Hammerhead wrote: It also costs money for an armored car service to transport large amounts of cash from the store to the bank.
Correct, and that was a simlar point I was about to make. You really can't add a lot of the expense of accounting into the equation of "credit card costs" because you have the accounting expense no matter what form of payment you accept. I would think the handling of cash may even be more expensive than credit cards because you have people who have to reconcile the cash count to the register amount. The credit card transactions are all computerized without the need to handle, count, and move cash.
2004 National Tropi-Cal T-350, Class A, Triple slide, 330 HP Cat DP. 2006 Dodge Dakota 4x4 or
2002 Harley FLSTF Fat Boy on a Trailer or
2004 Polaris Quad on the Trailer
JALLEN4 wrote: The credit card industry as a whole collects well over a 100 billion dollars yearly for card usage. That money is paid by every consumer in the form of higher prices whether we use a credit card regularly or never use a card.
And I use THEIR cash to my fullest advantage. I do almost NOTHING in cash anymore. Even my bills are on credit card. I more or less get a FREE (to me) loan from them each and every month for SEVERAL thousand dollars, and to add insult to injury, they PAY ME 1-5% to use THEIR money. Others may be losing, but I'm making out like a bandit. I even put my work expenses on the CC getting even more money from the banks. Last month I took a rather expensive work trip to Japan and am just now getting the rebates for that trip. My wife & I will have some nice evenings out on the banks's money (and their rebates to me).
I do not long for a cash society.
Not so fast, you are paying for this service, you just may not easily see it. Actually everybody pays for the service whether they use credit cards or not. The cost of the use of the card is simply built in to whatever it is you are buying. If the merchant has to pay 3% for the transaction then that 3% is built in to the price. So you are paying for the use of the credit card.
msmith1199 wrote: Not so fast, you are paying for this service, you just may not easily see it. Actually everybody pays for the service whether they use credit cards or not. The cost of the use of the card is simply built in to whatever it is you are buying. If the merchant has to pay 3% for the transaction then that 3% is built in to the price. So you are paying for the use of the credit card.
That may be true, but there is no way of avoiding it. No one gets a discount at Wal Mart for paying with cash. I haven't seen a "cash discount" gas in a long time. So I will at least extract as much as I can out of the system for as long as they let me. My guess is with all the people who DON'T use the system like I do, I actually do get ahead.
Doug4.7 wrote: I haven't seen a "cash discount" gas in a long time.
Gas stations in our area have two prices on their signs.
One is for the credit price and the other is the price for using cash.
The cash price is 10 cents a gallon cheaper.
Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
msmith1199 wrote: Not so fast, you are paying for this service, you just may not easily see it. Actually everybody pays for the service whether they use credit cards or not. The cost of the use of the card is simply built in to whatever it is you are buying. If the merchant has to pay 3% for the transaction then that 3% is built in to the price. So you are paying for the use of the credit card.
That may be true, but there is no way of avoiding it. No one gets a discount at Wal Mart for paying with cash. I haven't seen a "cash discount" gas in a long time. So I will at least extract as much as I can out of the system for as long as they let me. My guess is with all the people who DON'T use the system like I do, I actually do get ahead.
That's why I said "everybody pays for the service." You pay whether you use a credit card or not. My understanding of the cash discount is Credit Card companies told merchants they weren't allowed to do that or they would take their credit card machines away. However, there are still gas stations in California that do it. And one I pulled into and didn't read the sign closely, charged the extra price even though I used a debit card. Most other stations that have a cash/credit price (and most don't) charge you the cash price for a debit card. I ended up paying 10 cents a gallon more than the cash price using my debit card. It only came out to $1.10 but you won't see me going to that station any more.
msmith1199 wrote: ...My understanding of the cash discount is Credit Card companies told merchants they weren't allowed to do that or they would take their credit card machines away. However, there are still gas stations in California that do it. And one I pulled into and didn't read the sign closely, charged the extra price even though I used a debit card. Most other stations that have a cash/credit price (and most don't) charge you the cash price for a debit card. I ended up paying 10 cents a gallon more than the cash price using my debit card. It only came out to $1.10 but you won't see me going to that station any more.
I'm the same way. I won't do business with those stations if I can help it. The Texaco station in AZ west of Quartzsite on I-10 is one of those staions that have separate prices for cash and credit.
msmith1199 wrote: ...My understanding of the cash discount is Credit Card companies told merchants they weren't allowed to do that or they would take their credit card machines away. However, there are still gas stations in California that do it. And one I pulled into and didn't read the sign closely, charged the extra price even though I used a debit card. Most other stations that have a cash/credit price (and most don't) charge you the cash price for a debit card. I ended up paying 10 cents a gallon more than the cash price using my debit card. It only came out to $1.10 but you won't see me going to that station any more.
I'm the same way. I won't do business with those stations if I can help it. The Texaco station in AZ west of Quartzsite on I-10 is one of those staions that have separate prices for cash and credit.
I can live with the cash/credit prices because normal pratice here is a Debit card gets the same price as cash. I don't think I've ever used a credit card to buy gas, but I use my debit card all the time. The one particular station I started pumping my gas and then noticed the price it was charging me was the credit price. I was about to go complain when I noticed that there signs did say the higher price was for Credit/Debit. I don't know if lots of stations do that, but that's the only time I've ever seen it.
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