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I worked at several small businesses and we always preferred cash, we even accepted multiple currencies. The handling was no problem but I admit that it must be

• TRDRVR 3y ago
  >we even accepted multiple currencies You accepted multiple currencies without taking a spread on Forex? How did you convert it for free? Not even actual forex businesses can do that...
  • thaumasiotes 3y ago
    > How did you convert it for free? Not even actual forex businesses can do that... Actual forex businesses convert currency at negative cost. That's what it means to be a forex business.
  • a_vanderbilt 3y ago
    Plenty of places in the world accept currencies besides the local ones because they are more stable or just worth more in general. Depending on the business, they might handle currency the same way too.
    • maxcoder4 3y ago
      I usually see this only in tourist traps, where the EUR/USD price is 120% or more of the "local" price.
      • a_vanderbilt 3y ago
        Oh boy. Go to Ko Chang or even Vietnam with plenty of ironed-out bills and see how much the locals like you more.
  • Scoundreller 3y ago
    When I sold on eBay and they allowed cash/bank draft payments, I accepted local currency, but also major currencies like US$ (in cash or bank draft because I had a US$ account too) and other major currencies in cash (like EUR and GBP) because they were cheaper to convert with when travelling (or I could use directly). Without a spread. Used the EUR in Cuba when a buyer mailed me cash.
• ses1984 3y ago
  Small businesses put in sweat equity to handle cash payments, like the owner going to the bank to make a deposit. If they had to pay an hourly employee to do that, it might even out with credit card processing fees. Also small businesses can fudge numbers with cash payments in a way that’s a lot harder to do when some other company keeps a record of all of your cc transactions.
  • ta1243 3y ago
    Yup, cash handling costs are significant when done as a service, they can be cheaper if you don't account for the time and risk (of both theft and forgery). Banks in the UK typically charge about 0.6-0.8% to pay cash in for large companies, and even more for small ones, and very few locations will take cash. However nothing beats that sweet sweet tax evasion that cash allows.
• Kranar 3y ago
  I also worked at small businesses and they absolutely preferred cash but not because it was easy to handle but because, you know... taxes, wink wink.
  • whatsthenews 3y ago
    many such cases. imo it's a skill issue but understand the thought process and why it's so prevalent
  • sgerenser 3y ago
    From the other side, my wife owns a small business where 90% of her sales are on credit cards. She has no desire to encourage cash as we honestly report all income regardless of source (and cash is a hassle and increases theft risk). The ~3% credit card fee is also more than made up for by the higher spend of credit card buyers. From talking to other business owners, though, the lure of "tax free" cash is definitely a factor.
• ransom1538 3y ago
  "we weren't allowed to have a card payment fee. " BTW. Good luck catching that. In SF, that is how many businesses work. You want to use a card? Ok, one extra dollar. Nothing enrages visa more, but, the merchant should have this right.
  • xtracto 3y ago
    Or what I've seen some people do here in Mexico: 3% discount when paying in Cash :-)
  • dhosek 3y ago
    I think the restrictions on this have loosened over the last (not sure how many) years.
  • 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 3y ago
    I think the law should be that you state the maximum price for a given transaction and then discount down. So you can have a cash discount but it's okay to say no credit card fees. These are the "junk fees" that came up in political discourse in the last year or two. Credit card vendors shouldn't be allowed to restrict cash discounts. I know this isn't libertarian, but I want it to be a pre-negotiated thing simply for the sake of keeping cash alive, like how minimum wage is a pre-negotiated wage to avoid the overhead of getting the whole nation into a labor union. That's why I like free shipping on Amazon. I know it's not literally free, I just want to see what you're _actually_ gonna charge me, it cuts off an avenue of bullshit.
  • devman0 3y ago
    In a properly working market, every consumer would pay their exact interchange fee and it would be printed on the receipt as a pass-through cost. This would actively drive interchange fees lower when consumers have to choose to pay 3% on an Amex swipe vs 1.6% no frills MasterCard swipe, or .05% for a debit swipe. The reasons there is no downward pressure today is because there is because there is no transparency, and no incentive for consumers to choose a lower cost card.
  • j45 3y ago
    One of the best marketing phrases I've seen to charge a fee to use a credit card: Convenience Fee.
• dhosek 3y ago
  Back when I was publishing a magazine in the 90s, I preferred credit card payments over checks in the mail because while there was the 3% vig for the merchant account on the credit cards, taking piles of checks to the bank was a pain and there was always the risk of a check bouncing (yes, there was also the chance of a charge being reversed, but in the whole time I did this, that only happened once—selling subscriptions for a print product is a good hedge against fraudulent use of cards and the one time I got stung it was someone who bought a big pile of back issues and had them shipped to Hungary). Add in that credit card orders could be handled by phone or internet while checks had to come in the mail and it was a clear win. And that’s ignoring the multiple studies that show that credit card purchasers at brick and mortar retail tend to spend more money than cash purchasers.