I'm astonished at how fast the rewards pile up when you use the card for just about everything.  Also convenient for tracking spending if you have a good card. I just pay the full balance every month and get free benefits. I do try to avoid it for small purchases with local vendors so they don't get stuck with the fees, but otherwise - charge it. 

I pay with cash most of the time so the man can't track me and the Russians can't steal my ID. Only large purchases get my MC outa my wallet for rewards. 😂 

And I do 50/50 on doing my bill payments where some places need me to write a check. 

That is something I will never miss - spending 40-70% of my lunch break time standing in a long line, then having to wolf down some food while scurrying back to the job.

I miss the days of having to go to the bank to cash/deposit my paycheque.

This is the first thread I ever started.  Here we are a little more than 10 years later and ...

Visa declares war on cash

and 

more local info ...

Has anyone seen the latest Visa commercial? It shows a cafeteria or deli at lunchtime. Every operation has been perfectly choreographed so everyone gets what they want without even thinking about it. It is a text book illustration of our instant gratification society.

Everything is humming along in perfect harmony, people are sliding their Visa card, moving through the line at peak efficiency until some poor soul whips out cash. Then everything comes to a screeching halt because this guy wants to use cash. People crash into each other, food flies into messy piles. Everyone in the store looks at this guy with disgust for daring to use cash. Once he is given his change everything speeds up again to the happy Visa ending.

For at least the past ten ten years, I have been jokingly asking cashiers if they still accept cash just to be silly and break the tension after waiting in line behind check writers without ID and others using various forms of plastic with great difficulty because of their inability to figure out the card readers.

I guess it has gone from a silly question to a serious one. Is cash coming to an end? There are now some places of employment that require you to take your pay in the form of direct deposit,no more checks. I know for fact that the Great State of Ohio now only pays by direct deposit or will load up a Visa debit card to pay you, anything from wages to unemployment benefits.

Do y'all remember on 9/11 trying to use plastic to buy gas or groceries? You couldn't because the servers in the towers were destroyed. How about during the last east coast power outage? How about the poor people in N.O. after Katrina when their banks were destroyed? Everyone in Calif is told to keep X amount of cash on hand in case of the big one.

The can is open. Conspiracy, coincidence, or whatever. Without cash, the ability to remain anonymous is greatly impaired. Is this another attempt or effort to take away another freedom?

I see this as a blatant attempt to stigmatize the use of cash. Am I paranoid and should I trust in the fact that cash is becoming passe? Or am I on to something?
Let's hear about it!!!

At our coffeehouse ca 1997 we took any check any time and no plastic. The fees and headache back then were enormous, and the fact is, most of our checks were for less than $5. We probably ate less than $10 a year (altho we did have to take some of them to the bank several times... we didn't put them in the deposit, we just asked if the check would clear. In one case we sent the NSF check to a college kid's home address that was on the check... Mom & Dad directed Jr. to come in and buy that check back ). 

 
Now I would do it just the opposite: no checks, all plastic. Of course if someone had no plastic and no cash, I'd still take a check, or hell, float 'em until payday. A few people would abuse our good nature that way but more often than not they got their quarters out of the sofa the next time. Re: Cash, it's just easier to mis-handle it. If I was not there, I'd sleep easier knowing there wasn't a high school kid handling my income... And I would absolutely definitely have gift cards for the shop. 15 years ago we did the prepaid punch cards, which had a little bonus built into them. Parents could pay $20, the card had $22 worth of punches on it and they or their kids could stay on a budget that way... or at least the kids weren't spending it at the arcade. I think you have to build a little premium into those since you can't spend the money other places, but by the same token, I roughly calculated (didn't track them close enough to know) that we had $8000 unclaimed punches when we sold...

 islander wrote:Businesses, especially small businesses, are charged based on volume, average transaction amount and number of, and especially credit rating and history of charge backs. It is not, for me anyway, a flat fee, swiped or manual (phone order). I have shopped around, and again, for me, find the CC clearinghouse rules similar to each other, and the rates higher than you state and variable.  I dunno, maybe I am not shopping around enough?

I can tell you that in my experience, these rates can vary, are dynamic, and buried deep in the contract somewhere is the bank's right to change, terminate or otherwise modify the agreement at any time. 

No doubt Delta Airlines, say, pays a much smaller discount rate and transaction fee than does your local "massage parlor".

The swipe systems is a flat 2.75%, which is better than the standard credit card merchant deals. The merchant fees usually start at $0.25 / transaction + a percentage of the charge that varies based on all kinds of factors (most out of control of the merchant). 

This is why a lot of small shops try to enforce the minimum charge - if you buy something for a dollar using a card, it can cost them up to $0.30 just to make the transaction. If their margin is less than 30% they are losing money on the sale.  

The swipe systems is a flat 2.75%, which is better than the standard credit card merchant deals. The merchant fees usually start at $0.25 / transaction + a percentage of the charge that varies based on all kinds of factors (most out of control of the merchant). 

This is why a lot of small shops try to enforce the minimum charge - if you buy something for a dollar using a card, it can cost them up to $0.30 just to make the transaction. If their margin is less than 30% they are losing money on the sale.  

 winter wrote:
And that "same as cash" when a fee is imposed for using the card should be changed, imo.  I am a small businessman.  I have and use a credit/debit card clearing house.  It is a major expense for me.  I believe people who pay cash are entitled to a discount.  It steams me when, as I saw the other day, someone "swipe" for NINETY cents!  The only profit there was for the bank.

The "plastic money" concept may be the most successful marketing effort of all time. I advocate carrying a modest amount of cash and use that for purchases under, say, $25.  Checks are still fine too (when they don't bounce!).

 winter wrote:
And that "same as cash" when a fee is imposed for using the card should be changed, imo.  I am a small businessman.  I have and use a credit/debit card clearing house.  It is a major expense for me.  I believe people who pay cash are entitled to a discount.  It steams me when, as I saw the other day, someone "swipe" for NINETY cents!  The only profit there was for the bank.

The "plastic money" concept may be the most successful marketing effort of all time. I advocate carrying a modest amount of cash and use that for purchases under, say, $25.  Checks are still fine too (when they don't bounce!).

True, but a lot of smaller merchants do it all the time. The $5 minimum is really common here in convenience stores.  It depends a lot on the merchant and your relationship with them.

CC and debit cards do not get declined any more.  But a GC does run out of funds.

I remember about 5 years ago the first time I ever had an experience where my CC was maxed out but still accepted.  I knew I was close, and it was within the monthly interest fee which posts at a certain time.  I miss calculated and holy fark.

I called the bank and said WTF, I was expecting it to be declined if I had maxed out.  They said that htey no longer declined transactions based upon available credit.  They just let it go through collecting all the overdraft fees and raising the core interest rate.  I was able to get a Mulligan and had some fees reversed.  But it only had to happen once to me.  It seems that has become the way of plastic.  Lack of available funds no longer results in a decline in most cases.  Most dangerous to those who live life near the max.