Opinion: what do you think?

[PollyannaMom]

Some places do not accept cash only credit or debit cards but is it legal? do to what a bill says on it "This note is LEGAL TENDER for ALL debts, public and private" just wondering what you think?

Good question.

Pre-pandemic, it sometimes used to bother me (just a little - not to the point I wouldn't go there) when a place was cash only, because then I had to think about it before going there.

Then during the pandemic, I understood why a lot of places felt cashless was the only way to keep their employees safe.

But as things return to "normal" going forward, I do feel that not accepting cash is excluding certain portions of the population. I haven't boycotted anyplace because of it, but it does bother me (and more than the cash only places did before).

 

[wenrob]

When i lived in New York, the FedEx office across the street had a sign that said "No Cash Accepted"

That was 20 years ago.

My youth group did a food selling fundraiser at the fair in town this past weekend. We were always a "Cash Only" operation. For the first time ever, we accepted card payment via Square. It represented about 30% of our sales. Most of those sales would have been lost since they literally had no cash on them.

On the flip side, it is a craft fare, and people are going to be selling various food items. You would think you would bring some cash with you.

I *do* bring cash to a craft fair for this reason but the last time I went to one every booth I went to had some kind of reader/mobile pay option. That was probably five years ago. (They’re just not the same anymore.)

 

[aprilchem]

I honestly can't remember the last time I had cash. I used to get it sometimes when I sent my kids to the grocery store for me, but now that DS 15 has a debit card, I just transfer money into his account and have him make the purchases that way.

 

[wenrob]

I honestly can't remember the last time I had cash. I used to get it sometimes when I sent my kids to the grocery store for me, but now that DS 15 has a debit card, I just transfer money into his account and have him make the purchases that way.

I always kept a “reserve” in older DD’s account for when she’d stop for me.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I find the opposite irritating. There is a famous local hot dog place that doesn't do credit or debit. They have an ATM machine in their restaurant that charges $3 for a transaction. Nope, not going back there again.

 

[SirDuff]

I live in Switzerland which is (or was) very cash based. Paying with a 100 CHF note is commonplace (the Swiss Franc is generally pretty much on par with the US dollar) and doesn't lead to any of the checking of the note that using a $100 note will have in Canada/US. I've seen people pay for purchases of 2,000 CHF or more with cash. Again, no one bats an eye.

I believe that we have the second largest value banknote in the world (1,000 CHF) which we can only have because we aren't actually part of the EU (EU has restrictions on the value of bank notes).

Cheques/checks are totally not a think here. When I asked about them when opening my account when I first moved here, the banker laughed at me.

Things are starting to change - accelerated due to COVID-19, I'm sure. My workplace, for example, is totally cashless now (cafeteria, vending machines, coffee machines).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I *do* bring cash to a craft fair for this reason but the last time I went to one every booth I went to had some kind of reader/mobile pay option. That was probably five years ago. (They’re just not the same anymore.)

We also bring some cash but many of the vendors at crafts and arts fairs or trade shows also do things like Square. We had been going almost yearly to a Holiday crafts and arts and trade show (really all of those based on what was in it) and there were a few vendors sprinkled here and there that had like a $10 minimum for card usage but last time we were there in 2019 (it went virtual 2020 but is back in person for 2021 just don't know if we'll go there) the main vendor we saw with that card minimum sadly wasn't there anymore. We used to buy several cute decor items (sometimes fall but mostly Christmas) from them. Like the PP mentioned food is probably the one where I could see cash being more common but even then the last time we were there at a fall festival several weeks ago even the food vendors took cards.

 

[disney212]

We keep a little cash in our safe for "emergency use" other than that I keep 2 quarters for my Aldi cart, lol. I get cash prior to every trip for tips. Normally we get $100 in $5 bills, covers bellhops, luggage, maid tips, everything is is rounded to the nearest $5. I may have a few $5 bills left in my "vacation wallet"from our last trip.

 

[Lilsia]

According to the restaurant industry he is bad at math. Cash is almost always more costly to accept than electronic payments.

There is a great deal of hidden cost in counting out drawers, maintaining change, visits to the bank, having to have what tend to be the best and highest paid employees manning cash registers.

Perhaps he likes cash because it makes it easier to cheat on his taxes? A reason for the new reason the IRS wants a copy of any transaction larger than $600.

That is not true at all. Credit card merchant fees are pretty high and if you have a fast casual restaurant, where people will spend under $10-$15 per transaction, those fees add up really quick. I worked at a local place for 15 years and we got a lot of small transactions, cup of coffee and a muffin, etc. It is much cheaper to have the manager, as part of their duties, balance it and go to the bank. And pretty much anyone can cashier since the register does all of the work for you. There is a reason why small businesses take cash only. The only problem with cash is that some people like to treat you as a bank to break up their big bills. You can't come in first thing in the morning and expect change for a $50 bill. But most places won't take those anymore for that reason.

 

[kdonnel]

That is not true at all. Credit card merchant fees are pretty high and if you have a fast casual restaurant, where people will spend under $10-$15 per transaction, those fees add up really quick. I worked at a local place for 15 years and we got a lot of small transactions, cup of coffee and a muffin, etc. It is much cheaper to have the manager, as part of their duties, balance it and go to the bank. And pretty much anyone can cashier since the register does all of the work for you. There is a reason why small businesses take cash only. The only problem with cash is that some people like to treat you as a bank to break up their big bills. You can't come in first thing in the morning and expect change for a $50 bill. But most places won't take those anymore for that reason.

The reason a small business remains primarily cash based is because the owner doesn’t understand the expenses associated with accepting cash, is resistant to change and is ok with it costing more to accept cash, is a business for money laundering, or being primarily cash based makes it easier to fudge the books for tax dodging purposes.

Experts put the cost of accepting cash at 9.1% per transaction. Credit/Debit averages 3.5%.

The difference is that the 3.5% is easily seen by the retailer. The 9.1% is hidden.

 

[prairie_girl]

I did have to have cash to pay for my moSt recent tattoos, but, other than that, I can’t remember the last time I had actual cash in my wallet. Everything is either online or debit. I actually get annoyed if I have bills because it’s useless to me.

 

[wenrob]

That is not true at all. Credit card merchant fees are pretty high and if you have a fast casual restaurant, where people will spend under $10-$15 per transaction, those fees add up really quick. I worked at a local place for 15 years and we got a lot of small transactions, cup of coffee and a muffin, etc. It is much cheaper to have the manager, as part of their duties, balance it and go to the bank. And pretty much anyone can cashier since the register does all of the work for you. There is a reason why small businesses take cash only. The only problem with cash is that some people like to treat you as a bank to break up their big bills. You can't come in first thing in the morning and expect change for a $50 bill. But most places won't take those anymore for that reason.

I had a customer go ballistic on me (we’re talking red faced screaming in my face, thought I was going to have to dial 911) because he wanted to buy a 50 cent paper with a $100 bill first thing on a Sunday morning and I couldn’t do it. We had a huge sign right above our heads that said we couldn’t take anything above a $20. You couldn’t miss it. It would have taken my whole til and the banks are closed on Sunday plus I was by myself and couldn’t have gone anyway. Thankfully a regular walked in and he left after throwing the paper at me.

 

[MillauFr]

What would the drug dealers do if we went cash only as a society?

 

[LuvOrlando]

What would the drug dealers do if we went cash only as a society?

I think the pharmas would figure out something, I'm pretty sure they already got a jump on things with flex spending

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

That is not true at all. Credit card merchant fees are pretty high and if you have a fast casual restaurant, where people will spend under $10-$15 per transaction, those fees add up really quick. I worked at a local place for 15 years and we got a lot of small transactions, cup of coffee and a muffin, etc. It is much cheaper to have the manager, as part of their duties, balance it and go to the bank. And pretty much anyone can cashier since the register does all of the work for you. There is a reason why small businesses take cash only. The only problem with cash is that some people like to treat you as a bank to break up their big bills. You can't come in first thing in the morning and expect change for a $50 bill. But most places won't take those anymore for that reason.

I actually agree with both you and kdonnel. While cash registers do tell you how much to give back it's just kinda normal to all have out of sync cash registers because well we're human and sometimes we oops on things.

I used to work way back in the day (when cash was more common I'll say) at MaxRave (that was bought out by BCBG) and the company had a rule that each cashier (which every employee was considered one at least at our store) had to cash out and count their register and if you were $5 over OR under your name was added to a naughty list. For this reason you usually were assigned the cash register for a set time that way you could count out the machines more easily. So for instance you'd be assigned to be the cashier (the store I worked at had 3 registers but only 2 were generally used) for 2 hours at the end of the 2 hours the manager on duty would cash out your machine and add it up. You know when people say "keep the change"? Well that counted towards your over part.

I think a lot may come down to your particular clientele. There's a time expense component to having to go to the bank with your cash to deposit, dealing with potential counterfeit bills, receipts not adding up with the cash in the register, etc However, to some clientele it could be a deal breaker if a place was cashless and a business owner has to keep that in mind. In both cases either dealing with cash or dealing with cards are a cost of doing business.

On the point of counterfeit bills we've been warned that recently it's circulating around in higher instances in our communities here. A business owner posted on Nextdoor about it last week where unfortunately his employee didn't catch the $100 bill. The bill actually looked real as far as the coloring, the security strip, etc but clearly stated it was play money, had a chinese character stamp on it, etc. The trick of the markers of the past aren't as easy these days to catch the phony bills.

 

[BadPinkTink]

The reason a small business remains primarily cash based is because the owner doesn’t understand the expenses associated with accepting cash, is resistant to change and is ok with it costing more to accept cash, is a business for money laundering, or being primarily cash based makes it easier to fudge the books for tax dodging purposes.

Experts put the cost of accepting cash at 9.1% per transaction. Credit/Debit averages 3.5%.

The difference is that the 3.5% is easily seen by the retailer. The 9.1% is hidden.

all of this, small businesses especially retail, trades or services which don't use computers or the internet as part of their trade or service can be very tech phobic , resistant to change and or fudging the books. They prefer cash as thats how they have always done things so why change.

 

[soccerdad72]

What would the drug dealers do if we went cash only as a society?

Crypto

 

[MillauFr]

Crypto

Do most buyers have crypto?

 

[JimMIA]

Do most buyers have crypto?

Probably not at the street retail level, but you'd be surprised. I think @soccerdad72 was implying drug dealers would use crypto to move their money around -- which, in fact, they have already been doing for several years.

 

[Babs Johnson]

Cash only. Credit/debit/other electronic only. Makes no difference to me. I’ll go to both and use whatever the business prefers/requires.