Cash Discount

[giblets]

debit. card.

Do you get a cash discount if you use one? I guess that makes sense. If so I would use my debit card for most purchases

[Zoetstofzoetje]

no, but some retailers add on fees for creditcard transactions. unless it's AMEX, because apparently those are without 3% commission. that's allegedly why you can only use AMEX or debit card to pay at IKEA in some Euro countries.

[snoopy369]

http://www.remodeling.hw.net/legal-issues/bylaw-are-cash-discounts-illegal.aspx

Apparently, cash discounts _are_ legal, though CC surcharges are not. Semantics, of course, matter in matters of law...

[Zoetstofzoetje]

in florida, when i tried to purchase a camera with my credit card, the price went up.

[Al B. Sure!]

http://www.remodeling.hw.net/legal-i...s-illegal.aspx

Apparently, cash discounts _are_ legal, though CC surcharges are not. Semantics, of course, matter in matters of law...

This site:

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/cards/crcd_buy.shtml#Question6

Says otherwise:

Can the merchant charge credit card users more than cash customers for the same item?
Yes, if the merchant goes about it the right way.
The Federal Truth-in-Lending Act prohibited surcharges on credit card purchases until 1984; since then, there has been no Federal law on that subject. (Other provisions of the law are still in force.) The states of CA, CO, CT, FL, KS, MA, ME, NY, OK, and TX have laws against surcharges, according to Bankcard Holders of America.
Discover allows surcharges on credit card purchases, except in the above states. Visa and MasterCard prohibit them. American Express discourages them in general, and specifically prohibits them by merchants that also take MasterCard or Visa because Amex doesn't allow merchants to discriminate against it.
There is a loophole: merchants are allowed to give cash discounts. This means in practice that they can't charge you more than the labeled price if you pay by credit card, but they can charge you less if you pay cash. Some companies announce (usually in tiny print in the catalog) that all prices "reflect cash discount" of x% so credit card users must pay x% more than the stated price. This may be legal but it certainly violates the spirit of the law or the regulations. I don't know about the "service fee" charged credit card users for things like ordering tickets over the phone, but they're certainly not allowed to charge you a higher price in person than if you pay cash.

[OzzyKP]

no, but some retailers add on fees for creditcard transactions. unless it's AMEX, because apparently those are without 3% commission. that's allegedly why you can only use AMEX or debit card to pay at IKEA in some Euro countries.

This seems exactly backwards.

Generally AMEX charges a higher fee than Visa/Mastercard and that is why retailers are less likely to accept it.

I think a cash discount is just fine.

[Al B. Sure!]

As an American Express customer, I can attest that a lot of places don't accept AMEX.

[giblets]

If I had a store, I wouldn't accept American Express, and if a customer asked if they could use their American Express card I would kick them out.

[Flubber]

I have been to a good dozen Asian food restaurants (in Calgary Canada) that offer

full price if you use a credit card
5% off if you use debit
10% off if you pay cash

Since credit card fees are never this high IIRC, I thought it was at least partly a means for them to underreport income if tax authorities are not vigilent ( I know that auditors often do a check by auditing credit card transactions which they 'know" will on average be a certain proportion of fast food sales-- whether they go further and assess how much cash income should be reported when restaurants offer discounts which may impact their proportion of credit sales, I do not know)


I routinely pay cash at these places. Why wouldn't I do something this simple that can save me 6 or 7 bucks each time?

[Tupac Shakur]

I already try to use cash. I don't like paper trails.

I too try to avoid a paper trail. I guess I'm just an old fart.

I hate to break it to you old *****, but you're not going to be John Connor. You don't have to worry about the terminators finding you because you're on the grid.

[DinoDoc]

I thought charging extra for using a credit card was illegal, but offering a cash discount was legal.

Neither is illegal afaik. I know utilities in my area charge 3% to use a CC.

[SlowwHand]

I hate to break it to you old *****, but you're not going to be John Connor. You don't have to worry about the terminators finding you because you're on the grid.

I hate to break it to you, dicksuck, but that's not the point.

[Tupac Shakur]

There is no point, you paranoid idiot.

[rah]

As JR said, the fewer people that handle your information the safer you are. When I ran a call center, with millions of transactions occurring annually there were always instances of reps jotting down CC numbers on paper along with the security code and using it. Granted we caught them almost every time when they were stupid enough to have the crap they bought using that info SHIPPED TO THEIR HOME ADDRESS, which we had on file but not always. I've worked in computer security and while every effort is made to protect, a lot of effort is being made to break in. No database is 100% safe.
And by minimizing your use, if you get hacked, it's usually easier to trace where it occurred.
Heck when I used to get magazine subscriptions (yes I'm a dinosaur) I used to give a different middle initial for each one so I would know who was selling my name.

There's a reason there are billions and billions of dollars of CC fraud a year. It's not that hard.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I only use credit. Places that offer cash discounts or accept cash only are icky.