I want to pay in cash

The BBQ Pit
1

I generaly like to use cash when possible. I’m finding it more and more inconvient to do so.

Gas stations are pissing me off the most. When I stop at a gas station I always fill my tank. Most the gas stations around me have started requiring the gas be prepaid. Since I don’t know how much a full tank is I have to go inside leave more money then it should take. Then fill my car and go back inside to get my change. It sucks to have to go inside twice.

Places like McDonalds have adopted policies not to accept large bills. It’s not that they can’t break a hundred they simply won’t.

I’m not that old and I remember places only wanting cash. I hate that it is becoming a second class form of payment.

2

Well, around here, there were so many fill-and-runs when the gas prices went up that the gas stations changed over to pre-paid.

3

What’s your beef with debit cards? Not that you’re not allowed to have your preferance, of course, but I’m wondering what the drawback is. Mine has a Visa logo, so I can use it anywhere, but it doesn’t cost me anything in merchant fees or interest. I suppose if you float close to your minimum balance (mine is $0), then making sure you don’t run out is a little harder than cash, but that’s the only drawback I can think of. Besides, it’s much easier to TRACK expenditures after the fact and find out where you’re blowing all your $$.

I keep cash around for tips and laundry, and that’s about it.

4

Most places won’t accept large denomination bills because it reduces the risk of robbery. Most gas stations have gone to prepay because people are stealing gas from them.

Don’t complain about the business owner, complain about the assholes who made it necessary for those business practices to be implemented. Then go to your bank and get a debit card.

5

Speculation: does it also reduce the likelihood of ending up with counterfeit notes which the bank won’t accept?

6

You need to stick your cash in a free checking account and get a check/debit card.
Pretty much the same thing as carrying cash but all I carry is one card.
It just draws off the account.

Gas at the pump, zip the card.
Lunch, zip the card.
Crap from Target, zip the card.

Add to that my paychecks go directly into the account so I never even need to go to a bank or a cash machine. I can pay phone, electric, gas, cable, mortgage, car payment bills on-line for free.

They make it just too convenient.

7

When the day comes that boytyperanma is on the lam from the FBI, his cash using ways will come in very handy. Paper currency is the only thing that doesn’t leave a paper trail of habits and haunts or clues to where our fugitive might be holed up.

8

“Breaking news. There is a fugitive on the lose tonight and we need the publics help. While we have no photos of him authorities say he should be easy to spot. He will be the guy who’s still trying to pay for everything with cash.”

9

Except that some places add a surcharge on debit cards. :mad: :frowning:

10

I have never heard of such a thing. What kind of fly by night outfit does that?

11

Who does this? I have never seen this. If I remember correctly, it is not allowed under Visa’s merchant agreement.

12

You should go to Tim Horton’s. They only take cash.

13

As well as reducing the possibility of having a counterfiet bill passed there, which was already mentioned, how many times can you make change when someone pays for a happy meal with a $100 bill?

14

I’ll add a “never seen it in my area”. I’ve heard of it before here on the Dope, so I’ve been on the lookout, but no one has done this.

I have seen a few stores try to set a minimum purchase price or require ID, but both of those are definitely forbidden by their merchant agreements with Visa. When I tell them that and ask for their merchant code to report them to Visa (if I’m feeling really bitchy, I do it with my cell phone in hand), they “waive” the requirement “just this once” out of “customer service”.

One store just started charging 50 cents for cash back above the register price, but I think that’s allowable in my state, just as it is at an ATM. I don’t get cash back there.

15

I don’t believe that. They are no more likely to be robbed of $100 dollar bills than they are to be robbed of $20s.

16

ARCO, and sometimes McDonalds.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13905579/
"ARCO stations do not accept credit cards at all and charges $.45 cents for using a debit card. Can they do that?
— Jeanette J., San Pablo, Calif.

Yes. It has to do with the way ARCO handles these transactions. If a merchant uses the Visa or MasterCard network to process a PIN-based debit card payment (where you don’t sign the receipt) they cannot add a surcharge. But, if he merchant uses some other PIN-debit network, the Visa and MasterCard rules don’t apply.

ARCO only accepts pin-based debit cards, and they don’t use the Visa or MasterCard networks to process these payments, so it is not bound to follow the “no-surcharge” rules.

Phil Cochran, an ARCO spokesman, points out that the service fee is noted on all ARCO point-of-sale devices. Why do they make customers pay to use their debit card? Cochran says it’s a way to keep costs down, “because the banks keep charging more” to process debit card payments.

A number of MSNBC readers wrote me about debit fees charged at fast food restaurants, particularly McDonald’s. Gina Pfeifer, McDonald’s Vice President for Business Integration, says most of the company’s 13,700 restaurants in the U.S. now use “a standard integrated cashless payment system that does not assess a debit or credit card fee.” There are “a very small number of restaurants” that are not currently operating on this integrated system, she says, “and we hope to have the majority of these restaurants converted in the future.”

Bottom line: it’s a real challenge for consumers to know for sure if a merchant is allowed to charge a debit card fee. "

http://www.gatago.com/ba/food/21773249.html

"Interesting site…

A gas station charges .40 if I use the debit card, but not the credit
card. This site tells me that surcharges aren’t legal in California,
too.

I think I will bring this info to the gas station.

Thanks,
Karen

*The ban on surcharges only applies to credit cards though. It’s ok to
put a charge on a debit card as long as it’s posted clearly. That’s how
ARCO gets away with it.

marcella* "
**rainwalker78 ** It’s perfectly legal under VISA’s rules, as the Debit card isn’t a Credit Card.

17

Ah, I’ve never run into a place that doesn’t accept credit but accepts debit. That would be the loophole they’re exploiting. Basically, they’re treating their swipey-machine as an ATM for the purchase price, so they can charge an ATM fee.

Tricky bastards. I’d go elsewhere.

18

Del Taco (if you have one around) does this. There’s something like a 75 cent fee to use your atm card.

19

I would recommend using a credit card rather than a debit card, if this option is available to you. A no-fee card where the balance is paid in full every month will cost you nothing. It will also get you around the fee issue above, although I’ll add myself to the chorus of “I’ve never seen that”.

It is safer to use a credit card because the fraud protection policies are typically more customer-friendly than a debit card, and also nobody has access to your checking account through the credit card.

20

It actually seems like a California thing. That’s the only place I’ve ever encountered it – at a gas station, in fact.