Well, it’s official. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced on Monday that it will stop accepting cash payments for license-product purchases, such as hunting and fishing licenses and transport tags, at its offices starting June 11.
Credit cards, debit cards and checks are now the only accepted forms of in-person payment.
The announcement comes on the heels of the U.S. Mint halting the production of pennies last November, and the Washington State Legislature passing House Bill 2334, which allows retailers and merchants to round up or down to the nearest 5 cents if they’re out of pennies.
“We estimated that it would cost the Department tens of thousands of dollars and half of our contracted annual vendor work hours to update our point-of-sale system to accommodate rounding the cost of transactions,” explained Jennine Griffo, WDFW licensing division manager, in a statement. “Ultimately, we decided to eliminate cash transactions for licensing product sales at WDFW offices so we could better use that funding and vendor capacity for system enhancements or future updates.”
Customers can continue to purchase WDFW products online and through WDFW’s applicable apps.
License dealers can accept cash payments if they so choose, as long as they’re consistent with the requirements of the new law.
May is a busy fishing month for anglers in Western Washington, with lingcod and halibut seasons in full swing, and summer fishing seasons for chinook and hatchery coho opening soon.
Wild turkey hunting is open until May 31.
