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 Replies: 157 / Views: 10,755 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1796 Posts |
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Valued Member
United States
410 Posts |
I heard about that last year. I doubt many merchants will choose to pass on credit card fees. I've not seen a merchant try it so far and I wouldn't do business with one that did.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
I believe 10 states have a law against doing that. But you could always just raise prices to get around the law
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Pillar of the Community
United States
593 Posts |
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I see the decline of cash continuing until we get to a tipping point. As fewer consumers use cash fewer businesses will accept cash until you reach the point that cash exits the above board economy and cash it really only used for "off the books" transactions. At that point the government may decide to simply stop making cash to force those transactions out of the shadows and into the light. I think you underestimate the scope of "off the books" transactions. From small transactions like tooth fairy payments to larger transactions like allowances (so we can teach our children the value of a dollar) to truly off-the-books stuff like baby-sitters, kids with lawnmowers, and house-cleaners, there will always be a demand for cash. We may go primarily digital in you lifetime, but cash will be around when your last grandchild dies of old age! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
997 Posts |
I bought a candy bar and a lotto ticket at a gas station yesterday and joked to the owner "Do you accept cash". While he understood the joke he did comment that they just don't get much cash these days. Kids barely tall enough to reach the counter flash debit cards, it is usually the older folk who still use cash, even for small purchases.
Coins have turned into just a way to make change and have no real purchasing power themselves. I fully expect that trend to continue and the penny and nickle will be gone sooner rather than later. 10 years from now we will be discussing getting rid of the dime and quarter. This thread will be at page 3,435 and the third President Clinton (Chelsea...) will introduce the quarter with her father on it.
Are we really that far away from a "Take a dime/leave a dime" dish at your local convenience store?
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Valued Member
Canada
271 Posts |
I don't think that the system needs to be overhauled. However, I do think that both the USA and Canada need to make coins out of some material that it actually worth the face value. The way it is now, I might as well start paying for everything with pieces of scrap paper that I've written a denomination on.
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Valued Member
United States
410 Posts |
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I think you underestimate the scope of "off the books" transactions. From small transactions like tooth fairy payments to larger transactions like allowances (so we can teach our children the value of a dollar) to truly off-the-books stuff like baby-sitters, kids with lawnmowers, and house-cleaners, there will always be a demand for cash. We may go primarily digital in you lifetime, but cash will be around when your last grandchild dies of old age! I don't underestimate the scope of "off the books" transactions, it is a huge volume. I also don't underestimate the potential of a population to move on and the holdouts to be brought along kicking and screaming! What good does it do to pay the housekeeper in cash if stores no longer accept cash because cash payments where such a small percentage of their payments that it isn't worth the bother? Why would the tooth fairy bring cash if everything the child wants to buy requires an electronic payment? BTW, that has already happening in several household I know. The tooth fairy brings Apple iTunes cards because the kids spend their money on apps, music, games and videos. I also,don't underestimate the government's desire to bring all transactions onto the books. The $500, $1000, $5,000, $10,000 and $100,000 bills where eliminated because the federal government didn't want businesses and banks to do large cash transactions. The feds also wanted to make it harder for organized crime to work in a cash only economy. |
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Valued Member
United States
410 Posts |
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I do think that both the USA and Canada need to make coins out of some material that it actually worth the face value. It isn't going to happen. Commodity backed money only works if the entire world agrees to the same system. Commodity backed money also isn't the panacea that many think it is. For example, despite popular opinion, commodity backed money doesn't prevent inflation. The US had annual inflation rates above 25% in the 1700's, and 1800's despite being on the silver / gold standard. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1796 Posts |
Compared to about 30 cash only businesses I frequent throughout the year (and I'm in an urban area) I only know of one Credit/Debit only place and that's the Costco gas pump. They only accept American Express or Debit.
Most of their customers are unhappy about that, but since they charge 10-20 cents less per gallon, the general feeling is that it makes up for the inconvenience.
So getting back to the OP:
In light of all of the discussion: How can we make our current cash system (specifically coins) more *useful*?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Butting in again:
Computers are great when they work.
What do I mean by this? Well, last month some blooming idjit was digging where he shouldn't be, and hit a cable, and internet--and thus credit/debit--was down for all Circle K stores in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area (that's over 400 stores), for six and a half hours. We were running cash-only and the vast majority of our customers had cash to spend, even though usually 50-60% of our transactions are on debit.
"Yeah," I can hear you saying, "but that's an accident. A one-time thing." Sure it is! It's also an accident the 4-6 times per year that there are extended power outages in my hometown because of snowstorms and/or blown transformers; it's an accident when Superstorm Sandy hits and pretty much all of New Jersey and New York City have no power for upward of a week and an accident when something goes wrong at the Niagara Power Plant that sets off a chain reaction of outages and plunges five states into darkness for 18+ hours. We call them accidents because nobody plans for them to happen. But they're everywhere. Somewhere in the United States, there's one happening right now. There are remote areas with no Internet, less-remote areas that still only-just-barely offer DSL hookups instead of dial-up (I know this--I have a friend who lives in one and DSL was not an option for her family until last year), and places where you're in the middle of nowhere and guess what, your 4G network doesn't work when you try to pick up bread at the general store.
What we need to do is go over to a system of aluminum and steel coins. The penny and the dollar can be plated just like they are right now. Plenty of other countries have aluminum coins (I think I have four countries in my Pirate Bag Of Darkside Stuff that use aluminum), and until we can get our act together and decide what we're doing, that's a place to start. The perils of a credit-only system are too great.
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Moderator
 United States
188440 Posts |
You may be too young to remember, but do you know how credit cards were processed all those years ago? I do.  The power went out during lunch recently. It was a good thing the restaurant had one of these dinosaurs on-hand...   Always have a backup plan. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1796 Posts |
Ahh the good ol' "shotgun" credit card machine.
Very few vendors have these anymore. Everything's digital now when you take cards. :-)
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Moderator
United States
188440 Posts |
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Very few vendors have these anymore. Everything's digital now when you take cards. :-) True that digital is the norm, which is why I was surprised to see one during the power outage. I am sure more than a few businesses have one or two as a backup. Better than not getting paid, right? Quote:By taking a physical imprint of the card, the merchant reduces the risk of charge-back. Manual imprinters are inexpensive and can provide the additional benefit of allowing off-site transactions. They also permit sales transactions in the event of a power failure. [ehow.com] |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
What IS that thing? 0.o It looks like a teensy version of the office copier . . . from when I was in elementary school.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10038 Posts |
AAAaaaargh! jbuck - you are trying to give me nightmares!  One of the things I absolutely HATED when younger was credit cards - mainly due to the huge amount of time wasted waiting in checkout lines for the CASHier who had to go through so much to process the card!  It never failed - you were in a hurry, had to be somewhere, and two or three people in front of you paid with a credit card. Not a simple swipe - no way! Cashier has to open the drawer; get out the machine; get out the multi-layer, carbon-papered slips; line up the holes in the slips with the pins on the tray for proper alignment; ask for the card (I just know its in my purse somewhere... now where DID I put that?); place the credit card onto the machine, on top of the slips, using the guides; slide the mechanisms from one end to the other and back (thus pressing making a cc impression on the slips; hand back the card; take the slips off the machine, separate the store from customer copy from carbon paper; put the store copy in the proper place under the cash tray; hand the customer their copy (didn't they sign it also I believe?); throw away the carbon paper; bag things up and send the person on their way. Next please... Oh, surprise surprise - ANOTHER credit card customer! And if you think it was monotonous reading all of that - you get a taste of what it was like standing in line!  So many times I wished they would make cc lines only - but never saw a store implement this. It is so much easier nowadays. |
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Replies: 157 / Views: 10,755 |
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Posted 01/27/2013 6:28 pm
