Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill • Hacker News Board

Re: Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill

#41

Post by RandallBrown » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:46 PM UTC

mod wrote: post #8

oh_sigh wrote: post #3

What's the motivation for a store to not accept cash? Is it possible that cash has a > 3% "fee"(or whatever stores pay for cc processing) when you roll in cash registers, armored car services, employee handling time, theft, etc?

From the article: "Businesses are experimenting with going cashless, hoping to speed up transactions, combat theft and create a safer environment for their employees." As the owner of a brick and mortar business (a bar), I can tell you that we do about 60% cash transactions. I just put in an ATM to try to up that number. I'm tired of paying close to 3% fees on cards. We have had some cash theft from employees but to…

I never thought about cashless places doing it because they were worried about theft from employees. I assumed it was to prevent thieves from coming in and robbing the place.

(Makes total sense though that employees would be much more likely to do the stealing)

Re: Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill

#42

Post by fattire » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:46 PM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #31

scottLobster wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but I get paid for that in a combination of cash back and points. I limit my credit card information sharing as much as the privacy preferences allow, but I'm not about to give up hundreds or thousands of dollars a year in value because Google might show me an ad I won't click on anyway.

I had the same concern and tracked it. In my family’s case, making cash our primary spending vehicle reduced our 2018 spending 7% vs 2017 when we were card focused. The value of the credit card point is about 2% best case. Points exist to create a fomo attachment to the card.

Why did you spend less?

Re: Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill

#43

Post by undefined3840 » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:47 PM UTC

scottLobster wrote: post #21

seibelj wrote: post #15

Every time you swipe your credit card innumerable processes and algorithms begin to parse and reevaluate your personality profile. Every purchase you make changes their opinion and assessment of your shopping habits and needs. Google may start showing ads for pet food if you bought something at PetSmart. Your bank may start sending you car loan ads if you spend at the repair shop. Everything has a side effect. Cash i…

Yeah, but I get paid for that in a combination of cash back and points. I limit my credit card information sharing as much as the privacy preferences allow, but I'm not about to give up hundreds or thousands of dollars a year in value because Google might show me an ad I won't click on anyway.

I only care about meeting the bonus spend requirement. Chasing even 5% on certain category spend usually just incentivizes overspending.

I’ve been lucky to be on some promotion where I can pay my rent for free using a credit card, so usually I just do that or buy prepaid Visa cards, which then isn’t tied to my identity when I transact with it.

Re: Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill

#44

Post by microcolonel » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:51 PM UTC

sys_64738 wrote: post #22

I've never had a 100$ bill and find 50$ bills are frowned on in retail. I carry a few 20$ bills just in case Apple Pay is not accepted.

Maybe it depends on where you are making your purchases, but I've rarely seen a $50 bill unwelcome at retail in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or the office park neighbourhoods of California.

Re: Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill

#45

Post by lawn » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:52 PM UTC

ellisv wrote: post #37

Spooky23 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same concern and tracked it. In my family’s case, making cash our primary spending vehicle reduced our 2018 spending 7% vs 2017 when we were card focused. The value of the credit card point is about 2% best case. Points exist to create a fomo attachment to the card.

Was this because of using cash or simply paying more attention to spending? I’d love to see a well done research paper to get a sense of the expected value of cash vs credit.

Not the commenter but I had the same experience changing from debit card to credit card. Even though I always paid off everything at the end of the month, I'm now buying more things simply because it's so easy.

Before I only had smaller amounts on my debit card, so if I wanted to buy stuff online I had to first move money from another account. This extra step made me more conscious of my spending and I would imagine starting to use cash would have a similar effect.

Re: Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill

#46

Post by mandelbrotwurst » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:53 PM UTC

Nullabillity wrote: post #39

chickenpotpie wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of data mining: credit card companies seem to be the lesser of infinite evils. At least I can see what data they collect and they pay me for my data. I would still prefer they didn't do anything with my data, but at least I can opt out at any time by paying cash. A lot of companies take my data, I don't know, and I get nothing for it.

> and they pay me for my data. From the fees that you paid them to begin with.

Sort of, but also not really because many merchants aren't going to give him a discount for paying in cash.

Re: Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill

#47

Post by Spooky23 » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:55 PM UTC

oh_sigh wrote: post #3

What's the motivation for a store to not accept cash? Is it possible that cash has a > 3% "fee"(or whatever stores pay for cc processing) when you roll in cash registers, armored car services, employee handling time, theft, etc?

No.

Cash is cheap. Losses were around 0.1% and costs were <1% when I did retail eons ago. Might be higher in risky environments due to insurance, worker’s compensation, etc.

Re: Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill

#48

Post by mandelbrotwurst » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:57 PM UTC

dgellow wrote: post #25

chabes wrote: post #5

I closed my bank accounts in 2011. Cash is my currency of choice for most things. I use bitcoin for long term savings. Cold storage is safer than a bunch of cash under the mattress.

Do you get your salary in cash or cryptocurrency?

If the funds from said 2011 account closures went to BTC purchases, this person may very well not need a salary!

Re: Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill

#49

Post by marcoseliziario » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:57 PM UTC

scottLobster wrote: post #21

seibelj wrote: post #15

Every time you swipe your credit card innumerable processes and algorithms begin to parse and reevaluate your personality profile. Every purchase you make changes their opinion and assessment of your shopping habits and needs. Google may start showing ads for pet food if you bought something at PetSmart. Your bank may start sending you car loan ads if you spend at the repair shop. Everything has a side effect. Cash i…

Yeah, but I get paid for that in a combination of cash back and points. I limit my credit card information sharing as much as the privacy preferences allow, but I'm not about to give up hundreds or thousands of dollars a year in value because Google might show me an ad I won't click on anyway.

Here in Brazil is legal for companies to charge a bit less for products if you pay in cash, because they don't have to pay 5% of the transaction for a bank when you're paying in cash.

Banks fought heavily against this law, of course.

Re: Currency is popular again, especially the $100 bill

#50

Post by rolltiide » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:58 PM UTC

fennecfoxen wrote: post #24

rolltiide wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a strong use case for that, for my personal spending and utilities it would be very inconvenient for me to convert cryptocurrency to cash without an intermediary bank account. but business-wise many of my vendors have been able and willing to take cryptocurrency especially in the last 3 years. I've executed many legal agreements paid in crypto. Its made it extremely practical for Americans to have offshore c…

Yeah, those routine inflationary / deflationary episodes that can see the Bitcoin-denominated price of your services (just to use an example) rise and fall by 400% in a year, easily? Very practical! These intermediate bank accounts will soon be a thing of the past.

> the Bitcoin-denominated price of your services (just to use an example) rise and fall by 400% in a year

Yeah its a bad example because thats not whats happening at all. Criticisms are possible but yours are so far off that I guess these are called weak strawman arguments? I don't think this was intentional as its seems more like a precompiled argument that isn't really a response to this situation so I will tell you my experience with international vendors:

When legal contracts are executed a payment method and pricing index is determined. The payment itself does not take a year and there is usually no catalog of goods and services that are "bitcoin-denominated", for our agreements. When the actual payment occurs we use the agreed upon index to use the dollar price, paid in crypto and this takes a few seconds to execute and even in the volatile crypto markets usually nothing is happening in this time frame.

The cryptos typically involve:

Bitcoin most frequently using Tradeblock's XBX index, or CME's index, or Coinmarketcap

Ethereum most frequently using Coinmarketcap, and lately Tradeblock's ETX index

random token that one of us has large consolidated ownership of

stablecoin like DAI, USDC, Tether

This is conceptually no different than any legal contract that use shares for payment. You get a glimpse of this common transaction method when companies are acquired for "cash and stock". For the recipient, it is all about the tolerance of liquidity.

There is a curve of liquidity for different asset classes, with US treasuries and non interest bearing dollars being the most liquid on the planet, and a different velocity of liquidity needs for recipients.

In a different use case that uses stablecoins there are no price fluctuations and no index price negotiations involved.

Its been more convenient for some of our non-US businesses because it is difficult for banks to open bank accounts when the beneficial signers are Americans. This is due to FATCA and the high compliance burden for non-US banks, as well as FBAR filings for the US person. But the whole concept of bank accounts have been leapfrogged and international commerce continues unabated.