5 ms·

I had a Boston taxi cab driver say that the reason many say that the credit card reader isn't working (or otherwise insist on cash) is that A) there's a hefty 5

I had a Boston taxi cab driver say that the reason many say that the credit card reader isn't working (or otherwise insist on cash) is that A) there's a hefty 5-6% fee (both from the credit card terminal provider AND the cab company takes a cut too! I think something like 2%), and B) the credit card payments come in only a few days later, and the money does not consistently hit the bank account (sometimes gets delayed by a day or two, even in the middle of a week). Also the credit card payments get cut off at midnight (every 2-3 days I believe) and so you can get a fare at 11:50pm and then a juicy fare at 12:30am but you won't see the second fare until days later. So when a cab driver, who is scraping by, needs to pay for the gas he used that night, if he has mostly credit card fees, he has no cash to pay for gas. Which reinforces the fact that the cab companies are making a big mistake. If they only fought with the credit card processors to have a reliable, fast-paying, non-rip-off payment system or otherwise worked with the cab drivers to make it work for them, then all the cabbies would gladly take your credit card money.

tptacek 12y ago
The best cities make it illegal for cab drivers to do this. You can, for instance, report NYC cabs for claiming not to be able to handle credit cards, and NYC cab enforcement has (at least from some anecdotal semi-personal experience) teeth. Chicago cab drivers used to tell me they couldn't take cards all the time. I just said "you are required to take my card". They always did.
viraptor 12y ago
> So when a cab driver, who is scraping by, needs to pay for the gas he used that night, if he has mostly credit card fees, he has no cash to pay for gas. This may sound harsh, but... they're not earning anything past their daily spendings, right? Then this is going to happen the first day of illness, car not starting, or any other situation. Trying to avoid card transactions will likely just delay the result... so why do it at all?
- mikeash 12y ago
  Living paycheck to paycheck is sadly common. Sometimes it's because the expenses are unavoidable, sometimes it's because they're just biding their time until they get a better job, sometimes it's just bad financial planning (which often looks like the others). Although living literally day to day with income is a new one to me. Most people can't do that even if they wanted to, what with only getting paid every two weeks. In any case, this is obviously a situation you don't want to get into, but if you're in it, then the answer to your question should seem obvious: even if the fall is inevitable, you'd want to delay it as long as possible. Each day of survival is worth something, and maybe something will come along to help you dig out. That said, I can't feel sorry for people whose money is delayed a few days rather than getting it immediately, when almost everybody else gets paid weeks after they work.
mikeash 12y ago
Meanwhile the average working stiff doesn't get paid for 2-4 weeks after he puts in the labor, and he gets the taxes withheld before the money even touches his account! Cry me a river. I'm going to bet that a big reason for resisting credit card payments is that the payments are tracked and you can't evade taxes on them the way you can with cash. This isn't meant to impugn taxi drivers, as it seems to be typical for any cash work. I've had people, who seemed otherwise wholesome, tell me that I should tip waiters with cash instead of adding a tip to my credit card receipt because they can avoid declaring cash as income for their taxes.

tptacek 12y ago

The best cities make it illegal for cab drivers to do this. You can, for instance, report NYC cabs for claiming not to be able to handle credit cards, and NYC cab enforcement has (at least from some anecdotal semi-personal experience) teeth. Chicago cab drivers used to tell me they couldn't take cards all the time. I just said "you are required to take my card". They always did.

viraptor 12y ago

> So when a cab driver, who is scraping by, needs to pay for the gas he used that night, if he has mostly credit card fees, he has no cash to pay for gas. This may sound harsh, but... they're not earning anything past their daily spendings, right? Then this is going to happen the first day of illness, car not starting, or any other situation. Trying to avoid card transactions will likely just delay the result... so why do it at all?

mikeash 12y ago
Living paycheck to paycheck is sadly common. Sometimes it's because the expenses are unavoidable, sometimes it's because they're just biding their time until they get a better job, sometimes it's just bad financial planning (which often looks like the others). Although living literally day to day with income is a new one to me. Most people can't do that even if they wanted to, what with only getting paid every two weeks. In any case, this is obviously a situation you don't want to get into, but if you're in it, then the answer to your question should seem obvious: even if the fall is inevitable, you'd want to delay it as long as possible. Each day of survival is worth something, and maybe something will come along to help you dig out. That said, I can't feel sorry for people whose money is delayed a few days rather than getting it immediately, when almost everybody else gets paid weeks after they work.

mikeash 12y ago

Meanwhile the average working stiff doesn't get paid for 2-4 weeks after he puts in the labor, and he gets the taxes withheld before the money even touches his account! Cry me a river. I'm going to bet that a big reason for resisting credit card payments is that the payments are tracked and you can't evade taxes on them the way you can with cash. This isn't meant to impugn taxi drivers, as it seems to be typical for any cash work. I've had people, who seemed otherwise wholesome, tell me that I should tip waiters with cash instead of adding a tip to my credit card receipt because they can avoid declaring cash as income for their taxes.