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Businesses should be required by law to accept cash for in-person transactions. Philadelphia was the first US city to ban cashless stores a couple of years ago

Businesses should be required by law to accept cash for in-person transactions. Philadelphia was the first US city to ban cashless stores a couple of years ago and it was a great move for convenience and equity.

stavros 4y ago
I agree with the former, but not the latter. It's fine if stores accept credit cards, as long as they accept cash too. Hell, I wouldn't be against adding the cc fee on top of the price, so cash users don't need to subsidize cc users.
- ddevault 4y ago
  You misunderstand. Banning cashless stores does not mean banning cashless transactions altogether. It means requiring cash payments to be an option.
- NeoTar 4y ago
  > cash users don't need to subsidize cc users. I doubt this is the case; it's easy to see the costs associated with taking a credit card because they are all upfront - e.g. a card may charge 1-5% plus a fixed fee. However the costs associated with cash happen after the transaction and are extensive: * Cost of the time spent 'cashing up' - i.e. reconciling the cash in a till with the transactions made, * Cost of the time spent taking cash to a bank, or the direct cost for a cash collection business, * Losses due to mistakes in making change, * Losses due to fake currency, * Losses due to staff-theft, * Losses due to robbery, I can imagine these easily adding up to some small percentage of the costs of accepting cash, comparable to the cost of a CC transaction.
  - goosedragons 4y ago
    1-5% of every transaction and bigger transactions have a bigger cut taken. With cash a lot of those things you mention are rare events and I'd imagine decent insurance covers or pretty much fixed costs. Credit cards also have problems with customers using stolen CCs, doing fraudulent chargebacks, machines go down etc. It's pretty well known that the high transaction fees needed for CC companies to offer rewards like cashback do impact prices and cash users are effectively subsidizing CC users.
    - closewith 4y ago
      In the US, maybe. EU Regulation caps interchange fees at 0.2% of the transaction value for consumer debit cards and at 0.3% for consumer credit cards, although most member States have set lower fee caps. It's always more expensive to handle cash here. Business plans usually estimate the total cash handling cost to be 2.5%, compared to 1% for cars payments.
      - goosedragons 4y ago
        The world is bigger than the US and the EU. The poster I replied to also mentioned 1-5% transaction fees which kinda suggests they weren't talking about the EU...
        closewith 4y ago
        True, but Ryanair is an EU-based airline (and obviously Berlin is in the EU).
    - NeoTar 4y ago
      I think it's very dependent on the business. In a couple of minutes research I saw one site which estimated the average CC cost to be 2.08 USD versus 0.30 USD for cash, whilst another site estimated the cost of cash handling to be anything between 4.7-15.3% of the money taken in [https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180130005244/en/New-Research-from-IHL-Group-Shows-Retailers%E2%80%99-Cash-handling-Costs-Range-from-4.7-to-15.3-Depending-on-Retail-Segment https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180130005244/en/New...] (I think CC costs are also likely lower in Europe - cashback credit cards are less common/rewarding, debit cards are a lot more common)
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  Handling cash isn’t free either, and is worse in that you need to physically transport it. It’s also pretty dirty.
scarface74 4y ago
As long as you don’t care about things like employee theft, increase risk of robberies, etc. If the government is concerned about “equity” it should set up banks for the unbanked.
vultour 4y ago
"First-world" countries require banks to provide free accounts to people who can't afford the standard fees. Maybe you should be working towards that instead of banning cashless stores.

stavros 4y ago

I agree with the former, but not the latter. It's fine if stores accept credit cards, as long as they accept cash too. Hell, I wouldn't be against adding the cc fee on top of the price, so cash users don't need to subsidize cc users.

ddevault 4y ago
You misunderstand. Banning cashless stores does not mean banning cashless transactions altogether. It means requiring cash payments to be an option.
NeoTar 4y ago
> cash users don't need to subsidize cc users. I doubt this is the case; it's easy to see the costs associated with taking a credit card because they are all upfront - e.g. a card may charge 1-5% plus a fixed fee. However the costs associated with cash happen after the transaction and are extensive: * Cost of the time spent 'cashing up' - i.e. reconciling the cash in a till with the transactions made, * Cost of the time spent taking cash to a bank, or the direct cost for a cash collection business, * Losses due to mistakes in making change, * Losses due to fake currency, * Losses due to staff-theft, * Losses due to robbery, I can imagine these easily adding up to some small percentage of the costs of accepting cash, comparable to the cost of a CC transaction.
- goosedragons 4y ago
  1-5% of every transaction and bigger transactions have a bigger cut taken. With cash a lot of those things you mention are rare events and I'd imagine decent insurance covers or pretty much fixed costs. Credit cards also have problems with customers using stolen CCs, doing fraudulent chargebacks, machines go down etc. It's pretty well known that the high transaction fees needed for CC companies to offer rewards like cashback do impact prices and cash users are effectively subsidizing CC users.
  - closewith 4y ago
    In the US, maybe. EU Regulation caps interchange fees at 0.2% of the transaction value for consumer debit cards and at 0.3% for consumer credit cards, although most member States have set lower fee caps. It's always more expensive to handle cash here. Business plans usually estimate the total cash handling cost to be 2.5%, compared to 1% for cars payments.
    - goosedragons 4y ago
      The world is bigger than the US and the EU. The poster I replied to also mentioned 1-5% transaction fees which kinda suggests they weren't talking about the EU...
      - closewith 4y ago
        True, but Ryanair is an EU-based airline (and obviously Berlin is in the EU).
  - NeoTar 4y ago
    I think it's very dependent on the business. In a couple of minutes research I saw one site which estimated the average CC cost to be 2.08 USD versus 0.30 USD for cash, whilst another site estimated the cost of cash handling to be anything between 4.7-15.3% of the money taken in [https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180130005244/en/New-Research-from-IHL-Group-Shows-Retailers%E2%80%99-Cash-handling-Costs-Range-from-4.7-to-15.3-Depending-on-Retail-Segment https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180130005244/en/New...] (I think CC costs are also likely lower in Europe - cashback credit cards are less common/rewarding, debit cards are a lot more common)
chrisseaton 4y ago
Handling cash isn’t free either, and is worse in that you need to physically transport it. It’s also pretty dirty.

scarface74 4y ago

As long as you don’t care about things like employee theft, increase risk of robberies, etc. If the government is concerned about “equity” it should set up banks for the unbanked.

vultour 4y ago

"First-world" countries require banks to provide free accounts to people who can't afford the standard fees. Maybe you should be working towards that instead of banning cashless stores.