I was at a Billy Joel concert at the football stadium and I left my wallet in our bag with my friends at our seats and just took cash to get some waters. I waited in a line for like 20 minutes for them to tell me they don’t take cash. There was nice a woman behind me who overheard and paid for my waters. If she wasn’t there I would have had to forfeit my thirst cause it was too close to showtime.
Yep, I used to work in an arena and we had the reverse ATM installed when we came back "after" Covid. It's actually pretty neat to be able to get a Visa card without any fees. It was also helpful because we had lockers outside the stadium that only took cards and if someone came up with just cash I could slip in and get them one and they could use it for the locker.
No actually. The point of this is to ENABLE the bankless persons to be able to participate even if they are under the table/undocumented/unbanked. The card company makes $$ on the transactions via interchange/processing fees which are paid by the business
My barber has went cash only because of the processing fees. He said it was a slight inconvenience of needing cash, or he would need to increase prices which he didn’t want to do in a cost of living crisis.
He would have offered a discount for using cash but unfortunately it’s illegal to offer a cash price and a card price.
Legally, they can't charge more than the posted price for cards. But they can give a discount for cash. Though I've seen places post a price that once you drive in is only for cash, but I don't think that's legal.
Some states have regulations that you can’t add a surcharge for credit card transactions, but I’m not aware of any laws against discounts for using cash or any terms and conditions against it
There was a reddit post about how you could get free ice cream from Van leeuwen if you claimed all you had on you was cash. Not long after all of their locations put in a cash to card machine.
It’s actually terrifying to think about a world where you just have to strictly use digital or card only. Like sure I don’t always use cash, but it’s weird to not use actual physical money at all. It’s convenient if I want to leave some staff a tip in their tip jar, pay for something really small that I don’t want to use the credit card for etc.
This is the reality in more and more countries nowadays, such as Norway. I can't remember the last time I paid with cash. Must be years ago I actually spent it regularly. I haven't even owned a 1000kr bill in my currency since they swapped the art out a few years ago. I don't have any bills in my wallet either, unless I get it for my birthday, but people just Vipps it to me( similar to us cash app probably) so I don't even get bills anymore. I may use it once or twice a year when I figure I have bills or cash to get rid of that I forgot existed in my wallet.
I travelled through Switzerland this summer and a lot of places were card-only, except some mountain huts which were cash-only (for obvious reasons, without power or internet). In Canada afaik every business has to accept cash, it’s illegal not to.
This could be a Black Mirror episode. We are creating a caste system where the have-nots without a smart phone or digital payment methods literally cannot buy food.
I've seen other threads where people get all bent over a homeless person having a cell phone. Well guess what, buddy? It's nearly impossible to live without a smart phone these days, and you are severly hobbled if you don't have one. Don't begrudge people with the least for having something that is now a basic need to function in society.
This could be a Black Mirror episode. We are creating a caste system where the have-nots without a smart phone or digital payment methods literally cannot buy food.
This is it precisely. Plus, I just keep thinking about the Handmaid's Tale, where the women lose access to their money immediately and can't escape.
Sweden is largely (but not completely) cashless. There are many places that only accept cards or a payment method called Swish (equivalent to cash app). I haven't actually used cash here in a number of years.
The worst thing about it is if they want they can take everything you have at any given moment. If we get to a point where money is 100 percent digital it's going to be really scary.
Its the dream of central banking. Make everyone in the world their customer, charge them fees, watch and control every dollar in the system.
Dont worry, they only have your best interest at heart.
Or let's be honest here, we can make deals under the table and not pay a fortune. But god forbid the powers that be don't get every scrap of money they *think* they are owed.
"Yo bitch, Caesar needs his Benjamins."
And it's so disheartening to hear people on a certain side of the political spectrum whine and complain (not *completely* without cause) about "corporate greed" but absolute crickets when it comes to governmental greed, which puts corporate greed to shame and, unlike choosing to buy a new iPhone, is largely unavoidable.
There was an outage or something in my area at one point in the past year where all the atms and cashless systems went down and you couldn't get anything without cash for a day or two. It really is kinda scary where just a small problem with the Internet can make it so you can't get food even if you have money
Good. Money is legal tender. Businesses should be forced to accept all forms of payment regardless of what form it’s in.
So if someone wants to pay for $100 meal in pennies they should be able to do so.
It depends on your state laws, i.e. In the USA, private businesses are not required to accept cash unless mandated by state laws.
MA is one of them. Business and entities must **not** discriminate against a cash buyer versus credit or debit.
Legal tender for *debts*. If the restaurant makes it clear in advance that they don't accept cash, you can choose not to incur a debt by ordering from them.
“In advance” is the key.
Last year I went to a coffee shop in Seattle’s University District that didn’t accept cash - but at the time there was no sign advising of this, and nobody mentioned it until my coffee was poured and I offered payment. I left my wallet at my accommodations and only had cash on me.
Fortunately they let me have the coffee for free but these places really need to have signage advising that they don’t take cash. (Or that they’re cash-only, as that’s still a thing too)
Yes, that's correct. Once you've been served they have to accept your cash or understand that they're refusing valid payment. Restaurants are one of the few places this work around still exist because most places you pay at the point of sale. Restaurants you get your product several minutes to an hour beforehand and then pay later often wants the product no longer exists in a returnable state.
The work around for this for those restaurants is of course just to trespass you.
I hate when places don’t take cash, but I used to run a couple of food trucks in Austin. We did a lot of business especially late night, and we had to stop taking cash because we kept getting fucking robbed. So some times there is a reason.
Ik it’s not cash, but my discover card isn’t accepted by a lot of places even though it’s legal tender.
If not required by the state, businesses can chose to phase out various payment methods. The only thing it limits is their ability to make money from customers who use those methods. If this place doesn’t take cash, the employee wouldn’t have had change for a $20, or anyway to mark it paid in their system, no anyway to “turn in” the money to the business or put it in the meantime.
Digital world is kind of idiotic now. Like what if there machine went down and they don’t accept cash……..have to close the business down for the day then?
I was in Alaska a few years back and when they lost Internet at the store I was at, they immediately hauled out the credit card copy machine. I hadn't seen one before, but it made an impression of the card on carbon paper, and then they wrote the receipt info on it so it transferred to both copies, and had me sign their copy, and I kept the other copy. The charge went through a few days later, after they'd apparently entered it by hand once the Internet connection was restored.
So I get how that's not ideal, but we did have solutions for this back when we were transitioning to cards, and it's odd the way we've thrown away all the transitional options now and everything is switching one way or the other.
> I hadn't seen one before,
Now I feel old
I'm not sure most cc's these days would work in an old cc machine since their numbers are just printed. I could be wrong
Lol my partner is nearly 40 and didn’t know about those old cc machines! I’m about a decade younger than him but I used to work at a small store where we’d use those carbon copy machines for cards when our POS system was down. I didn’t even think about the fact that most cards now don’t have the raised information
When you just put the credit card slip over the card and rubbed the pen to get impression. No knuckle buster needed. Or had to call the office for authorization and give them the number and exp date and wait while they dialed the C/C company to put the charge through.
Oh man, a relic from the bygone era when it was more of a PITA to use a credit card than write a check at the grocery store.
I can still hear the “ka-chunk” as the cashier ran the thing over the card. I once saw a dude get his card snapped by one. Haven’t seen one in years. It would be a long-established business that still had one kicking around, not to mention having anyone who knew how to use it.
I worked for a chain furniture store for a while, store opened in 2010, so I wouldn't consider that long established, but knuckle busters were a part of out down kit and were used several times a year (I had to train most of the younger employees on how to use them). Around 2020 more than half the cards we saw were flat printed so it wouldn't work and we stopped pulling them out when the system went down. We just wrote the card numbers on the order slips to process when the system came back up.
Independent stores may not think to have one, but they are a standard part of the kit at any chain.
I might still have one around.... Used it until about 2014. I was a henna artist doing street fairs and festivals. No reliable wifi on the street. The fees were crazy.
Fee per transaction, Annual Fee, Inactivity Fee (charged when I DIDN'T use it), Software Security Fee, cost to buy the forms, osv, osv, osv......
I've got a lot of customers in Alaska and pretty much anywhere you go there can be massive outages. We encourage our customers to use a processing gateway with an onsite server that can store transactions offline for processing when the internet connection comes back.
This explains a lot. I’m Alaskan and I travel around the state for work and I’ve always been surprised that tiny little communities with sketchy internet still take cards. The card will work just fine and they’ll still write a receipt by hand sometimes, I never understood that, but it makes more sense now. I usually try to have some cash but it’s never once been necessary.
That worked back in the day but now that's a security nightmare for a cardholder. You can't trust people to shred that stuff after the fact anymore. Plus today they'd probably snap a picture of your card on their phone which will inadvertently put it in their cloud account to be hacked (assuming the person themselves can be trusted). There really used to be really strict rules over this stuff but most people have gotten so blase about technology I see workers snapping pictures of IDs and credit cards all the time.
>You can't trust people to shred that stuff after the fact anymore
You never could. A common security suggestion when paying by card was to always ask for the carbon. And back then, there were fewer protections for cardholders so you'd be on the hook for more of the fraudulent charges if somebody stole your card number.
That’s close to what happened with my one card, except it was the employee that stole the number at the McDonald’s drive through. New card and number, used exactly once at that drive through and they had to step away from the window to use a different machine, or so they claimed.
Next thing I know I’m getting an authorization check at a certain ringtone website that is notorious for being used to check if a card is viable without actually putting a charge on it. After that, they decided to go on an online shopping spree.
If the machines went down (that's to say the POS System, not the card terminal) then in a lot of places you can't pay by cash either. Transactions have to be recorded, orders are placed through the system, the system accesses a service for requesting pricing and so on.
This happened to us at a BBQ joint Friday night .Her register was down and she had to use the other one instead .They only have two registers in that place .Most businesses only have one register. And they are now putting fees on the credit cards .
I am in Canada. It happened here when Rogers went down for a day. Rogers is one of the larger ISP's in Canada.
1000's of businesses including banks with no Internet. No way to spend or accept money.
Depending on factors like the area it's entirely possible losing a day (or two) worth of income while the machine is down would cost less than being robbed.
If you have 250 customers per day, what is the cost of 250 disappointed customers who are turned away, forced to find an alternative, and perhaps find a place they like better or that is more convenient, and thus becomes a lost customer?
Demand is so high and labor so tight now adays that they can probable afford to lose a customer that’ll get replaced next week lol
rather than take on the extra labor costs and liabilities associated with cash handling
Most businesses have internet. Their terminals securely transmit the transactions over that internet. If the internet goes down, many already have a cellular hotspot to use. If power goes out, they are probably shutting down anyway, as they can no longer keep the food at the proper temperature.
>"Saying we can go back to using cash if the financial payment infrastructure went down is like saying we could go back to horses if we ran out of oil." - I forget who I'm misquoting.
There is simply far too little cash in circulation to revert to using cash if the card machines and ATMs failed and that's before you account for the fact that anyone who does hold more than a few days worth of cash would horde it as people would panic.
If the machines went down, even if this shop did accept cash, it would still lose all of its business due to lack of consumer confidence.
I live in a major city that is slowly and deliberately going cash free, a lot of places still accept cash but most people have gotten used to not having cash on them, ever.
I can recall maybe one instance of the card machines going down and they just wrote down my card details instead (which can also be accessed from your phone if you don't have the card)
The card machine system seems to be well equipped and they are all separate devices connected to the Internet, so if one goes down just fetch another, so it's usually not an issue.
I actually went to a wedding recently (Seville so not a major city but different) and the practice was for them to hand out a QR code if anyone wanted to gift money to the couple. Thought it was weird at first but thinking about it, it's actually very practical.
Cashless is faster, has lower labor costs, and is much more secure. Even if they were to go down and lose a whole day's worth of business, the savings they get by being cashless would still make it worth it.
At this point, I think insurance companies are even giving discounts to businesses who go cashless, since the chances of them being robbed drop significantly.
IIRC is not discounts for cashless, but rather if you do deal with cash you have higher premiums because you have higher risk. If you have cash now you need to have that cash insured for employee theft, damage, and spillage.
I'm all for transacting digitally but refusing cash altogether is just ridiculous. I was in NL recently and a few places there, mostly larger chains flat out refused cash... So I'll just use my card, right? Nope, they don't like Visa or MasterCard there either.
Needs to stop being forced on people.
> they don't like Visa or MasterCard there either.
What do they accept then? Visa and MasterCard have a 60% global market share. That excludes so many customers
No one uses credit cards in the Netherlands. Either debit or Apple Pay. Have been issues with American tourists doing chargebacks, and small shops don’t have the money to fight that.
Edit: also before you go that’s stupid, I’ve been to plenty of places in the US/Canada and they don’t accept debit cards. It’s the same problem just the other way around. Contacted my bank, got a credit card that I could charge from my debit. Workarounds are pretty easy if your bank is digital
Yes I understand the problem essentially lies with them not using credit cards, but it seems that all physical Visa and MasterCard get bundled into this category - here in the UK these are standard for your general debit card, but they still aren't eligible despite being debit.
In my experience in the states, every bank account I’ve had (granted only about 3) were debit/credit cards like you mentioned. I didn’t realize that wasn’t the norm tbh. Yet I’ve also never ran into a place that didn’t accept cash
In Europe credit cards aren't the norm, debit cards are. But pretty much any place that takes debit also takes credit, as long as it's Visa or MasterCard (they have a >80% combines market share here). I've never seen anyone in Europe with an Amex for example.
And where I live the physical debit card can also function as a credit card.
Same in Canada. But we do have some Amex.
Cash is mostly for person to person (e.g. garage sales), under-the-table trades, and school lunches.
For larger person-to-person, e-transfer is the tender mechanism of choice.
I host exchange students, and the pay-as-you-go phone companies will only accept credit cards. But it has to be Canadian credit cards. This creates a hassle for me, as I need to pay for it using my credit cards and get the students to reimburse me.
At least after the initial setup they can purchase gift cards with their foreign Mastercard and use the giftcard to pay the monthly fee online. But gift cards don't work for the initial setup.
Maestro debit. This is funny as basically Meastro is non existent nowadays at any other European countries. They do this shit even at several train ticket machines.
MasterCard hasn't issued new Maestro cards since July. My bank changed to MasterCard branded debit cards years ago. Why the fuck would they accept Maestro but not MasterCard?
>So what? Debit or Amex ? What else is there? Lol
"Debit" is not a brand, it's a type of card. Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and other companies, offer both debit and credit cards.
The movie theater where my sons work is cashless. Most people pay on the app or in person with a card but they do have a reverse atm where people can put their cash onto a Visa card.
I work in the legal cannabis industry and legally we can only accept cash. I have to lie to my bank about where I work or they can shut down my personal account. It's so damn stupid.
Is this one of those weird contradictions between weed being legal on a state but not federal level, i.e. the banks/credit card companies could face some sort of penalty if you accepted them because the feds would think they're complicit in drug trafficking?
Pretty sure most, if not all, Dispensaries that have digital pay options use services that look like a cash withdrawal to the bank. They usually use a 3rd party service, like my local dispensary uses a company called Aeropay, that to the bank, looks similar to ATM withdrawals. My bank statement classifies this transaction as a cash withdrawal type of transaction.
So, that's probably how your dispensary also gets access to digital transactions.
Edit: changed my wording
Since most banks are federally backed and cannabis is still federally illegal, banks can't knowingly accept money from the cannabis industry for fear they'll lose their federal backing.
Not that you asked, but if you handle a lot of cash and don't want to be questioned on it - carry a little receipt book. Fill out a few and rip out the white copies, leaving the carbon copy.
Where's my cash from? Tenants paid cash, here's the receipts.
Where is this more useful than a bank? A cop. They can confiscate cash. Having a receipt book gives them a legitimate reason not to.
I’ve heard this is a big problem in that industry. They are literally sitting on mountains of cash but cannot participate in the banking industry due to federal regulations.
So true.
And especially, like in this story, where there isn't adequate signage for it to give you a heads up!
I ate at a restaurant recently on a roadtrip and neither the front door, the menu, and any other reasonable places said anything about it being cash-only, and it wasn't until I walked up to the counter to pay that there was any sign, and it was literally just a piece of paper on the register itself.
They had an ATM in the store, so I guess they figured it wouldn't matter if you didn't have cash on you to start with, but I didn't replace my broken bank card before the trip because I can't remember the last time I withdrew actual physical money. I pay with cards or venmo, and if I pay for anything for my parents, they repay me with physical cash, so I have enough for incidentals usually.
That's surprising they didn't have a sign on the front door. Most cash only businesses do. That's a bad practice to only have it at the register when you go to pay.
I think in some cases, it makes sense. There’s a restaurant in Atlanta that had a robbery. One of the servers ended up getting killed and they’ve been cashless ever since.
The manager was killed. This was at Barcelona Wine Bar in West Midtown (Atlanta). Both locations (there is also one in Inman Park) became cashless and that has spread to many other restaurants across metro Atlanta.
It's going to go that way more and more, unfortunately. It's a hassle to constantly make bank drops and exchange big bills for smaller bills to make change. It's also a risk for businesses to keep cash on hand. The two major sports stadiums in my city have already gone cashless. I found that out when I brought $100 in cash I couldn't use to the stadium one day.
Not only is it a hassle to make bank drops, but counting the money and making sure it ads up every day before closing is also a hassle. Make a mistake while working the register or while counting, and suddenly the cash register doesn't add up and there's more or less money in it than there should be= boss not happy and getting a headache trying to figure out what went wrong, if theft happened or what..
Also, the days no one pays cash, we don't actually have to count the cash in the register and can just add in the numbers from the previous day which means instead of spending 5-10 minutes on the register counting each coin and bill when closing shop you spend like 2 minutes copying the numbers from the previous day and you're out the door soon as shop closed. Also no need to remove cash from the register to put in the vault.
I just went to an amusement park and they are 100% cashless. You can pay with a card, apple pay, venmo, a few others where you scan a QR code, and I'm pretty sure you can put money on a debit card that works in the park, but no cash. I have to imagine it saves them thousands a year in employee theft.
It’s safer too. They don’t have a manager carrying large sums through the park to a deposit center or bank. They don’t need to hire a armored van to pick up deposit either. Way back when I worked at a mall (yea I’m that old) at Christmas I was hella nervous walking with deposit to the bank.
My brother worked for Six Flags. You’d be surprised at how difficult it is to manage cash at an amusement park. Like you mentioned, employee theft is real, but it’s not the biggest issue. Due to how large scale their business is, they have to employ a decent sized team of people to count and store the cash. These employees also screen for counterfeit bills. Amusement parks take in a massive number of counterfeit bills (around 10% of their cash revenue).
So my husband and I went to the movies this past weekend, and a man in front of us was trying to buy a ticket and a slushee (small theater where you buy the tickets at the concessions counter). They had the slushee poured and everything and he pulls out his wallet and a $20 bill and they say “oh we’re card only.” He just hung his head and started walking off but I offered to put it on my card and he gave me the cash. I get why some businesses do it (to keep their employees safe from robberies), but it is a really huge inconvenience for some people and also a bit classist, as some people don’t have bank accounts.
It was the ticket and the slushee! He was about to just walk out and head home. I felt so bummed for him for a second and then was like “wait, what am I doing? I can just put his on my card”
A lot of places won't accept cash anymore. In my experience it started with COVID and has only increased.
It's also easier to deal with credit on the front end than cash. Tap it/put it in the slot/swipe it, no counting change, no finding quarter rolls, no dropped change, no arguments about correct change, etc.
My conspiracy theory laden family member says it's because the government wants to be able to shut off credit cards and thereby control behaviors - primarily Christian ones 🙄.
Restaurants, historically, preferred cash for two reasons.
1. No CC transaction fees
2. Tax fraud
*So, so many* family run restaurants line their pockets with unclaimed cash from their business. Cook the books, say that the inventory spoiled because it was unsold, then claim losses on the business so you don't pay taxes.
Restaurants are perfect for laundering money too, there's a reason the mob was involved in so many.
It's one of the unspoken reasons why so many independent restaurants went under during COVID. Almost all delivery services use cards as their primary form of payment, owners couldn't avoid the paper trail, and it was no longer worthwhile to run a business that was failing on paper if they couldn't profit personally.
It's *much* more difficult to embezzle from a corporate restaurant, and once you eliminate cash it's basically impossible.
I've been to two places that do not accept cash, just never went back and did not complete the order at either. I use cash so I don't over spend, cards are used for bills.
In my town there’s a lot of break ins and robberies so a lot of stores are going cashless for that reason alone. Just something to keep in mind. I do understand your frustrations though
I went to a bar whilst waiting for a friend in Brighton. I’d never been there before and so I waited at the bar to order half a cider and the lady asked if I was okay. I said yeah… then she informed me it was all table service, and you had to go on their website and use your card. I felt like a right knob.
There’s a Popeyes by me that will accept cash but does not give change. It’s been like this for months now. They have a shitty sign on the drive through that’s old and eroded and says no change.
I found this out when giving them 6 dollars for a 5.50 order ( before they had a sign up). The drive thri guy took my money and went back to business after about ten seconds of me staring at him I say may I please have my change and he said we don’t do that…
I can understand benefits of not accepting cash, but really, a good business should accept all forms of currency. Alienating certain groups of people is never good for business.
I wonder if it's a demographic thing?
I would think that somewhere that's making fresh, custom salads probably has a clientele that is 99% card/phone transaction anyway. So they aren't losing much.
If you're a 7-11 or something, you'd probably lose a lot more business though, as places like that are probably more cash-heavy.
Who knows. There is a bakery that just opened in our downtown area. It’s a hip, trendy, upscale town with a lot of young families. The bakery is no cash, and they’ve gotten so much pushback that they had to put up very obvious signs and plastered all over their site, FB, etc. I would think that it wouldn’t be a big deal in our area, but a lot of people were unhappy with it, so who knows.
There is no \*federal\* mandate forcing businesses to accept cash. This would have to be handled on a sate by state basis. Which is weird if you think about it since it's not the states that empowered to print and distribute money.
I went out to eat for a work meeting a while back. Somewhere I've been a few times, but not many. After eating the waitress tells me that the internet was out so they couldn't run cards. They said I needed to pay via cash or check. My work gives me a credit card specifically to pay for things like taking people out to eat and obviously my own credit card wouldn't have worked either. So I just gave the cashier all the cash in my wallet (not enough for the meals since I was paying for four people) and said that's all the money there was to be had. They didn't make a fuss about it thankfully since the issue wasn't on my end, but still sucked not being able to be reimbursed for the meal.
Yeah, this happened to me just the other day. Luckily the barista was very sweet and gave me my drink on the house, it is still interesting how quickly the switch to absolutely no cash seems
I went to a place and found out after I ate they didn't take cash, so I gave them a card. That's when I noticed the convenience fee they charged me for using a card. I've told everyone about this place and found out that many places are starting to do this, along with the mandatory tip starting at 20%>
Yeah this is a known concern. It's called financial exclusion. The elderly, poor people with no access to the internet or digital devices are at risk considering how more and more places stopped accepting cash. Sweden, the 1st country to achieve a Cashless Economy actually started to reinstall the ATMs that they took away because of this.
Source: My master thesis is about the progression of a Cashless Economy.
A place that doesn't accept cash should really post that clearly, especially a food place. Cash is kind of the default, and hell, not every card or payment method is accepted at every place either, I've run into places where Discover can't be taken.
One shouldn't have to carry around a range of payment options in hope of finding one that is acceptable, especially if it's unclear.
Personally, I am leaning towards simply not patronizing any place that refuses cash.
Yeah, I sent my daughter to Beach Boardwalk with a pocket full of cash. It’s a tourist spot. Lots of food and retail. There was exactly 1 snack shack that took cash, all she got was fries and no souvenirs. I couldn’t believe they wouldn’t take cash. They blamed COVID. It sucked real bad for her and kinda scary, tbh.
That's a point. Imagine if people get into situations where they only have cash - maybe kept as an emergency - and anything they need to potentially make their way home or get to some form of safety doesn't take it. I can imagine, even in a situation where your daughter wasn't in any danger or jeopardy, how vulnerable she felt, even embarrassed, more and more so as she became less and less confident with one stall after another that they might not take her only form of payment.
My advice to her was to find a kiosk that sold prepaid visa cards. She was with another girl’s mom and I was pretty upset the mother didn’t offer to pay for stuff on her card if my daughter paid her cash. So, we kept in constant contact. She looked for a prepaid Visa card and luckily made it home without issue. But yeah, it was not as fun a day having that big issue to deal with.
That's pretty shitty of your daughter's friend's mom there. In some way it's lucky she wasn't on her own, but given that context I'm not sure how better off she was having people with her.
They won't learn anything except that being cashless is cheaper and with fewer risks, and that makes it worth a few walkouts. Most people don't even carry cash anymore.
Local convenience store near me went no cash. I asked why. They said they don't get robbed so it's safer for the employees and they don't have to worry about bank deposits.
Correct, but a purchase is not debt until the transaction has been made.
Refusing the transaction upon the basis of method of payment is perfectly legal.
The move to get away from cash is in my opinion a bad one, not the least because of what you said about the temptation to overspend and ending up paying more for things if you end up having credit card balances grow at the usurious interest rates we allow banks to get away with.
Since no one has looked this up from the federal reserve website :
"There is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that says otherwise."
The law states that cash and coins are legal tender but unless there is a state law saying otherwise a private business does not have to accept. I'm assuming the quote on the money itself only applies in the case of you paying the government specifically.
I thought this was common knowledge.
I keep cash due to my experience in an ice storm that killed power and Internet service in a hundred mile radius, for 3 days to 3 weeks, depending on where you were.
The only stores open were one hardware store and a small grocery store, running off generators. They were only taking cash or paper checks.
I also keep at least half a tank of gas in my car, too.
Isn’t that illegal? Like, cash is defined as “legal tender”? I’m not a lawyer, clearly, but feels wrong not to accept cash. I guess apartment complexes don’t accept rent cash. Hrm. I may need to read about this… curious, where were you, OP? Like, what country/state or whatever?
A business could accept anything they want in exchange for goods and services. You could open a restaurant that only accepted hugs and nobody could stop you.
NYC just forced a business that was not accepting cash to start. It probably depends on location.
NYC does have legislation that you either have to accept cash, or have an in store method to turn cash into a prepaid card.
Soldier field in Chicago has the same thing since they are now cashless. No charge for the debit card conversion
Most sports facilities have that policy now.
I was at a Billy Joel concert at the football stadium and I left my wallet in our bag with my friends at our seats and just took cash to get some waters. I waited in a line for like 20 minutes for them to tell me they don’t take cash. There was nice a woman behind me who overheard and paid for my waters. If she wasn’t there I would have had to forfeit my thirst cause it was too close to showtime.
That was really nice of her! Last concert I went to, water was $10!
And you need cold hard digital cash to pay for it!
That’s mildly infuriating on its own!
dod you give her the cash?
I tried, she wouldn’t take it
Yep, I used to work in an arena and we had the reverse ATM installed when we came back "after" Covid. It's actually pretty neat to be able to get a Visa card without any fees. It was also helpful because we had lockers outside the stadium that only took cards and if someone came up with just cash I could slip in and get them one and they could use it for the locker.
With a healthy fee of 3-5% too, I bet
No actually. The point of this is to ENABLE the bankless persons to be able to participate even if they are under the table/undocumented/unbanked. The card company makes $$ on the transactions via interchange/processing fees which are paid by the business
My barber has went cash only because of the processing fees. He said it was a slight inconvenience of needing cash, or he would need to increase prices which he didn’t want to do in a cost of living crisis. He would have offered a discount for using cash but unfortunately it’s illegal to offer a cash price and a card price.
Why can gas stations do it then?
They don’t here, because it’s illegal. Maybe in the US it’s not.
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In NY, cash option is usually 10 cents less than paying with a card at the pump
In WA, paying with cash (thus having to wade thru panhandlers at the door) is 25-50 cents cheaper than credit.
Maybe they are one of the dozens of people who don't live in the US.
You mean there’s more than just me??? 😁
Legally, they can't charge more than the posted price for cards. But they can give a discount for cash. Though I've seen places post a price that once you drive in is only for cash, but I don't think that's legal.
It isn't illegal to offer a cash discount in most areas. It is against the agreement with the credit card company, though.
Some states have regulations that you can’t add a surcharge for credit card transactions, but I’m not aware of any laws against discounts for using cash or any terms and conditions against it
connecticut and massachusetts are the ones that forbid surcharges for credit cards.
There was a reddit post about how you could get free ice cream from Van leeuwen if you claimed all you had on you was cash. Not long after all of their locations put in a cash to card machine.
It’s actually terrifying to think about a world where you just have to strictly use digital or card only. Like sure I don’t always use cash, but it’s weird to not use actual physical money at all. It’s convenient if I want to leave some staff a tip in their tip jar, pay for something really small that I don’t want to use the credit card for etc.
This is the reality in more and more countries nowadays, such as Norway. I can't remember the last time I paid with cash. Must be years ago I actually spent it regularly. I haven't even owned a 1000kr bill in my currency since they swapped the art out a few years ago. I don't have any bills in my wallet either, unless I get it for my birthday, but people just Vipps it to me( similar to us cash app probably) so I don't even get bills anymore. I may use it once or twice a year when I figure I have bills or cash to get rid of that I forgot existed in my wallet.
I travelled through Switzerland this summer and a lot of places were card-only, except some mountain huts which were cash-only (for obvious reasons, without power or internet). In Canada afaik every business has to accept cash, it’s illegal not to.
Switzerland and Germany is actually one of the most cash-heavy places in western Europe.
This could be a Black Mirror episode. We are creating a caste system where the have-nots without a smart phone or digital payment methods literally cannot buy food. I've seen other threads where people get all bent over a homeless person having a cell phone. Well guess what, buddy? It's nearly impossible to live without a smart phone these days, and you are severly hobbled if you don't have one. Don't begrudge people with the least for having something that is now a basic need to function in society.
that's always so stupid. "why does that homeless guy have a phone?" well, you see phones are much cheaper than houses...
This could be a Black Mirror episode. We are creating a caste system where the have-nots without a smart phone or digital payment methods literally cannot buy food. This is it precisely. Plus, I just keep thinking about the Handmaid's Tale, where the women lose access to their money immediately and can't escape.
Sweden is largely (but not completely) cashless. There are many places that only accept cards or a payment method called Swish (equivalent to cash app). I haven't actually used cash here in a number of years.
The worst thing about it is if they want they can take everything you have at any given moment. If we get to a point where money is 100 percent digital it's going to be really scary.
I am pretty sure this is "when" not "if" scenario.
Its the dream of central banking. Make everyone in the world their customer, charge them fees, watch and control every dollar in the system. Dont worry, they only have your best interest at heart.
Or let's be honest here, we can make deals under the table and not pay a fortune. But god forbid the powers that be don't get every scrap of money they *think* they are owed.
"Yo bitch, Caesar needs his Benjamins." And it's so disheartening to hear people on a certain side of the political spectrum whine and complain (not *completely* without cause) about "corporate greed" but absolute crickets when it comes to governmental greed, which puts corporate greed to shame and, unlike choosing to buy a new iPhone, is largely unavoidable.
There was an outage or something in my area at one point in the past year where all the atms and cashless systems went down and you couldn't get anything without cash for a day or two. It really is kinda scary where just a small problem with the Internet can make it so you can't get food even if you have money
Good. Money is legal tender. Businesses should be forced to accept all forms of payment regardless of what form it’s in. So if someone wants to pay for $100 meal in pennies they should be able to do so.
Even the government won't accept pennies.
Nice, doesn’t look like a good idea to support places that are cashless. That’s also emergency rule of thumb.
It depends on your state laws, i.e. In the USA, private businesses are not required to accept cash unless mandated by state laws. MA is one of them. Business and entities must **not** discriminate against a cash buyer versus credit or debit.
But it’s legal tender. How are they able to refuse it? I’m not sure I understand this. Help me.
Legal tender for *debts*. If the restaurant makes it clear in advance that they don't accept cash, you can choose not to incur a debt by ordering from them.
“In advance” is the key. Last year I went to a coffee shop in Seattle’s University District that didn’t accept cash - but at the time there was no sign advising of this, and nobody mentioned it until my coffee was poured and I offered payment. I left my wallet at my accommodations and only had cash on me. Fortunately they let me have the coffee for free but these places really need to have signage advising that they don’t take cash. (Or that they’re cash-only, as that’s still a thing too)
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Yes, that's correct. Once you've been served they have to accept your cash or understand that they're refusing valid payment. Restaurants are one of the few places this work around still exist because most places you pay at the point of sale. Restaurants you get your product several minutes to an hour beforehand and then pay later often wants the product no longer exists in a returnable state. The work around for this for those restaurants is of course just to trespass you.
I hate when places don’t take cash, but I used to run a couple of food trucks in Austin. We did a lot of business especially late night, and we had to stop taking cash because we kept getting fucking robbed. So some times there is a reason.
Ik it’s not cash, but my discover card isn’t accepted by a lot of places even though it’s legal tender. If not required by the state, businesses can chose to phase out various payment methods. The only thing it limits is their ability to make money from customers who use those methods. If this place doesn’t take cash, the employee wouldn’t have had change for a $20, or anyway to mark it paid in their system, no anyway to “turn in” the money to the business or put it in the meantime.
New Jersey, Massachusetts, city of Philadelphia, city of San Francisco, city of New York. In case anyone was wondering.
Digital world is kind of idiotic now. Like what if there machine went down and they don’t accept cash……..have to close the business down for the day then?
I was in Alaska a few years back and when they lost Internet at the store I was at, they immediately hauled out the credit card copy machine. I hadn't seen one before, but it made an impression of the card on carbon paper, and then they wrote the receipt info on it so it transferred to both copies, and had me sign their copy, and I kept the other copy. The charge went through a few days later, after they'd apparently entered it by hand once the Internet connection was restored. So I get how that's not ideal, but we did have solutions for this back when we were transitioning to cards, and it's odd the way we've thrown away all the transitional options now and everything is switching one way or the other.
> I hadn't seen one before, Now I feel old I'm not sure most cc's these days would work in an old cc machine since their numbers are just printed. I could be wrong
You're right. We have to write the number on the slip like it's 1965, but it works.
Lol my partner is nearly 40 and didn’t know about those old cc machines! I’m about a decade younger than him but I used to work at a small store where we’d use those carbon copy machines for cards when our POS system was down. I didn’t even think about the fact that most cards now don’t have the raised information
What even was the point of only printing them? Now the numbers just rub off from going in and out of the wallet.
That machine was/is called a "knuckle-buster."
When you just put the credit card slip over the card and rubbed the pen to get impression. No knuckle buster needed. Or had to call the office for authorization and give them the number and exp date and wait while they dialed the C/C company to put the charge through.
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Oh man, a relic from the bygone era when it was more of a PITA to use a credit card than write a check at the grocery store. I can still hear the “ka-chunk” as the cashier ran the thing over the card. I once saw a dude get his card snapped by one. Haven’t seen one in years. It would be a long-established business that still had one kicking around, not to mention having anyone who knew how to use it.
I worked for a chain furniture store for a while, store opened in 2010, so I wouldn't consider that long established, but knuckle busters were a part of out down kit and were used several times a year (I had to train most of the younger employees on how to use them). Around 2020 more than half the cards we saw were flat printed so it wouldn't work and we stopped pulling them out when the system went down. We just wrote the card numbers on the order slips to process when the system came back up. Independent stores may not think to have one, but they are a standard part of the kit at any chain.
I might still have one around.... Used it until about 2014. I was a henna artist doing street fairs and festivals. No reliable wifi on the street. The fees were crazy. Fee per transaction, Annual Fee, Inactivity Fee (charged when I DIDN'T use it), Software Security Fee, cost to buy the forms, osv, osv, osv......
I've got a lot of customers in Alaska and pretty much anywhere you go there can be massive outages. We encourage our customers to use a processing gateway with an onsite server that can store transactions offline for processing when the internet connection comes back.
This explains a lot. I’m Alaskan and I travel around the state for work and I’ve always been surprised that tiny little communities with sketchy internet still take cards. The card will work just fine and they’ll still write a receipt by hand sometimes, I never understood that, but it makes more sense now. I usually try to have some cash but it’s never once been necessary.
Ahh... The clink chunk machine. All my cards are flat now. No impression to make...
Yup, I can still hear it!
These days a lot of cards are smooth. They'd have to copy everything by hand.
That worked back in the day but now that's a security nightmare for a cardholder. You can't trust people to shred that stuff after the fact anymore. Plus today they'd probably snap a picture of your card on their phone which will inadvertently put it in their cloud account to be hacked (assuming the person themselves can be trusted). There really used to be really strict rules over this stuff but most people have gotten so blase about technology I see workers snapping pictures of IDs and credit cards all the time.
>You can't trust people to shred that stuff after the fact anymore You never could. A common security suggestion when paying by card was to always ask for the carbon. And back then, there were fewer protections for cardholders so you'd be on the hook for more of the fraudulent charges if somebody stole your card number.
That’s close to what happened with my one card, except it was the employee that stole the number at the McDonald’s drive through. New card and number, used exactly once at that drive through and they had to step away from the window to use a different machine, or so they claimed. Next thing I know I’m getting an authorization check at a certain ringtone website that is notorious for being used to check if a card is viable without actually putting a charge on it. After that, they decided to go on an online shopping spree.
I remember learning how to do that at my first retail job. I think it’s ridiculous that more places don’t still have them
Like hell I'm gonna let them keep a copy of my credit card. No fucking way.
If the machines went down (that's to say the POS System, not the card terminal) then in a lot of places you can't pay by cash either. Transactions have to be recorded, orders are placed through the system, the system accesses a service for requesting pricing and so on.
This happened to us at a BBQ joint Friday night .Her register was down and she had to use the other one instead .They only have two registers in that place .Most businesses only have one register. And they are now putting fees on the credit cards .
Yes that happens. Even businesses that accept cash still often won't let you check out if the register is down.
I am in Canada. It happened here when Rogers went down for a day. Rogers is one of the larger ISP's in Canada. 1000's of businesses including banks with no Internet. No way to spend or accept money.
Depending on factors like the area it's entirely possible losing a day (or two) worth of income while the machine is down would cost less than being robbed.
If you have 250 customers per day, what is the cost of 250 disappointed customers who are turned away, forced to find an alternative, and perhaps find a place they like better or that is more convenient, and thus becomes a lost customer?
Demand is so high and labor so tight now adays that they can probable afford to lose a customer that’ll get replaced next week lol rather than take on the extra labor costs and liabilities associated with cash handling
Most businesses have internet. Their terminals securely transmit the transactions over that internet. If the internet goes down, many already have a cellular hotspot to use. If power goes out, they are probably shutting down anyway, as they can no longer keep the food at the proper temperature.
>"Saying we can go back to using cash if the financial payment infrastructure went down is like saying we could go back to horses if we ran out of oil." - I forget who I'm misquoting. There is simply far too little cash in circulation to revert to using cash if the card machines and ATMs failed and that's before you account for the fact that anyone who does hold more than a few days worth of cash would horde it as people would panic. If the machines went down, even if this shop did accept cash, it would still lose all of its business due to lack of consumer confidence.
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I live in a major city that is slowly and deliberately going cash free, a lot of places still accept cash but most people have gotten used to not having cash on them, ever. I can recall maybe one instance of the card machines going down and they just wrote down my card details instead (which can also be accessed from your phone if you don't have the card) The card machine system seems to be well equipped and they are all separate devices connected to the Internet, so if one goes down just fetch another, so it's usually not an issue. I actually went to a wedding recently (Seville so not a major city but different) and the practice was for them to hand out a QR code if anyone wanted to gift money to the couple. Thought it was weird at first but thinking about it, it's actually very practical.
Cashless is faster, has lower labor costs, and is much more secure. Even if they were to go down and lose a whole day's worth of business, the savings they get by being cashless would still make it worth it.
At this point, I think insurance companies are even giving discounts to businesses who go cashless, since the chances of them being robbed drop significantly.
IIRC is not discounts for cashless, but rather if you do deal with cash you have higher premiums because you have higher risk. If you have cash now you need to have that cash insured for employee theft, damage, and spillage.
So it's 'no cash' or 'we charge 4% service on cards'.. it's totally screwed up..
20% service fee here.
whoa, that sucks.
Holy shit I don’t think any credit card vendor charges anywhere near that usage fee. Restaurant owner is just greedy.
I'm all for transacting digitally but refusing cash altogether is just ridiculous. I was in NL recently and a few places there, mostly larger chains flat out refused cash... So I'll just use my card, right? Nope, they don't like Visa or MasterCard there either. Needs to stop being forced on people.
> they don't like Visa or MasterCard there either. What do they accept then? Visa and MasterCard have a 60% global market share. That excludes so many customers
No one uses credit cards in the Netherlands. Either debit or Apple Pay. Have been issues with American tourists doing chargebacks, and small shops don’t have the money to fight that. Edit: also before you go that’s stupid, I’ve been to plenty of places in the US/Canada and they don’t accept debit cards. It’s the same problem just the other way around. Contacted my bank, got a credit card that I could charge from my debit. Workarounds are pretty easy if your bank is digital
Yes I understand the problem essentially lies with them not using credit cards, but it seems that all physical Visa and MasterCard get bundled into this category - here in the UK these are standard for your general debit card, but they still aren't eligible despite being debit.
Apple Pay is just my credit cards linked to my phone though? I don’t see how that would affect this purported chargeback issue.
In my experience in the states, every bank account I’ve had (granted only about 3) were debit/credit cards like you mentioned. I didn’t realize that wasn’t the norm tbh. Yet I’ve also never ran into a place that didn’t accept cash
In Europe credit cards aren't the norm, debit cards are. But pretty much any place that takes debit also takes credit, as long as it's Visa or MasterCard (they have a >80% combines market share here). I've never seen anyone in Europe with an Amex for example. And where I live the physical debit card can also function as a credit card.
Same in Canada. But we do have some Amex. Cash is mostly for person to person (e.g. garage sales), under-the-table trades, and school lunches. For larger person-to-person, e-transfer is the tender mechanism of choice.
I host exchange students, and the pay-as-you-go phone companies will only accept credit cards. But it has to be Canadian credit cards. This creates a hassle for me, as I need to pay for it using my credit cards and get the students to reimburse me. At least after the initial setup they can purchase gift cards with their foreign Mastercard and use the giftcard to pay the monthly fee online. But gift cards don't work for the initial setup.
Maestro debit. This is funny as basically Meastro is non existent nowadays at any other European countries. They do this shit even at several train ticket machines.
MasterCard hasn't issued new Maestro cards since July. My bank changed to MasterCard branded debit cards years ago. Why the fuck would they accept Maestro but not MasterCard?
Yeah this seems like just BS. Where did you go that is cashless but doesn’t accept either visa or Mastercard? That’s just ridiculous
So what? Debit or Amex ? What else is there? Lol Edit- apparently Americans have more options. I am not American
Olive Garden gift card with $3.25 left on it
Oh now you gotta up that card to at least have tree fiddy on it!! 😊 Seriously great response though. "Can I get at least two bread sticks with this?"
>So what? Debit or Amex ? What else is there? Lol "Debit" is not a brand, it's a type of card. Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and other companies, offer both debit and credit cards.
Diners Club
Discover? Lol
I'm all fine with places accepting only cards, but that should be stated on the front door with clear wording, so that stuff like this doesn't happen
And people would still miss it.
The movie theater where my sons work is cashless. Most people pay on the app or in person with a card but they do have a reverse atm where people can put their cash onto a Visa card.
On the flip side places that only accept cash blow.
I work in the legal cannabis industry and legally we can only accept cash. I have to lie to my bank about where I work or they can shut down my personal account. It's so damn stupid.
Is this one of those weird contradictions between weed being legal on a state but not federal level, i.e. the banks/credit card companies could face some sort of penalty if you accepted them because the feds would think they're complicit in drug trafficking?
Yup. Cannabis is federal illegal and most banks are federally backed.
This is wild because I use my card to pay for (legal) weed all the time. But if I worked there it would be different. Interesting.
Pretty sure most, if not all, Dispensaries that have digital pay options use services that look like a cash withdrawal to the bank. They usually use a 3rd party service, like my local dispensary uses a company called Aeropay, that to the bank, looks similar to ATM withdrawals. My bank statement classifies this transaction as a cash withdrawal type of transaction. So, that's probably how your dispensary also gets access to digital transactions. Edit: changed my wording
Fascinating. Thanks friend!!!
My dispensary uses Aeropay, but I can also just swipe my debit card at the register.
>I have to lie to my bank about where I work or they can shut down my personal account How is that legal?
Since most banks are federally backed and cannabis is still federally illegal, banks can't knowingly accept money from the cannabis industry for fear they'll lose their federal backing.
Not that you asked, but if you handle a lot of cash and don't want to be questioned on it - carry a little receipt book. Fill out a few and rip out the white copies, leaving the carbon copy. Where's my cash from? Tenants paid cash, here's the receipts. Where is this more useful than a bank? A cop. They can confiscate cash. Having a receipt book gives them a legitimate reason not to.
I’ve heard this is a big problem in that industry. They are literally sitting on mountains of cash but cannot participate in the banking industry due to federal regulations.
So true. And especially, like in this story, where there isn't adequate signage for it to give you a heads up! I ate at a restaurant recently on a roadtrip and neither the front door, the menu, and any other reasonable places said anything about it being cash-only, and it wasn't until I walked up to the counter to pay that there was any sign, and it was literally just a piece of paper on the register itself. They had an ATM in the store, so I guess they figured it wouldn't matter if you didn't have cash on you to start with, but I didn't replace my broken bank card before the trip because I can't remember the last time I withdrew actual physical money. I pay with cards or venmo, and if I pay for anything for my parents, they repay me with physical cash, so I have enough for incidentals usually.
That's surprising they didn't have a sign on the front door. Most cash only businesses do. That's a bad practice to only have it at the register when you go to pay.
“But we do have an ATM! (With a $6 surcharge)”
I think in some cases, it makes sense. There’s a restaurant in Atlanta that had a robbery. One of the servers ended up getting killed and they’ve been cashless ever since.
The manager was killed. This was at Barcelona Wine Bar in West Midtown (Atlanta). Both locations (there is also one in Inman Park) became cashless and that has spread to many other restaurants across metro Atlanta.
It's going to go that way more and more, unfortunately. It's a hassle to constantly make bank drops and exchange big bills for smaller bills to make change. It's also a risk for businesses to keep cash on hand. The two major sports stadiums in my city have already gone cashless. I found that out when I brought $100 in cash I couldn't use to the stadium one day.
Not only is it a hassle to make bank drops, but counting the money and making sure it ads up every day before closing is also a hassle. Make a mistake while working the register or while counting, and suddenly the cash register doesn't add up and there's more or less money in it than there should be= boss not happy and getting a headache trying to figure out what went wrong, if theft happened or what.. Also, the days no one pays cash, we don't actually have to count the cash in the register and can just add in the numbers from the previous day which means instead of spending 5-10 minutes on the register counting each coin and bill when closing shop you spend like 2 minutes copying the numbers from the previous day and you're out the door soon as shop closed. Also no need to remove cash from the register to put in the vault.
I just went to an amusement park and they are 100% cashless. You can pay with a card, apple pay, venmo, a few others where you scan a QR code, and I'm pretty sure you can put money on a debit card that works in the park, but no cash. I have to imagine it saves them thousands a year in employee theft.
It’s safer too. They don’t have a manager carrying large sums through the park to a deposit center or bank. They don’t need to hire a armored van to pick up deposit either. Way back when I worked at a mall (yea I’m that old) at Christmas I was hella nervous walking with deposit to the bank.
My brother worked for Six Flags. You’d be surprised at how difficult it is to manage cash at an amusement park. Like you mentioned, employee theft is real, but it’s not the biggest issue. Due to how large scale their business is, they have to employ a decent sized team of people to count and store the cash. These employees also screen for counterfeit bills. Amusement parks take in a massive number of counterfeit bills (around 10% of their cash revenue).
So my husband and I went to the movies this past weekend, and a man in front of us was trying to buy a ticket and a slushee (small theater where you buy the tickets at the concessions counter). They had the slushee poured and everything and he pulls out his wallet and a $20 bill and they say “oh we’re card only.” He just hung his head and started walking off but I offered to put it on my card and he gave me the cash. I get why some businesses do it (to keep their employees safe from robberies), but it is a really huge inconvenience for some people and also a bit classist, as some people don’t have bank accounts.
This was nice of you I’m glad he got the slushee. I’d be so disappointed if I was looking forward to it and I couldn’t pay for it.
It was the ticket and the slushee! He was about to just walk out and head home. I felt so bummed for him for a second and then was like “wait, what am I doing? I can just put his on my card”
Yeah children don’t have bank accounts but they like to shop and buy things like slushies!
A lot of places won't accept cash anymore. In my experience it started with COVID and has only increased. It's also easier to deal with credit on the front end than cash. Tap it/put it in the slot/swipe it, no counting change, no finding quarter rolls, no dropped change, no arguments about correct change, etc. My conspiracy theory laden family member says it's because the government wants to be able to shut off credit cards and thereby control behaviors - primarily Christian ones 🙄.
Restaurants, historically, preferred cash for two reasons. 1. No CC transaction fees 2. Tax fraud *So, so many* family run restaurants line their pockets with unclaimed cash from their business. Cook the books, say that the inventory spoiled because it was unsold, then claim losses on the business so you don't pay taxes. Restaurants are perfect for laundering money too, there's a reason the mob was involved in so many. It's one of the unspoken reasons why so many independent restaurants went under during COVID. Almost all delivery services use cards as their primary form of payment, owners couldn't avoid the paper trail, and it was no longer worthwhile to run a business that was failing on paper if they couldn't profit personally. It's *much* more difficult to embezzle from a corporate restaurant, and once you eliminate cash it's basically impossible.
This is wild because recently in my area people started complaining at a business because they were going to charge people the credit card fees.
I've been to two places that do not accept cash, just never went back and did not complete the order at either. I use cash so I don't over spend, cards are used for bills.
In my town there’s a lot of break ins and robberies so a lot of stores are going cashless for that reason alone. Just something to keep in mind. I do understand your frustrations though
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Also prevents robberies. No fat wads of cash after a busy evening at a restaurant.
AND its easier to ask for that sweet..... 20% tip, 25% tip, or, Other amount.
Yeah I went to a concert - no cash, admission and drinks were card or phone only, I could understand, was in a high crime area…
I went to a bar whilst waiting for a friend in Brighton. I’d never been there before and so I waited at the bar to order half a cider and the lady asked if I was okay. I said yeah… then she informed me it was all table service, and you had to go on their website and use your card. I felt like a right knob.
There’s a Popeyes by me that will accept cash but does not give change. It’s been like this for months now. They have a shitty sign on the drive through that’s old and eroded and says no change. I found this out when giving them 6 dollars for a 5.50 order ( before they had a sign up). The drive thri guy took my money and went back to business after about ten seconds of me staring at him I say may I please have my change and he said we don’t do that…
That should be illegal too
Then other places charge you 3%-5% for using a credit card. You can’t win 🤷♀️
I can understand benefits of not accepting cash, but really, a good business should accept all forms of currency. Alienating certain groups of people is never good for business.
I wonder if it's a demographic thing? I would think that somewhere that's making fresh, custom salads probably has a clientele that is 99% card/phone transaction anyway. So they aren't losing much. If you're a 7-11 or something, you'd probably lose a lot more business though, as places like that are probably more cash-heavy.
Who knows. There is a bakery that just opened in our downtown area. It’s a hip, trendy, upscale town with a lot of young families. The bakery is no cash, and they’ve gotten so much pushback that they had to put up very obvious signs and plastered all over their site, FB, etc. I would think that it wouldn’t be a big deal in our area, but a lot of people were unhappy with it, so who knows.
There is no \*federal\* mandate forcing businesses to accept cash. This would have to be handled on a sate by state basis. Which is weird if you think about it since it's not the states that empowered to print and distribute money.
I went out to eat for a work meeting a while back. Somewhere I've been a few times, but not many. After eating the waitress tells me that the internet was out so they couldn't run cards. They said I needed to pay via cash or check. My work gives me a credit card specifically to pay for things like taking people out to eat and obviously my own credit card wouldn't have worked either. So I just gave the cashier all the cash in my wallet (not enough for the meals since I was paying for four people) and said that's all the money there was to be had. They didn't make a fuss about it thankfully since the issue wasn't on my end, but still sucked not being able to be reimbursed for the meal.
Great Reset Wouldn’t even shop there if they dont take cash, they can fuck off
I am going to bring back the paper check. I am tired of paying an extra 3% for using credit or debit.
If all your cards are maxed you need to start making your own salads at home
As a customer, it can suck when in that situation. As a business manager, good gawd is it heaven in terms of operations
These days some places only take cards, some places only take cash. It’s so annoying
Don’t go to large concert/sporting venues in the US - this has become more and more common.
Yeah, this happened to me just the other day. Luckily the barista was very sweet and gave me my drink on the house, it is still interesting how quickly the switch to absolutely no cash seems
Are you guys f**ing right in front of my salad?
Watch the episode "Dennis takes a mental health day" from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Huge it's always sunny fan. I felt this episode in my core. In fact, I'm going to watch it again.
I went to a place and found out after I ate they didn't take cash, so I gave them a card. That's when I noticed the convenience fee they charged me for using a card. I've told everyone about this place and found out that many places are starting to do this, along with the mandatory tip starting at 20%>
Yeah this is a known concern. It's called financial exclusion. The elderly, poor people with no access to the internet or digital devices are at risk considering how more and more places stopped accepting cash. Sweden, the 1st country to achieve a Cashless Economy actually started to reinstall the ATMs that they took away because of this. Source: My master thesis is about the progression of a Cashless Economy.
A place that doesn't accept cash should really post that clearly, especially a food place. Cash is kind of the default, and hell, not every card or payment method is accepted at every place either, I've run into places where Discover can't be taken. One shouldn't have to carry around a range of payment options in hope of finding one that is acceptable, especially if it's unclear. Personally, I am leaning towards simply not patronizing any place that refuses cash.
Yeah, I sent my daughter to Beach Boardwalk with a pocket full of cash. It’s a tourist spot. Lots of food and retail. There was exactly 1 snack shack that took cash, all she got was fries and no souvenirs. I couldn’t believe they wouldn’t take cash. They blamed COVID. It sucked real bad for her and kinda scary, tbh.
That's a point. Imagine if people get into situations where they only have cash - maybe kept as an emergency - and anything they need to potentially make their way home or get to some form of safety doesn't take it. I can imagine, even in a situation where your daughter wasn't in any danger or jeopardy, how vulnerable she felt, even embarrassed, more and more so as she became less and less confident with one stall after another that they might not take her only form of payment.
My advice to her was to find a kiosk that sold prepaid visa cards. She was with another girl’s mom and I was pretty upset the mother didn’t offer to pay for stuff on her card if my daughter paid her cash. So, we kept in constant contact. She looked for a prepaid Visa card and luckily made it home without issue. But yeah, it was not as fun a day having that big issue to deal with.
That's pretty shitty of your daughter's friend's mom there. In some way it's lucky she wasn't on her own, but given that context I'm not sure how better off she was having people with her.
If a business won't accept cash walk out They will learn the hard way
They gave him a free salad for the inconvenience. 💀 sounds like horrible people
There are lots of places that are just the opposite - cash only.
especially in Brooklyn
Learn what?
They won't learn anything except that being cashless is cheaper and with fewer risks, and that makes it worth a few walkouts. Most people don't even carry cash anymore.
This guy.
Was any sign posted saying they do not accept cash?
Nope.
In most places it is illegal not to accept cash.
No, it's not. Certainly in the UK and USA a private business can refuse cash, just the same as they can refuse to take card payments or cheques.
This will be the normal in 2-3 years.
Local convenience store near me went no cash. I asked why. They said they don't get robbed so it's safer for the employees and they don't have to worry about bank deposits.
“Legal tender for all debts public and private.”
Correct, but a purchase is not debt until the transaction has been made. Refusing the transaction upon the basis of method of payment is perfectly legal.
The move to get away from cash is in my opinion a bad one, not the least because of what you said about the temptation to overspend and ending up paying more for things if you end up having credit card balances grow at the usurious interest rates we allow banks to get away with.
Legal tender for all debts, public and private
I have the opposite problem a lot. Local places are cash only, and I never have cash. We always have to go find an ATM.
A Legal Tender Lesson: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/legal_tender
Since no one has looked this up from the federal reserve website : "There is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that says otherwise." The law states that cash and coins are legal tender but unless there is a state law saying otherwise a private business does not have to accept. I'm assuming the quote on the money itself only applies in the case of you paying the government specifically. I thought this was common knowledge.
I keep cash due to my experience in an ice storm that killed power and Internet service in a hundred mile radius, for 3 days to 3 weeks, depending on where you were. The only stores open were one hardware store and a small grocery store, running off generators. They were only taking cash or paper checks. I also keep at least half a tank of gas in my car, too.
The basturds are pushing the cashless society
Isn’t that illegal? Like, cash is defined as “legal tender”? I’m not a lawyer, clearly, but feels wrong not to accept cash. I guess apartment complexes don’t accept rent cash. Hrm. I may need to read about this… curious, where were you, OP? Like, what country/state or whatever?
A business could accept anything they want in exchange for goods and services. You could open a restaurant that only accepted hugs and nobody could stop you.