On 10/3/2011 12:29 PM, Steve B wrote:

I do not have a debit card, well, there is an option of debit or credit on
my cards, but I never use it. I am old fashioned. I pay cash, check, money
order, cashier's check, wire transfer, or put it on the credit card for air
miles.

I rarely use a debit card because a credit card offers consumer
protections and rewards not available on a debit card. But it's not
accurate to claim that "Joe Average" is spending when the money's gone
when he's using a debit card because if the money's gone then the debit
won't be approved.

Personally what I would like to see is more merchants like Arco that
explicitly charge a fee for the use of a debit card, and more businesses
that have different prices for cash or credit prices. That said, the
cost of accepting cash is not zero either. There are the costs for
armored car service, and banks charge business customers for all sorts
of services related to cash, including coin counting, providing rolls of
coins, and deposits over a certain number and amount. Then there is the
problem of employee theft as well as robbery.

Essentially what's happening now is that cash customers are subsidizing
credit and debit card customers. The merchants are the ones that have
the power to change this. All they have to do is to offer a 2% discount
for cash and you'd see a big change in payment methods. We used to have
a lot of mom & pop computer stores that had advertisements that stated
"prices reflect 3% cash discount." The result was the few people used a
credit card. That system probably didn't meet the credit card issuers
rule of "no credit card surcharges," but since cash discounts are
allowable maybe it was close enough.

I try to pay cash at small restaurants, even at those that take plastic,
just to give the owners a break. Sometimes they'll even offer a discount
up front for cash.