Debit vs. Credit Cards

[JethroB]

The only place I ever worked that offered a cash discount was the Fixed Base Operation at the airport. It was a discount on fuel purchases. The only people that ever regularly took advantage of it were corporate jets that had several thousand dollar fuel bills.

Kinda funny to see a nice business jet take on fuel, the pilot walks in to pay, sees the sign offering cash discount, says they'll be right back, runs out to the plane, then comes back in with a stack of hundreds.

And that was in the 80's.

When I was discussing my metal shop construction with the company I asked how I could get a better price. He said pay cash, specifically a paper sack full of $20 bills. 8% = sales tax. I passed. I been through several sales tax audits at work. The auditors aren’t dummies.

 

[caver]

I read where Badlands and Mt Rainer National parks (and possibly others) will no longer accept cash at the entrance or campgrounds. I recall they will accept cash in the gift shops.

 

[KennyG]

One of the advantages of credit cards (for businesses) is employee theft. It's a lot easier to skim off cash.

Interesting that there are places where the gas stations give discounts for cash. Does not happen here. The only discount is for using the companies credit card. I get a 10 cent discount for using the right credit card.

Illegal activity is something that has a lot of cash involvement. Years ago when I lived in Korea, the largest bill was 10,000 won (about $10). To get anything larger, you had to go to a bank and get a bank check. The reason was to insure there was a record of large financial transfers. I understand that most large US bills are actually in circulation outside the US because it's the best currency to fly under the radar with.

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

Just remember Canada all ready shut down the bank accounts of protesting truckers and others. How will you survive if NO business will take cash and your accounts (CC and Debit cards) are locked?

I read about that in an old book.

 

[MossRoad]

Just remember Canada all ready shut down the bank accounts of protesting truckers and others. How will you survive if NO business will take cash and your accounts (CC and Debit cards) are locked?

I'll remember that the next time my buddies and I block streets in the Canadian capitol city with our trucks for three weeks.

 

[Citydude]

I'll remember that the next time my buddies and I block streets in the Canadian capitol city with our trucks for three weeks.

If that's a joke, it's a bad one.

 

[Eagle1]

"Federal Regulators Fine Bank of America $225 Million Over Botched Disbursement of State Unemployment Benefits at Height of Pandemic
Bank Left Struggling Americans in the Lurch by Wrongfully Freezing Accounts"

IN the USA not trucker blocking anything....
You can borrow some cash but who will lend you their debit or cc? and before you say it not everyone has multiple accounts or banks. I live in an area where quite a few don't trust or use bank. I friend of mine takes all of his direct deposited retirement funds OUT as cash every month and puts into a shoe box. Retired UAW.....

 

[MossRoad]

"Federal Regulators Fine Bank of America $225 Million Over Botched Disbursement of State Unemployment Benefits at Height of Pandemic
Bank Left Struggling Americans in the Lurch by Wrongfully Freezing Accounts"

IN the USA not trucker blocking anything....
You can borrow some cash but who will lend you their debit or cc? and before you say it not everyone has multiple accounts or banks. I live in an area where quite a few don't trust or use bank. I friend of mine takes all of his direct deposited retirement funds OUT as cash every month and puts into a shoe box. Retired UAW.....

My mother in-law is retired UAW. She and her late husband were what most younger people would consider old school. They used the envelope system for their home budget. They'd cash their checks. Bring home the cash. Put enough cash into each envelope to pay bills for the coming month. Anything left over at the end of the month went back to the bank and into savings.

That's something she learned from her retired UAW father. And something her late husband learned from watching his father piddle away any money he came in to.

To this day, she still goes to the bank every month to cash her and her late husband's checks, takes out enough cash for groceries, gas, and the casino. Then deposits the rest in savings. From there she writes checks to her investment people, pays bills, etc. She uses two banks to keep within the FDIC insurance levels for her cash. She's 83 and still manages her money pretty well, although every month she asks my wife to look over her accounts to make sure they are in balance, as she's having trouble balancing her checkbook.

The point is, even old-school mother in-law, who was born in 1940, and was raised by parents who grew up in the depression and didn't trust banks, knows that crash sitting in a shoebox is not doing any work for you. and is not safe. It's losing value to inflation, and if the house burns down, it's gone forever. One should probably have enough cash on-hand for small emergencies, and that's about it.

 

[Eagle1]

BUT what happens if NO ONE can or will take CASH...... and you can't access your accounts.

I use banks and accept CC and Debit cards, but like EVs I don't want the Gov limiting my options....

Get's dumb because there is no cell service here so digital payments become an issue for some. Tow truck has to drive to town to accept a CC, just one example.

 

[MossRoad]

BUT what happens if NO ONE can or will take CASH...... and you can't access your accounts.

Well, I guess I will just die then.


In all seriousness, that happens to people once in a while. There are ways around it. Having cards from different sources is the easiest way.

Identity theft can cause havoc. Having identity theft protections set up before hand usually protects people from that.

And, we haven't gone to a cashless society yet. I don't see it in the near future.

We have lost use of credit and debit cards in the past while on vacation. At the most, it was a temporary inconvenience.

We used to have to call our credit card source and tell them to authorize purchases in the states or countries we would be traveling in before we left. Otherwise, the cards wouldn't work. That system was replaced with fraud detection system that looks and flags suspicious activity on the account. Works pretty well. They've notified us a handful of times of suspicious charges and killed the transactions. Cost us nothing.


Most recent issue we had was last summer. We filled up our Suburban with 30 gallons of gas, paid with our debit card, and headed out towards Oklahoma. 6 hours later, we stopped on the other side of St. Louis and filled it up again, paid with our debit card and kept going. 6 hours after that, we pulled into a gas station in Stillwater, OK, filled it a 3rd time, paid with debit.

Went out to eat the next day, and tried to pay with debit card. It was declined. Why? Because our fraud detection service at our credit union shut it down after seeing three $100+ transactions in a 12 hour period spread across 4 states. Oh no! What are we gonna do?

Paid for food with credit card. Easy peasy.

Called fraud detection service and they released the hold on the debit card immediately.