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Not really. It's in your hand, right now. It can't be disputed later and retrospectively yanked back out of your bank account, or not paid out to you in the fir

Not really. It's in your hand, right now. It can't be disputed later and retrospectively yanked back out of your bank account, or not paid out to you in the first place if you use an intermediary payment service. These are not hypothetical problems. It's also a traditional sign of honesty, and a convenient way for someone who has provided very good service to be tipped without making a big deal of it ("Keep the change"), and both of those things can be important in these kinds of situations.

chrisseaton 6y ago
> It's also a traditional sign of honesty Well I accept your experience, but in my experience asking for cash is a traditional sign of dishonesty and tax evasion. Why do you think they always offer a hushed discount for cash? A professional tradesman invoices after and then accepts a bank transfer. Asking for a wad of banknotes is grubby.
- Silhouette 6y ago
  Why do you think they always offer a hushed discount for cash? FWIW, I'm not sure I've ever actually encountered that in my entire life. It seems like one of those folk tales governments tell when they want to get more money out of a group who are an easy target. After all, can you prove you only charged that nice couple what you said on your accounts for fitting out their new bathroom, Mr Plumber? A professional tradesman invoices after and then accepts a bank transfer. Sure, and when we've had tradesmen in that's almost always what we've done too. But again, in my entire life, I don't think I've ever received a paper invoice from a cleaner, or a gardener, or a neighbour's teenager who was childminding, or the friendly retiree around the corner who is an ace at fixing bikes. Not unless they were working through an agency and it was the agency handling the billing, anyway. Not everything is big enough and formal enough to need invoicing and professional payment tools. Normal people still pay for plenty of stuff with cash around here. Just not usually in shops (online or bricks 'n' mortar) or for big things.

chrisseaton 6y ago

> It's also a traditional sign of honesty Well I accept your experience, but in my experience asking for cash is a traditional sign of dishonesty and tax evasion. Why do you think they always offer a hushed discount for cash? A professional tradesman invoices after and then accepts a bank transfer. Asking for a wad of banknotes is grubby.

Silhouette 6y ago
Why do you think they always offer a hushed discount for cash? FWIW, I'm not sure I've ever actually encountered that in my entire life. It seems like one of those folk tales governments tell when they want to get more money out of a group who are an easy target. After all, can you prove you only charged that nice couple what you said on your accounts for fitting out their new bathroom, Mr Plumber? A professional tradesman invoices after and then accepts a bank transfer. Sure, and when we've had tradesmen in that's almost always what we've done too. But again, in my entire life, I don't think I've ever received a paper invoice from a cleaner, or a gardener, or a neighbour's teenager who was childminding, or the friendly retiree around the corner who is an ace at fixing bikes. Not unless they were working through an agency and it was the agency handling the billing, anyway. Not everything is big enough and formal enough to need invoicing and professional payment tools. Normal people still pay for plenty of stuff with cash around here. Just not usually in shops (online or bricks 'n' mortar) or for big things.