Your experience is almost exactly the opposite of mine. 1. Without fail, taking Uber costs me more than taking a taxi, same trip, same time of day. 2. The bil

Your experience is almost exactly the opposite of mine. 1. Without fail, taking Uber costs me more than taking a taxi, same trip, same time of day. 2. The bill up front point is fair 3. As far as paying by credit card, know the rules of your city. In many cities, they must take credit cards or are not allowed to drive. As such, if they tell you at the end of the trip that you must pay cash, just tell them you can't. If they won't let you pay by credit then, just walk away. Even if it's not a city where they have to accept credit, just tell them you don't have cash and stick to it. If their credit machine really wasn't working, they should/would have told you at the beginning of the trip. 4. I never have a problem getting a cab (though, to be fair, I only do it in NYC... they're everywhere)