4 ms·

I'm trying to think of places that would want to accept $500 to $1000 notes when many places won't even accept a $50 or $100 and consider them "large bills." W

I'm trying to think of places that would want to accept $500 to $1000 notes when many places won't even accept a $50 or $100 and consider them "large bills." While I agree with your premise that inflation makes $500-1,000 notes practical from the standpoint of modern expenses, businesses I interact with tend to prefer a third party to verify payment (CC merchant, cashiers check, etc.). Cash is dying and although I love convenience, I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing.

jimmaswell 7y ago
Cash will continue to be #1 for Craigslist/yard sale-type transactions for a long time I'd say.
- Frost1x 7y ago
  Would you accept a $1000 or even $500 note from a craigslist transaction? I'm usually pretty hesitant to accept anything over a $20 or even deal in cash for small exchanges. I wouldn't even consider $500 unless I had a way to strongly guarentee the bill I'm looking at isn't fake. It would take a bit of time and research before I felt confident enough at identifying these bills to accept them in a trade. I'd have to do a lot of those sort of peer transactions to warrant the overhead of that time.
  - wolfgke 7y ago
    > It would take a bit of time and research before I felt confident enough at identifying these bills to accept them in a trade. If such bills were in common use, nearly everybody would know and be aware of the usual security features. So, this is only a problem because such large bills are so rare.
    - munk-a 7y ago
      Except that such bills don't see a naturally high amount of use - it's still legal to use them for a bunch of purposes, they're just inconvenient for nearly all uses... Your statement applies better to not-currently circulating modest denominations, like two dollar bills.
  - werber 7y ago
    Meet at a bank, works for me
  - lallysingh 7y ago
    Probably 5 minutes on YouTube and a special pen from Amazon
  - leetcrew 7y ago
    unless it's just a one-off purchase, I feel like a much better strategy would be to pay in $20's and have a fraction of them be fake. if someone paid me with a (hypothetical) $500 bill, I damn sure take at least a minute to hold it up to the light and look for security features. they paid me with 25 $20 notes, I would probably just count them and call it a day. if 10-20% of them were fake, I might not realize until I tried to deposit them.
    - orthoxerox 7y ago
      I think it depends on the cost of counterfeiting a single note. All the security features must add up, and I won't be surprised if the cost, unless you're printing literally industrial quantities, makes fake $20 bills unprofitable to make.
  - jimmaswell 7y ago
    Most of the times I've had to use $100 bills at real stores even they didn't check the security features or use a pen. Something like $500 would warrant more checking.
- dalyons 7y ago
  Eh last few times I’ve done this I used venmo, works great with strangers too
- leosarev 7y ago
  Why won't use something like Visa Money Transfer?
  - throwawaycanada 7y ago
    Because unless you want to read someones multi-page terms and conditions you can never know whether they can claw the money back.
reaperducer 7y ago
I'm trying to think of places that would want to accept $500 to $1000 notes when many places won't even accept a $50 or $100 and consider them "large bills." Landlords, for one. I'm in the process of leasing a new apartment and I am required to pay some of the fees with a debit card, and some with a cashier's check. It would be easier to just hand them a few large bills and be done with it. Cash is dying and although I love convenience, I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing. I try to use cash as much as I can. I also have active checking and savings accounts simply because I don't want to have a single point of failure.
- Frost1x 7y ago
  Landlords typically don't accept cash for a variety of reasons. One is fraud but the other main issue is security for holding/transferring that cash and fact they have predictable schedules they'd have cash on hand. I estimate the building I'm renting from right now would have anywhere between $650-750k or more revenue per month, most of which probably arrives in a one week or less window. That makes them a target for all sorts of potential thefts: employees, residents, burglars. I've rented at many places and I've never once encountered a landlord that accepted or wanted to accept cash over secure electronic transfer methods, even for minor expenses like a consumer credit report check.
  - lotsofpulp 7y ago
    As a landlord, I would want a paper trail of all payments and interactions with a tenant due to the numerous landlord-tenant laws.

jimmaswell 7y ago

Cash will continue to be #1 for Craigslist/yard sale-type transactions for a long time I'd say.

Frost1x 7y ago
Would you accept a $1000 or even $500 note from a craigslist transaction? I'm usually pretty hesitant to accept anything over a $20 or even deal in cash for small exchanges. I wouldn't even consider $500 unless I had a way to strongly guarentee the bill I'm looking at isn't fake. It would take a bit of time and research before I felt confident enough at identifying these bills to accept them in a trade. I'd have to do a lot of those sort of peer transactions to warrant the overhead of that time.
- wolfgke 7y ago
  > It would take a bit of time and research before I felt confident enough at identifying these bills to accept them in a trade. If such bills were in common use, nearly everybody would know and be aware of the usual security features. So, this is only a problem because such large bills are so rare.
  - munk-a 7y ago
    Except that such bills don't see a naturally high amount of use - it's still legal to use them for a bunch of purposes, they're just inconvenient for nearly all uses... Your statement applies better to not-currently circulating modest denominations, like two dollar bills.
- werber 7y ago
  Meet at a bank, works for me
- lallysingh 7y ago
  Probably 5 minutes on YouTube and a special pen from Amazon
- leetcrew 7y ago
  unless it's just a one-off purchase, I feel like a much better strategy would be to pay in $20's and have a fraction of them be fake. if someone paid me with a (hypothetical) $500 bill, I damn sure take at least a minute to hold it up to the light and look for security features. they paid me with 25 $20 notes, I would probably just count them and call it a day. if 10-20% of them were fake, I might not realize until I tried to deposit them.
  - orthoxerox 7y ago
    I think it depends on the cost of counterfeiting a single note. All the security features must add up, and I won't be surprised if the cost, unless you're printing literally industrial quantities, makes fake $20 bills unprofitable to make.
- jimmaswell 7y ago
  Most of the times I've had to use $100 bills at real stores even they didn't check the security features or use a pen. Something like $500 would warrant more checking.
dalyons 7y ago
Eh last few times I’ve done this I used venmo, works great with strangers too
leosarev 7y ago
Why won't use something like Visa Money Transfer?
- throwawaycanada 7y ago
  Because unless you want to read someones multi-page terms and conditions you can never know whether they can claw the money back.

reaperducer 7y ago

I'm trying to think of places that would want to accept $500 to $1000 notes when many places won't even accept a $50 or $100 and consider them "large bills." Landlords, for one. I'm in the process of leasing a new apartment and I am required to pay some of the fees with a debit card, and some with a cashier's check. It would be easier to just hand them a few large bills and be done with it. Cash is dying and although I love convenience, I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing. I try to use cash as much as I can. I also have active checking and savings accounts simply because I don't want to have a single point of failure.

Frost1x 7y ago
Landlords typically don't accept cash for a variety of reasons. One is fraud but the other main issue is security for holding/transferring that cash and fact they have predictable schedules they'd have cash on hand. I estimate the building I'm renting from right now would have anywhere between $650-750k or more revenue per month, most of which probably arrives in a one week or less window. That makes them a target for all sorts of potential thefts: employees, residents, burglars. I've rented at many places and I've never once encountered a landlord that accepted or wanted to accept cash over secure electronic transfer methods, even for minor expenses like a consumer credit report check.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
  As a landlord, I would want a paper trail of all payments and interactions with a tenant due to the numerous landlord-tenant laws.