On Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:12:19 -0700, chaniarts
wrote:

On 10/8/2011 11:34 AM, Vic Smith wrote:
On Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:02:34 -0400,
wrote:

On 10/3/2011 4:44 PM, SMS wrote:
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.

But how would they do that if their agreement prohibits them from
offering a cash discount? Maybe you make your living with your secret
knowledge but if not please elaborate so I can pass the info along.


Yeah, I too don't get that "merchants have the power to change it."
Where's the "power" in losing all your CC customers by offering cash
discount to those willing to pay cash?
Seems to me the contract clause prohibiting cash discounts is
anti-competitive at its core.
I might just pay the added CC costs by choice, but would also like the
choice of taking a cash discount if that works best.


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.


I always left a cash tip on the table so the underpaid waitress/waiter
could score some clear money.
Until I saw a table busser pocket a tip another table had left.
Now I put the tip on the CC tab.

the irs now assumes that waitstaff get a tip of N% and thus enforce
withholding of their share of the tax on that %age of the bill whether a
tip is left or not.

That's true, AIUI, but it's the minimum of N% (8%, IIRC) of the take -OR- the
actual tips received, whichever is higher. A cash tip can still be an
advantage to the waitstaff. If the tip goes on a CC, the IRS knows about it.
I always tip in cash (generally pay cash, too), but that's not the reason.