followed a London pub’s introduction of an automatic 4% tip on drinks.

A Hotukdeals survey of 2,000 people, shared with This is Money, found 52% of consumers favour an outright ban on tipping or a ban with limited exceptions. Some 33% said all tipping should be abolished, while a further 19% said they would accept a ban with some exceptions. Respondents told researchers they often feel "pressured" or "awkward" when businesses add compulsory or automatically applied tip charges.

The survey findings followed publicity around the Well & Boot pub in Waterloo, London, which introduced a 4% "optional" service charge that is added automatically to bills. The extra charge equates to about 30p on the price of a pint of beer or cider; the pub said customers must request the charge be removed if they do not wish to pay it. This practice — offering an optional tip that is automatically applied unless a customer asks for it to be removed — has been criticised by some patrons and highlighted debates over transparency and consent.

Public attitudes vary by sector. The Hotukdeals polling found that 41% of respondents tip taxi drivers and 30% tip hotel staff, while 29% said they never tip outside of restaurants. The survey also recorded broad discomfort with tipping mechanics that place decision friction on customers at the point of payment.

Analysis of card-based tipping trends by payments provider SumUp, examined by This is Money across thousands of transactions in pubs, restaurants, cafes and shops, shows a mixed picture. The national average tip via card rose to £3.76 in the first half of 2025 from £3.44 in the same period a year earlier, a 9% year-on-year increase. However, the average is down about 15% from the £4.44 recorded in the comparable period of 2022.

SumUp’s dataset covers card-reader prompts and therefore excludes cash tips, which the analysis notes can sometimes be larger. The payments provider and media analysis examined regional differences in tipping behaviour across multiple UK cities but cautioned that card-only datasets may not capture the full extent of consumer generosity or the frequency of small cash gratuities.

Business owners and hospitality operators have defended optional service charges as a way to support staff incomes and to cover rising operating costs, while others argue employers should raise wages rather than rely on customer tipping. The Hotukdeals survey suggested public appetite for a shift toward fairer wages funded by employers rather than by discretionary customer payments.

The practice of adding suggested tips at card terminals has grown in recent years, driven by the ubiquity of contactless and card payments. Merchants can present tip options at the point of sale that range from fixed amounts to percentage-based service charges. Consumer groups and some politicians have previously called for clearer rules around when and how tips are presented to avoid misleading or coercive practices.

Regulators in the UK oversee employment and consumer protections separately; there is no current nationwide ban on tipping. Any policy change that would outlaw tipping or regulate how service charges are applied would likely involve consultations with businesses, workers and consumer groups. For now, the debate is shaping how some firms frame service charges and how consumers respond when asked to pay extra at the till.

The polling and payment-data analysis underline a broader tension between consumer expectations, the mechanics of modern payments and employers’ approaches to staff compensation. As card-reader tipping options remain commonplace, businesses will face continued scrutiny over transparency and the degree to which customers feel obliged to subsidise staff pay through discretionary or automatically applied charges.