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I was curious about this. What I found was that at least in the US you must accept cash for the payment of a debt. This means in restaurants and stuff where yo

I was curious about this. What I found was that at least in the US you must accept cash for the payment of a debt. This means in restaurants and stuff where you pay after you're served they must accept cash, but when you pay first they don't have to (unless there are other state laws that require it). I'm not super confident I have this right, but I thought it was interesting. Some states allow workarounds like cash to card machines at the location (you can input cash and get a gift card to use) - I think Amazon was doing this for some of their GO stores so they don't exclude people without bank accounts.

ghaff 7y ago
>This means in restaurants and stuff where you pay after you're served they must accept cash, but when you pay first they don't have to (unless there are other state laws that require it). IANAL but I'm not sure how big a factor this is. There's a lot of mythology around the "legal tender for all debts" language but I'm not sure how much of it has a real legal (or practical) basis. In the real world, if you eat your meal at a credit card only place and you then tell them you don't have a card, I imagine they'll find a way to take your money--not because of some arcane legal reason but because cash is better than nothing.
- fossuser 7y ago
  I'm not aware of any credit card only places that serve you food first (all the ones I know are like Sweet Green - chipotle style order/pay first before food). Are there any not like this?
  - ghaff 7y ago
    No idea. Credit card only isn't all that common in my experience other than situations where it's sort of inherent (planes, food delivery, and so forth). Sit-down may (rarely) be cash only in the US but I'm not sure I've ever personally run into a CC-only restaurant where I'm in the physical location. They do exist apparently but they're rare and, yes, I think they're probably mostly fast casual sort of places where you order at the counter.

ghaff 7y ago

>This means in restaurants and stuff where you pay after you're served they must accept cash, but when you pay first they don't have to (unless there are other state laws that require it). IANAL but I'm not sure how big a factor this is. There's a lot of mythology around the "legal tender for all debts" language but I'm not sure how much of it has a real legal (or practical) basis. In the real world, if you eat your meal at a credit card only place and you then tell them you don't have a card, I imagine they'll find a way to take your money--not because of some arcane legal reason but because cash is better than nothing.

fossuser 7y ago
I'm not aware of any credit card only places that serve you food first (all the ones I know are like Sweet Green - chipotle style order/pay first before food). Are there any not like this?
- ghaff 7y ago
  No idea. Credit card only isn't all that common in my experience other than situations where it's sort of inherent (planes, food delivery, and so forth). Sit-down may (rarely) be cash only in the US but I'm not sure I've ever personally run into a CC-only restaurant where I'm in the physical location. They do exist apparently but they're rare and, yes, I think they're probably mostly fast casual sort of places where you order at the counter.