I never carry cash these days unless I know I will need cash. For better or for worse I charge everything and then pay the bill when it is due. I keep enough cash at at home for a last minute Craigslist purchase, or for use during a major power outage if one were to happen. The last time a major power outage happened (1999) most of the businesses were closed due to no power. One major grocery store was still running on generator, but half the coolers were empty due to no power. I bet they could still take cards since the registers were running. I still carried cash back then.
I really don't have a problem tracking spending when I use credit instead of cash and manage to pay before interest is due.
I always keep 4 or 5 bucks with in case I need a bag of ice or something. Otherwise, plastic. Why? Because at any given time I can log onto my bank account and get a complete, itemized and categorized report of every dollar I've spent on gas, groceries, tax payments, medical, dental, oil changes, restaurants, take-out, movies, satellite TV, Netflix, phones, electric, water, sewer, insurance, registration fees-- going back 18 months!... Invaluable anytime, and especially around tax time. If I pay cash, then I have to keep track. Phooey on that!
As for paying, almost all places now let you swipe or insert the card beforehand, sign or punch in your pin, get receipt, go. It IS faster than the cashier can make change
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ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
FOUR - CO2 lasers
THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
ONE - vinyl cutter
CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle
Either is faster than the elderly matron who, after the clerk has finished scanning the goods, starts looking into her purse for her check book. Then, she doesn't have a pen, so the clerk has to give her a pen. This gets her to the point where she can start writing the check. Her writing is slow and she has to pause to ask the amount once again. Eventually, she finishes and signs the check.
But, then the clerk has to get ID information and she starts rummaging through her purse once again, eventually pulling out her driver's license. The clerk then has to copy the information and finish ringing up the sale.
For some reason, I always seem to get behind someone like that.
Mike
[That's one reason I always try to go through the self checkout line.]
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
You're in Canada so I bet you are using chip cards with a PIN so it will be slower. Many places here in the USA are still swipe only for credit cards. I went out for lunch yesterday at a place that still uses the swipe instead of chip. I bet my swipe transaction was done before the drawer would have opened for a cash transaction. No signature required.
Why are new establishments still opening with POS systems that don't have chip card readers? I understand the cost to retrofit, but brand new equipment?
There's a big penalty for establishments that don't have chip readers (since October of last year, if I recall correctly). If the establishment only has a swipe terminal and the card is bogus, the establishment eats the fraud. If the establishment has a chip reader and the card is bogus, the bank eats the fraud.
You'd think with a couple of frauds it would pay to put in chip readers.
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
The deadline for the liability change was actually Oct 2015. Gas stations have until sometime in 2018 I believe. It looks like some stations are starting to put in new pumps with card readers that will eventually do chips.
If your average ticket is really small the cost of fraud is also likely to be small. A lunch place with an average ticket of $10 isn't likely to lose much to fraud. Most thieves aren't going to buy lunch with a stolen card, and if they do $10 isn't a big loss. Thieves usually buy fairly expensive stuff they can sell for cash. The owner should be putting chip readers in place in any case and no excuse to open a new lunch place with new POS systems that don't have a chip reader.
Last edited by Brian Elfert; 08-05-2017 at 7:23 PM.