The cashier said "I don't like counting", but he meant "This order is on a clock, and I'd rather be yelled at later for a short till than right now for fucking up our stats."
Big chains and franchises I don't give a shit, but local business I've been using almost exclusively cash. Same with tips, I may pay with a card, but I will tip in cash.
Boohoo, I'll miss my 1.5% rewards as my "cut" for them taking 3%+ transaction fee. I'll pay the extra 1.5% to make sure all my money actually goes to the business I'm supporting.
I think most businesses at this point include it in the price.
When they give you the "credit card processing fee", it usually implies that it's not built into the price by default, so you can opt out by paying cash. So it's actually giving you the option.
It could also just be corporate greed, can never tell these days. It's why I only give a shit about the local businesses or waitstaff, the big companies can suck my nuts.
It's still bullshit though. If the merchant doesn't want to pay the fee, they shouldn't take the card. The fee is between them and the payment processor for the convenience of using the card. That is the business cost of being convenient for the customer to use. I agree the transaction fees are probably too high in general, and that affects the price of everything. Even with that being the case, I think a lot of these businesses simply discovered they could double dip. They already baked the fees into the cost of the product for everyone + now get the credit card user to pay the fee anyway.
A company passing expenses onto the consumer? Say it ain't so!
Ya, I agree it's fucking stupid, which is another reason why I prefer cash these days lol. Personally, I think how the customer chooses to pay, as long as it's legal tender in the local currency, it shouldn't affect the price, but that's mostly just wishful thinking.
If you've every traded in Crypto, there's a lot more disparity in that regard.
Also, millions of people in this country still live in areas rural enough that most of the businesses are still cash-only. You go more than thirty minutes outside of any moderately sized city and you'll start running into this. I've done a lot of road tripping around this country and it's pretty consistent in my experience.
I live in a rural area and can confirm, there are still plenty of "cash only" businesses. Going "no-cash" here would be a death sentence to a business.
I do like the consumer protections a card gives, but at the same time, the stuff I'm buying with cash is all stuff I wouldn't bother to do a charge-back on anyway. Plus, that's way less PII and card information businesses can potentially "leak" later.
Some small businesses provide a discount for cash purchases, because they don't have to pay the CC fee.
And cash is anonymous. Now it's doubtful that most of us are doing anything shady or illegal, but that purchase information doesn't disappear into the void. Credit card companies know what you buy, and that information is valuable to other companies who would love to inundate you with targeted advertisements. Think it just sits in a database, unused for all time?
People who advocate for cashless societies are idiots, because they refuse to consider the degree to which such a system will be abused both in terms of payment refusal and profiling.
My problem is that I think a lot of these businesses discovered they could double dip. They already baked the price of transaction fees into the base cost of the product and also now get the card user to pay the fee too. In my limited experience, everywhere I've been doesn't give a discount for using cash, but tacks on a 3% surcharge for paying by cards.
While the end result is the same I've always thought there were agreements merchants made with the card processors that they couldn't shift the processing fee to the customer (hence why you usually see "pay with cash discount" vs "pay with card fee").
I also always thought the cardholder agreements said they couldn't charge a customer a different price for using a card, but it's now so common I'm not sure what the truth/full legality of it actually is, and I honestly can't be bothered to do that much research on it. I do whatever maximizes my benefits whether it be a cash discount or taking the CC rewards points.
It was 5 days at Disneyland and 2 days at Universal but I didn't include that last part because they didn't offer the 2 day Universal pass through points so I had to pay out of pocket. And there's plenty to occupy your time for 5 days at Disneyland. We were there almost open to close each day except the last day we called it early to transition to our Universal hotel and we were Disneyd out
Also, getting to hang on to your money for an extra month between when you make a purchase and when you pay off your cc is time you get to earn passive income via interest/investment. That's the shit that really adds up over time.
I mean, ya, I'm not saying credit cards aren't useful, I'm saying there's consequences of using them people don't realize.
If you're responsible with it, it can be an incredibly useful tool. I'm not saying I only use cash, just in certain circumstances, and increasingly more often.
I mean, ya, but kinda missing the point here. That money is coming from the vendor, of which you're getting a portion from the card company.
Large companies idgaf, I'll sqeeze them for all they're worth, chances are they're just building it into the cost anyway.
It's the small business and waitstaff that suffer the most as a result, and they usually pay higher fees on top of that, even if you get the same back regardless.
By using a credit card, you're taking extra money from the vendors by proxy. Personally, I like supporting local businesses, and want to ensure what I paid is actually going to them.
I maybe get $300-$600 a year in money back. I'll maybe lose out on $100 of that using cash for local purchases and tips. Worth it IMO.
Man, my parents used to own a small business, kind of thing where people paid with change only. Counting, sorting, depositing all cash was a full time job by itself. Pretty sure transaction fees would cost less.
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u/fer_sure 4d ago
The cashier said "I don't like counting", but he meant "This order is on a clock, and I'd rather be yelled at later for a short till than right now for fucking up our stats."
Also, "Pay with card next time, Boomer."