How do you feel when paying for things with change? For instance, I went to a drive thru the other day but had no cash on me but plenty of change in the car… Funny thing was that I used all of my quarters the previous day so all I had were nickles and dimes. I figure what the hell… So I counted out about 6 bucks worth of the mix and tried convincing myself it wasn’t as uncommon as I thought to pay with low denominations… but really, how often do people actually pay for things with like this?
This includes paying for something that may cost 80 bucks and you pay with 5s and 1s… or something that is 2 thousand bucks and paying with twenties (been through that once) does it make you feel strange, or do you feel it makes you look poor… What are some of your experiences with this?
I always keep a pocketful of change because I hate breaking bills for something that costs, e.g., $1.07.
I remember when my sister was working as a waitress she bought a pair of fancy shoes and paid for them in change from her tips. This was back in about 1960, so her tips were almost all nickels and dimes.
I don’t see anything wrong with it. Only at a 7-eleven I frequent a lot, I counted out nickels and dimes to pay for my super large coffee. The guy behind the counter looked at the pile, looked at me and said “You know, you don’t have to pay for this today.”
As a cashier/food service person selling a lot of products costing between $2 and $3, my feeling is this–if you can get the change out on the counter and arranged so it is easy for me to count while I am obtaining the food product you desire (and there is no line behind you), go ahead.
Do not make me wait for what feels like forever for you to find that last penny–especially if I’ve got a penny cup and try to offer to let you off the hook when you’ve given me $1.20 towards a $1.21 fountain drink.
Quarters are good. Dimes are ok. Nickels in quantity are annoying. Dollar coins are also annoying, but that’s because I don’t see enough of them for them to be common. Use of dollar coins should be encouraged. (Twenties are good, fifties are ok, hundreds are annoying.)
More than anything else, it is annoying to have to wait–holding a once hot soft pretzel in my hand-- while people dig for that last penny or last nickel.
As a shopper? I will dig out assorted small change to make up a dollar or 97 cents–especially if I have time to dig up a handful of change while waiting in line. And I bet I’ve been guilty of making the person running the cash register wait more than once. But I don’t feel bad or poverty-stricken about handing over a couple of bucks in change.
Counting out six dollars in nickels and dimes in the drive thru? You are the kind of person that makes me hate humanity. If you MUST count out that much change, for the love of the rest of us, go inside. Drive thrus are for people who generally don’t have the time to go inside and order. Making the rest of us wait while you count out the money and then the cashier double checks is just inconsiderate and rude.
Honestly, did you not know you had no money at all? You didn’t have a debit card? Credit card? I just think people paying more than two dollars in change are ridiculous. Both from a customer’s standpoint and a former cashier. And little old lady who decided to count out five dollars in nickels and pennies years ago at my till…I hope that beer and doritos gave you indigestion.
Well you don’t know that no one was in a hurry But still, would you like to waits behind someone who takes 3-5 minutes to count out change to pay for a burger or whatever? It’s like at the grocery store when the person in front of you spend way too much time digging through their purse for exact change when they have enough money but don’t want change back. It’s annoying and very frustrating cause there’s nothing you can do about it. I may be a little extreme but I’m sure I’m not in the minority when it comes to these situations.
In high school I had a friend pay for a $4500 Ford Mustang with his tips from being a server. Mostly all $10’s and $5’s. He was on a tip share program and received his tips at the end of the week in little envelopes. He kept just sticking those envelopes into a drawer and when we found the car he wanted he counted everything out and handed the guy the cash.
Now that I work in a semi-retail job, I find the worst offence is paying a small total with a large bill. For the most part, I can always use coins and singles. What is no fun is charging someone $7 for something and they hand me a hundred. I would try to get something smaller, but my companies policy is accept ANYTHING cash that someone gives you without question.
Large bills suck too but the worst is when they’re buying something ONLY to break the bill. Buying a thirty cent pack of gum and then handing me a hundred is going to make me secretly hate you. Doing that right when we open makes me wonder exactly what deity I ticked off to deserve such a dickwad first thing in the morning.
I sometimes pay with change if it’s appropriate for the current time restraints such as 7/11 if its late at night or off peak at McDonald’s. If it’s something more expensive I try not to go over twenty of a single denomination (twenty ones in place of a twenty etc).
and I’ll share a story…
At my former place of work, they have a cafeteria that was run by a separate company (actually, it was just the woman who used to work the cafeteria before they got rid of it as a company expense). One of my co-workers would buy a bagel something every morning for $1.21 and get four pennies back. He did this for a while and eventually paid with 121 pennies (he knew this would piss her off).
She flipped out and demanded to know what she was going to do with so many pennies then banned him from even eating his own lunch in there (something the company had stipulated she had to let us do). Apparently, the banks around here don’t accept loose change (meaning it had to be counted and wrapped before hand) and it would have cost her a few extra bucks vs. getting wrapped change from the bank to hand out without a fee. She was fired again. (bonus: the woman that replaced her was a 3-knuckler :D)
I wouldn’t take the time up in line to count out that much change. If I know I have a lot of change, I count it out ahead of time. It doesn’t take too long in the checkout if I’m handing a dollar at a time to the cashier, “Here’s one dollar…” let them count it, “Here’s another dollar,” etc. But really I think the most I’ve ever paid in coins was three bucks. I usually save coins and just get them counted by the bagful at the bank.
And with the large bills, I’m not impressed. I usually assume people with hundreds are poor people who just got a paycheck cashed at the currency exchange. And I usually assume they’re not bright enough to have a checking account. Whether or not those are fair assumptions, it doesn’t matter. They’ve just annoyed me enough that it makes me happy to make unfair assumptions about them.
The biggest repeat offender in the paying for a two dollar meal with a hundred dollar bill was a co-worker. Whether or not she was bright enough to have a checking account, I don’t know, but when you are young, cute, short and female, there are smarter choices you can make than letting the world know that you carry your entire paycheck around with you until you spend it–even if the world consists of a co-worker who is not quite so young, not quite so cute, and not quite so short (but just as female). And somehow, I doubt I’m the only one that knows that a certain person carries quite a bit of cash around with her some days of the month.
As a person who used to deal with cash, I never cared one bit as long as it was money and somewhat prepared. If someone wanted to pay $10 in dimes I didn’t care, but if someone would just dump change all disorganized I would hate that.
I pay change and what I do is usually have it all ready to go and I count it out in front of the cashier who’ll sweep it up into her hands and put it in the till
The thing that gripes me about cashiers now is they all gripe about $20.00 bills and not having the change in their till, I’m like you know most ATMS give $20 bills so you as a cashier need to talk with your boss about change and drops etc and be ready.
At the Walgreens rigth by me, they won’t give change without a purchase, so I see a lot of people coming in getting a $20 dollar bill then buying a pack of gum or a candy bar and getting change
I work at a bar and people occasionally pay for drinks with piles of loose change; sure it’s legal tender but did you really just tip me the two nickels left over? I don’t want them either!
I also find it rude when people empty out their pockets into my tip jar. Like I want those 12 pennies and three dimes you have leftover from somewhere. I’d rather people stiff me than tip me that 42 cents worth of loose pocket change.
I’ve paid for a few things with change, but it’s generally quarters (I get a lot of those in my line of work) and it’s never more than $2 or $3. Quarters are IMHO the only “acceptable” form of change.
I’m a very experienced cashier. It’s much easier FOR ME, if you just dump your change in a pile and let me count it. I assure you, you can’t count it as fast as I can. Some of you can’t fricking count at all. And why do you always count in 25 cent intervals? I just have to separate those 2 nickels, one dime, and 5 pennies into 3 separate piles to put into my register. Count the quarters, then the dimes, then the nickels, then the pennies.
HOWEVER, I always assume that other cashiers are stupid - not an unreasonable assumption. So when I know in advance that I’m paying in change, I separate the coins and put them in separate baggies by denomination. I’m sure the guy at the liquor store thinks I’m a germophobe…
If I have the change, I will happily sell you that pack of gum and give you $99.01 in change. But on Sunday morning at 5:15 AM? Sorry, bitch, I JUST FRICKING OPENED THE DOORS. I cannot give you change from a hundred. No, I cannot open the safe. No, I cannot snap my fingers and make it happen. No, we do NOT have an anti-$100-bill-policy. I physically DO NOT HAVE IT. Call the Boss’s Boss’s Boss, for all I care. He’ll be diplomatic, and probably offer you a free coffe, but he’ll back me up, because he knows that $75 minus $99 equals kiss my ass.
But still, would you like to waits behind someone who takes 3-5 minutes to count out change to pay for a burger or whatever? It’s like at the grocery store when the person in front of you spend way too much time digging through their purse for exact change when they have enough money but don’t want change back. It’s annoying and very frustrating cause there’s nothing you can do about it. I may be a little extreme but I’m sure I’m not in the minority when it comes to these situations.