Travelling last week and I was surprised by the number of CASH ONLY places. Is card processing getting more difficult for small business?
I have not been traveling, but I usually get an eye roll when I pull out cash. Few places will take a $50, even though it is the new $20. I would be fine for cash only, except for getting gas, I do not want to go inside and wait. I would even be ok to round off to the nearest dollar, or nearest quarter or nearest anything besides a penny.?ÿ
Probably avoiding the tracking of their money. PPP loans encumbered the user's in interesting ways.
My speculation.
I've had a couple of recent invoice payments come in with cash. The look you get at the bank with a roll of bills adding up to $5000 or so is very interesting. Didn't used to be that way.
I saw the opposite when going to a ballgame.?ÿ Zero cash in the stadium allowed, either CC or their ballpark card thing.
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ANymore, I would rather just put it on a card, as long as their machine is quick enough.?ÿ Pop the chip in, 5 sec, pop it out. Easier then watching them try to figure out how to count change.?ÿ Tips are always in cash though - to help out the servers.
I figure the bigger the business the smoother the card transaction. I was also surprised by the number of shops that required a signature for a card, usually anymore it's slide in the chip, wait a few seconds and go.?ÿ
My bottom line is that if they don't want my cash, they don't really want my business.
A nearby grocery store had to run for about a month without the ability to take any kind of card.?ÿ That was their poorest month for gross sales.?ÿ That told me a great deal about the majority of their customers.?ÿ There was too long of a period in my life when I was one of those customers.?ÿ Then I got rid of my credit cards.?ÿ Problem solved.
I would even be ok to round off to the nearest dollar
acorns.com
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What about: this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private
I would think they would have to take it; or convince the government to take this note off of our notes...
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I'd only be comfortable at the dime level.?ÿ I notice a trend for restaurants to quote prices in tenths. That threw me the first time I saw it.
My family owned a Subway store for a time. Naturally we took both cards and cash. The bank charged 4% on each card transaction. That is their cut. That is how the bank makes money on the service. That stung a bit, but we never lost a dollar of debit card transaction money in any of the 2 dozen times the store was held up, and no employee ever pocketed a single dollar of debit card transaction money. We never had to transport debit card money to the bank. We would have been very happy to have gone 100% card and then there wouldn't have been any "float" money in the till to be stolen.?ÿ?ÿ
When you stop and think about it, when you put a tip on a cc, who is getting a chunk of that tip??ÿ
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
Tipping is a good thing to do with cash.
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Amen.?ÿ When I tip it's always cash and handed to them personally.
PS - You ought to see the excellent service I get at the local cafe.?ÿ ?ÿI even get a free piece of pie every now and again. ;)?ÿ ?ÿ
Down here debit card transactions carry no extra fees, but the rapacious credit card companies take around 4% of the transaction. Many places now put that extra charge straight on to the sale.
I'm happy to pay by card - but my visa card stays in my wallet and gets used only for international online transactions.
@jimcox?ÿ
I am pleased to be able to say that my credit card gets used so infrequently that it has negatively impacted my credit score. It seems I have no history of making regular monthly payments on credit cards. Huh.?ÿ ?ÿ
@norman-oklahoma I was chatting with the owner of a small restaurant who was telling me how they bought an expresso machine to try and make their nut with the morning crowd and how the credit card processing company they were using, Wells F was charging them up to a couple of dollars a transaction for a three dollar expresso. Another friend who runs a couple of small ethnic restaurants was telling me how during the pandemic most of their orders were take out using Grubhub and Doordash, who take 25% of their receipts off the top. They were only in business to make enough to hopefully make it through to better times. For a small family businesses running on tight margins, predatory cc processing fees can eat them alive. Everyone takes a cut. Getting airline miles? Airline gets a cut of the fees, on and on. Paying cash with those businesses makes a huge difference in their bottom line, but some customers will walk out if they can't swipe it.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
That told me a great deal about the majority of their customers.
That they don't like to carry cash and choose to shop where they can use a credit card??ÿ That's the kind of customer I am.?ÿ I pay the cards of every month, but I value the convenience they provide.
There's no surprise bills, or hidden fees at the end of the month
"Did you read our updated terms of service"?ÿ .. doesn't happen when you pay cash.
And, yes. It used to be paying cash brought you a discount. A decade or so later, signing up for, and using a merchant's credit card brought you a discount.?ÿ Now - maybe it's some mean reversion - we are getting discounts again for using cash.
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'Backed by the good faith and credit of' ?ÿ a huge nuclear deterrence, and many carrier battle groups.
80% of global contracts are dollar denominated, so there's quite a few counterparties to dollar solvency.
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It's some sort of slow death waiting and watching someone at the counter trying to get a card to work, finding out they don't have the credit, merchant won't accept their latest iteration of Poki-Mon-Pay, or god knows what.