"Sorry, We Don't Take Cash..."

The company I work for quit taking credit card payments.

For purchases/payments, the credit card provider (Visa, Master Card, Discover, etc) charges a fee, the card processing company charges a fee for every transaction, and then charges a monthly maintenance and use fee. For every dollar we charged, we were paying anywhere from 4% to 7.5% in fees. With invoices anywhere from 10K to 35k the fees would be up to $2,600.00.

In Florida, a company cannot charge a service charge for credit card payments. The local/state/federal government is the only body that could charge an additional fee for using a credit/debit card. The only legal option to recover those fees would be to increase prices. The price would need to be raised for the product or service. Then in turn, the company could offer a discount for cash. In a price driven industry, higher prices detracted customers even with the the offer for a cash discount.

So, I cannot understand why some companies only take credit/debit payments. I can only conclude, those companies have probably increased their prices to offset their fees.

Heck, most of my coins in my books are from pocket change.

$carlp007 Aye, and those charges really add up for the big banks who get their cut on the fees. My friend's little pizza, soup, sandwich, and salad shop enters over 40% of its sales through the credit card terminal. If for any reason a card is declined, he is still charged a fifty cent transaction fee.

In the long run, all consumers are paying a little more for this cashless society.

Companies with many small transactions are inclined to take credit/debit payments because their actual cost of handling/counting money is greater than or equal to the cost of taking the credit card payments. On the other end of the spectrum are companies like the one you work for. It absolutely doesn't make sense for a company with a few large transactions to take credit cards without a markup, especially because most of their business customers would pay the invoice without a credit card anyway.

My business is in Georgia and we can charge a markup for taking credit cards. It's 3% which just covers the additional costs. We only sell to businesses and typically only about 1% of our customers use credit cards. They are usually on small orders, so the dollars don't add up to much. This week we had a customer that's lake on paying for previous orders use a credit card in order to pay for them so that we would ship a new order that they need. Their fee for using the credit card was over $7,000! Their credit card company approved the transaction, but it actually took several days for our bank to approve it as they were initially not comfortable with the large transaction.



Yes, which is ironic considering that it should actually be an efficiency improvement. The market is getting more competitive with new forms of payment. Plus, many consumers now have 1.5% and 2% cash back cards. When you subtract the cash back from the markup, the actual cost isn't as much for them.

I was closing on a house long ago and the COUNTY said they could not take cash. Cashier's checks or money orders only.

I don't think any title companies acept cash for closing costs these days.

I personally would not use a card for any purchase below $10. Cash only. If I wanted to make a $5 purchase and the "cashier" told me it was card only, I would go elsewhere. I like spending cash and I look at every coin and bill that I receive. A cashless society would take all of the fun out of it. I do use a card for most purchases over $10, but I want the option. I believe that cash will be around longer than most people think.