These are good news. I used credit cards a lot but to pay for haircuts, etc... I use cash. We need more options, not less.
D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect
311–320 of 508 posts
Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least in PHX, I’ve been seeing a lot of businesses with a 2-3% surcharge for cards
Wait, is it common in the US for brick-and-mortar businesses to charge you extra if you pay by card? That doesn't happen in the UK.
Very common, in small, independent shops, though it often seems to be as much about avoiding taxes as avoiding the fee for the credit machine
Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect
#313Almost 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,…
This is a good point worth considering, especially given we've already seen the consequences of people and businesses going cashless and a technical glitch throwing everything into disarray.
Back in 2018, Visa's network crashed:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2018/jun/01/visa-outa...
It was absolute chaos. Most shops and restaurants lost a ton of business due to customers not being able to pay for products (many people here don't have cash in their wallets at all), and many of them couldn't sell even if they wanted to, since the card reader (and other parts of their point of sale systems) also relied on said network.
Having cash as an option at least means things won't completely shut down whenever this sort of error occurs.
Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least in PHX, I’ve been seeing a lot of businesses with a 2-3% surcharge for cards
Huh, I thought that wasn't allowed by the card issuer rules. Isn't that why a lot of places don't take Amex? Because the fees are higher but they can't add a surcharge to cover it?
In New Orleans, I've seen it advertised as "cash discount." So I guess technically its not a fee on card transactions - it's a discount on cash ones.
Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect
#315Earlier 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…
As someone who lived in Thailand for two years and experienced the joy of scanning a QR code on a postcard to pay a power bill, your experiences are not atypical: the U.S. is behind the curve here.
Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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. If the power goes out, I can't get any cash. I don't keep any meaningful amount cash on hand and neither does anyone I know, including my elderly relatives. Most of the stores I shop at won't actually be able to sell me anything, because none of the products…
I think you might be surprised by how many larger stores and grocery stores especially are prepared to operate in low power or no power conditions if necessary. Another side effect of this DC rule will be to ensure that more are prepared too.
Yup I’ve seen a large grocery store keep business going during an extended power outage with hand-written ledgers and cash transactions. Customers kept coming in to shop despite the outage.
Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect
#317Almost 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,…
> It doesn't need electricity, a network of cables, satellites and routers.
To be fair, credit cards also don't. At least didn't need to, up until very recently, when most issuers stopped embossing their credit cards.
Imprinters exist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_imprinter
Sure, the risk here is that the charge would get declined later on, but you get the same risk if you accept personal checks.
Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect
#318What I particularly like about this is how it goes directly against the conspiracy theories.
Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect
#319Almost 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,…
> It doesn't need electricity, a network of cables, satellites and routers. To be fair, credit cards also don't. At least didn't need to, up until very recently, when most issuers stopped embossing their credit cards. Imprinters exist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_imprinter Sure, the risk here is that the charge would get declined later on, but you get the same risk if you accept personal checks.
I don't really understand the point of this comment. "Credit cards don't need this network, except realistically they do, they just didn't used to."
So in some scenario where electricity is unavailable, credit cards will be just as worthless in most cases as apps and gift cards.
Re: D.C.'s ban on cashless businesses takes effect
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is an example of who has the most power. If you don't have a different service that does the same for you, you'll have to suck it up or live without the service. This becomes a big issue as soon as all services in a specific niche do 'the thing', be it refusing cash or stuff like removing headphone jacks. At that point, what are you gonna do? Stop using products from that niche altogether?
The options are stop using them, provide them for yourself, or use the government to force others to provide it for you. Only the first two are remotely reasonable to people without entitlement issues.
With the example of smartphones not having headphone jacks -
speaking from personal experience, life is harder without a smartphone. I was smartphone free for a year and ended up having to get one to use an app for a specific government service. And providing a smartphone for myself... I lack the technical knowhow to design one, and I don't think I have enough cash or connections to get one custom built.
Ironically enough, I'd be okay with government regulations mandating a headphone jack in phones.