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D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

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Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#301

Post by ejstronge »

marklubi wrote: post #262
jdietrich wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many business accounts have a monthly allowance of free cash deposits, but the standard fee is 30¢ per $100. https://www.bankofamerica.com/salesservices/smallbusiness/re... https://www08.wellsfargomedia.com/assets/pdf/small-business/...

Thanks for the details. While I think it's ridiculous, a 0.3% fee for over $20k in deposited cash per month doesn't sound unreasonable for handling risk. Personally, I wouldn't be banking with either of those companies because I think they just exist as parasites. Find a good credit union.

It’s not absurd - the bank has to spend money to move depositors’ cash. This is a standard part of a commercial banking relationship

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#302

Post by elzbardico »

op00to wrote: post #282
gmerc wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One Carrington level event and we learn the lesson. For a while.

Wipe out the networks and your cash is useless too. Why would I want your useless slips of paper?

A few words: black markets, corruption (in the sense of local employees figuring out their salaries won’t be coming but they still have access to valuable merchandise that they unfortunately can’t eat. Not to mention small stores owner-managed.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#303

Post by seanhunter »

bilekas wrote: post #248
blockwriter wrote: post #91

I'm opening a coffeeshop in Chicago and do not plan on accepting cash, just seems easier and safer to me.

> I'm opening a coffeeshop in Chicago and do not plan on accepting cash, just seems easier and safer to me. But why ? For things like a coffee that's maybe $2, why should I, as a customer, possibly incur a fee from my bank for a $2 coffee? You as a business can do what you like, maybe you could just limit the max bill denomination to 20 or something. I feel your limiting your customers options when not allowing cash.…

Lots of cafes etc here in London don't accept cash. Cash payment just slows everyone down when it's busy. It's orders of magnitude more faffing around especially when somebody decides to pay with a bunch of schrapnel and count it out coin by coin.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#304

Post by seanhunter »

aembleton wrote: post #252
bilekas wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm opening a coffeeshop in Chicago and do not plan on accepting cash, just seems easier and safer to me. But why ? For things like a coffee that's maybe $2, why should I, as a customer, possibly incur a fee from my bank for a $2 coffee? You as a business can do what you like, maybe you could just limit the max bill denomination to 20 or something. I feel your limiting your customers options when not allowing cash.…

If you're using a bank that charges you for making a $2 card transaction, then perhaps you should change bank. I feel that bank is limiting their customers options when doing that.

Yeah if your bank is charging you $2 for a transaction what your coffee shop accepts as payment is the least of your worries.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#305

Post by deltree7 »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #162

Almost every comment is about politics, choice, privacy, rights, markets and percentages. There's a completely different take; Civic resilience From an operational and strategic security POV, cash is a vastly superior technology. It doesn't need electricity, a network of cables, satellites and routers. Therefore cash in circulation acts as a buffer that provides economic stability and continuity of operations. Also,…

[dead]

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#306

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

Xylakant wrote: post #245
mnw21cam wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with cash being a thing that keeps working if the lights go out is that there isn't enough of it in circulation to meet the demand if all the lights go out. Having a bit of cash means that you can still pay for your purchases if one random shop has a technical glitch with their card reader, but if the card payment system for a whole country falls over then there just isn't enough lying around to cope with…

There's a broad space between "a single shop" and "an entire country". Entire cities or states being hit by a technical glitch or a natural desaster (flooding , storms, ...) happens on a moderatly regular basis. Backbone connnections failing and taking certain areas or chunks of the internet population offline is also moderately common. Banks having issues with payouts happens, too. There are a lot of scenarios where…

There's not enough cash in D.C. for D.C. to function anywhere near normally in a not-short, total blackout.

I don't think it makes sense to argue we should all use cash in case some small section of D.C. loses power for 10 weeks.

The advantages to the cashless society far outweigh that small benefit to the average person.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#307

Post by jehb »

aembleton wrote: post #250
sambazi wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just rebrand "not giving change" as "mandatory tipping" and it's even a pro-worker move! rounding-up to avoid handling change is the norm when paying cash in "tippable" situations like at restaurants or farmer's markets.

Is it normal in the US to tip at a farmers market?

"Tip" probably isn't the word anyone here would use, because they're not calculating a specific percentage. In practice, though, "keep the change" is something you'd be likely to hear at one.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#308

Post by Scharkenberg »

saagarjha wrote: post #276
nonrandomstring wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't outlined any scenarios, but maybe you're considering a total Internet shutdown. No such drama is needed to make the case. Deloitte calculate the per day impact of a temporary shutdown would be on average $23.6 million per 10 million population. Not that bad actually. But that figure seems based on the immediate hourly estimate from places like The Uptime Institute and LSE. Other estimates puts it at between…

> Deloitte calculate the per day impact of a temporary shutdown would be on average $23.6 million per 10 million population. That seems very low, surely the transaction volume of the average person is more than $2.36 a day?

Well, yes, but only a small fraction of the population buys something on a given day. It could be realistic, I don't know.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#309

Post by sofixa »

theshrike79 wrote: post #205
Findecanor wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to have that position, but here in Sweden the cashless have won and there is nobody who even cares to uphold the law. The same could happen elsewhere. It is pretty much only the civil defence authority that encourages use of cash, because they are aware of the incessant hacking attacks that could disrupt the system at any moment. Cash has become less convenient for consumers: businesses refusing to take cash m…

Finn here. I haven’t used cash since Covid, it’s all card-based. I do carry emergency cash with me, but it’s been in my wallet for 2 years now.

I visited Sweden and Denmark recently, and only coming home did I realise I didn't use any cash so don't have any for my "leftover cash and coins from places abroad I've travelled to" collection.

Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect

#310

Post by nyanmatt »

jdietrich wrote: post #291
Chris2048 wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't just for infra failure. When your credit card provider cuts you off for "unusual activity" that they won't go into detail about, and you realise they are free to refuse you business as they feel like - you'll appreciate cash while rushing to find a new provider as existing debts still loom.

I'm not even sure if it's possible to pay most bills in cash in my country. I have had a bank account frozen due to identity theft; it took me less than 10 minutes to open a new account and get a new debit card in my Google Wallet. The bank transferred my funds within a couple of hours and all of my recurring payments were automatically switched within a couple of days. Maybe my experiences are atypical, but my impre…

This is pure privilege to be able to open an account so quickly. Not everyone is so well off.
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