Cash Only, please. (Pittsburgh, York, Wall: hotel, house, taxes)

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

To all of you "cash is best" folks can I ask how you'll be reimbursed if you're mugged, and the thief makes off with $100+ in your hard-earned CASH? Credit cards and debit cards have fraud prevention measures built in, you can report them stolen, you can dispute fraudulent charges, etc. in order to reclaim any lost funds. Cash? Sorry, pal. You're out of luck.

I wasn't mugged, but I was robbed of $20 at gunpoint when I was driving a cab in town.

Keeping money in separate pockets was the way to reduce the possible shortfall.

BTW, I got the money back when Frank Rende of the Pittsburgh Police busted the fellow and ran him in.


Armed robbery is actually pretty rare in Pittsburgh, half the population is engaged in concealed carry and those inclined to the practice know the score too. A lot more stickups back in the 70's.

[Blackbeauty212]

Not Shocking at all... It more of business don't want the hassle of processing CC/DC transactions than it has to do with the fees. Simply bake the fee into pricing as they do everywhere else. Also I thought small businesses get to have the same Swipe fee pricing structure like MCD's and Walmart where they pay a monthly "Bulk" fee to their servicer and it waives all Swipe Fees regardless of payment network (V/MC/Disc/AMEX).

Most of the vendors at last weekend's Rib Fest took at least V/MC while some additionally took Discover, and 2 or 3 others took AMEX. Now if these Super Small setups (Food Trucks basically) can afford to take Credit/Debit Cards there's no reason establishments like Pamela's and Uncle Sams cannot. I would love to see how much business they lose because of the Cash Only policies. If MCDs can make a profit on someone swiping a Debit/Credit for a buck of coffee these guys can too. I understand that AMEX charges the highest swipe fees and that not everyone's going to accept that. Which is why I also carry a backup Visa, for just that instance, but these guys should at least take V/MC so that people can use their Debit Cards.

Look Im fine if an establishment wishes to be Cash exclusive, if I got cash its all good, I'll go in. If not and there's not a PNC machine near by, well it's there loss. I'm not going out of my way to get cash and paying out of Network ATM fees. I will keep walking if that's the case. I don't like keeping my whole paycheck in Cash on my person. In NYC the most cash I needed to keep on me at any one time was 60$ and that would last me a week, sometimes almost 2. Sorry if that's just too damn progressive for the "Cash is King" Yinzers.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Wait, so people will willingly pay a CC fee that is inserted into the price of an item over and over but won't bother paying a (possibly lower) fee for using an out of network ATM?

I gotta start some scammy business that makes "progressives" feel better about themselves as I charge them more money for nothing. I'll call it the "you are way superior to those rotten yinzers, now pay up sucker" fee.

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Wait, so people will willingly pay a CC fee that is inserted into the price of an item over and over but won't bother paying a (possibly lower) fee for using an out of network ATM?

CC fee, vs. ATM fee from both the ATM owner and your bank.... Yea that's comparable .... pay a ~6$ ATM fee
vs. a few cents CC baked in fee that you wouldn't even notice unless someone flat out told you.

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

I gotta start some scammy business that makes "progressives" feel better about themselves as I charge them more money for nothing. I'll call it the "you are way superior to those rotten yinzers, now pay up sucker" fee.

seeing as you couldn't even calculate the significant cost spread between CC swipe fee and out of network ATMs fees.... I suggest you NOT try and start a business. ... Don't do us progressive any favors, thanks.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

CC fee, vs. ATM fee from both the ATM owner and your bank.... Yea that's comparable .... pay a ~6$ ATM fee
vs. a few cents CC baked in fee that you wouldn't even notice unless someone flat out told you.

My credit union charges me $0 and at worst I might have to pay someone elses $3 dollar ATM fee. I guess they must have told you how high, mighty, and progressive you are when you signed up for your account and you ate up that $6 dollar norm like it was cake.

Considering you can take out $400 per ATM transaction you'd have to go an ATM twice a month (if that). Another oh so enlightened person said they wouldn't mind paying an extra $2 dollars per transaction over and over again. Between the two of you I wouldn't be surprised if you just throw money at anything that makes you feel superior to lowly yinzers.

[theta_sigma]

I assure you, neither Uncle Sams nor Pamelas is hurting for business in any way, shape or form.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by theta_sigma

I assure you, neither Uncle Sams nor Pamelas is hurting for business in any way, shape or form.

I agree that if you are mega-popular you can get away with the no cash thing, but that only applies to a very small percentage of cash only places.

I stand by my contention (and is being backed up by a lot of the posts here) that most cash only places are unknowingly losing a lot more business then they realize which would easily make up for the fee that they would have to pay under the false assumption that it doesn't effect consumer choice as much as it actually does.

If your profit margin is so small that 1-3% would put you under then you need to rethink your business much more beyond what tender you accept.

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by UKyank

I agree that if you are mega-popular you can get away with the no cash thing, but that only applies to a very small percentage of cash only places.

I stand by my contention (and is being backed up by a lot of the posts here) that most cash only places are unknowingly losing a lot more business then they realize which would easily make up for the fee that they would have to pay under the false assumption that it doesn't effect consumer choice as much as it actually does.

If your profit margin is so small that 1-3% would put you under then you need to rethink your business much more beyond what tender you accept.

I agree, especially since people use their Debit Cards a lot over Cash. Debit card don't pay the same fees as CC transactions. So being Cash Only, imo, works against you more than for you.

Especially now that there are Bulk deals small businesses can partake in so they pay one monthly fee to the servicer and can have unlimited swipes regardless of Card Type and Purchase amount. I'm guessing these are the types of deals the vendors had at Rib Fest in order to take plastic. I counted 2 vendors even using Mobile Swipes for their processing, there are tons of avenues Small Business can use so that they maximize patronage and profits.

Sorry being cash only in 2014, is just Lazy, Frugal, Yinzer BS.

Originally Posted by theta_sigma

I assure you, neither Uncle Sams nor Pamelas is hurting for business in any way, shape or form.

Good for them then... Again for me it's not worth going out of my way to make sure I have cash (especially if I have to pay an ATM fee) to benefit these establishments. They don't want my money in the form of Plastic, then they don't want my business and I'm sure their are many others who skip over these places for the same inconveniences.

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

My credit union charges me $0 and at worst I might have to pay someone elses $3 dollar ATM fee. I guess they must have told you how high, mighty, and progressive you are when you signed up for your account and you ate up that $6 dollar norm like it was cake.

I don't care if its 1, 2, 3 or 6$. I'm not paying an F'ing ATM fee, to benefit some intransigent establishment that would rather lose customers due to its stubbornness refusal to accept plastic. You will, well that establishment should give you something extra for accommodating them.

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Considering you can take out $400 per ATM transaction you'd have to go an ATM twice a month (if that). Another oh so enlightened person said they wouldn't mind paying an extra $2 dollars per transaction over and over again. Between the two of you I wouldn't be surprised if you just throw money at anything that makes you feel superior to lowly yinzers.

Did you miss the part where I said "I don't like carrying large sums of Money on my person" because I use my Credit and Debit cards. There's no need for me to have large sums of money on my person. This is yet another trait of "Yinzers".... I can take out 60$ from the ATM and have it last me almost 2 weeks.

The fact I easily adapt to modernization, and don't cling to a 1950's lifestyle of transacting, is enough to tell me, I'm no Yinzer.

Tell the Truth ATC... You still go into the bank to withdraw Cash, and Write Checks to pay for Groceries, come on now you can tell us.

[RogersParkTransplant]

For the record, I spent a week in NYC in late July and ended up at three restaurants that were cash-only. They were all well-established, successful, and in really great neighborhoods (Williamsburg, East Village, Upper East Side) -- and when we lived in Boston, it was not at all uncommon for restaurants to be cash-only up there, too.

Personally I much prefer using a card (safer than cash, and we get cash back on every charge), and I'm not defending the cash-only model, but I do want to say that this isn't just a "podunk Yinzer" thing; it happens in bigger cities too.

[trackstar13]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

I agree, especially since people use their Debit Cards a lot over Cash. Debit card don't pay the same fees as CC transactions.

It is important to note that debit transactions still charge the merchant a fee and while it is capped at around 25 cents or so, it is still a fee for the small business. Most of the time it is actually better for the business if the customer uses the card with the debit instead of the credit function because debit is a flat fee vs. a percentage of the transaction. However, my wife has been sometimes frustrated in her business when people buy something for a few dollars or less and use a debit card because that is a rather large percentage of the transaction. The most challenging aspect of this issue is that the consumers often don't understand that small businesses are at a major disadvantage when it comes to working with credit card companies and banks. We are moving more toward a cashless society so it would be a bad business move to not accept credit or debit cards at a small business, but it is also a juggling act to keep up with the increasing costs of credit and debit transactions without significantly raising prices.