Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How much are you paying in "convenience fees" for those electronic payments? I realize that some vendors won't have them but in this area many do.
Electric company-10% of bill
Water/Sewer to Town-flat fee of $5
Some groceries-3% of total excluding sales tax, same with some retail stores
Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head, plus I have roses that need pruned.
My electric and water bills have a surcharge for credit card payments but not if I push the payment from my credit union's online bill pay. I renewed the cars' license plates via online credit card payment this year because I didn't feel like dealing with tax collector's office or mailbox during peak corona fuss and it was something like a 2% surcharge. I've paid 2% extra to pay my property taxes online (only about $1500 here) the past two years because I was trying to hit a credit card bonus threshold and the bonus made it make sense to pay that way.
I used it today to buy plants from the nursery and mulch from the hardware store. I also used paper money to give my teens their monthly allowance. The only thing I used a card for today was gas and that's because my credit card gives cash back for gas purchases.
We rarely used cash even before the stay-at-home orders went into effect. I think the last time we used cash was probably February, or maybe even January.
Sounds familiar. I made a $200 ATM withdrawal in early March to add to about $50 or $60 I already had. Have yet to spend any of it. My wife tends to have more than that on hand, but also has not spent any of it. Just no cash sitautions since stay-at-home went into effect.
Covid has slowed down my use of paper bills a bit, as I prefer to pay electronically now in public, but prior to that I was a pretty active cash user. I'd maybe spend $100/week or so in cash more for convenience and small purchases. I'm a bit of a numismatist, so I like to handle coins and paper currency to see what goodies I can pull from circulation.
Post-Covid however, I don't use cash. I have a reserve, and have bought local stuff with it (lawnmower for $40 for example), and sold some stuff out of my garage and received cash.
Still use cash over 50% of the time except for large purchases. Cash isn't dead although many are pushing that narrative to make their desire come true or validate their current beliefs.
The 'cashless' society comes with pitfalls including a loss of privacy, accounting/technical errors which could prevent a simple purchase as could loss of electricity/power and/or internet. Optional convenience is one thing but mandated risk is another.
Paid for a vehicle repair the other day with cash and got a slight discount.
This is one of the benefits of cash. My local mechanic (well ex-mechanic -- who has since retired) gave me 20% discount when using cash. I've been having a tough time finding someone who would give that kind of discount these days... especially someone who can work on modern cars.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
