Advice to make and SC proud

[hinakiba777]

I have an advice-a-day calendar. Basically a page-a-day calendar with advice on it. Now for the most part the advice is great.
"Tip generously wait staff who are working their way through college"
"Take serious any kid who says "I need to go potty""
"If you're try hard to have fun, you're either in the wrong place or with the wrong person."
"Ask a co-worker to take ten or twelve candid photos of you at work on a regular day. Send them to grandparents who live far away."

But the other day I got a piece of advice from my calendar that made me want to throw the thing against the way. I'm sure anyone who works in retail can understand my ire.

"Paying in Cash will get you a deal. Ask Is that the best price I can get? If they say yes, and What if I pay in cash"

One bad piece of advice out of 366 isn't bad, but that is HORRIBLE advice. Annoying as hell, too.

[KellyHabersham]

I've heard the cash thing before - supposedly smaller stores are more willing to go for that because it's less costly to them than if the customer was paying via a credit (or debit) card.

[froglet]

Well, not only that, but sometimes if you're paying cash, they can slip it under the books, so the taxman doesn't know about it. Therefore no sales tax assessed and no income tax noted. And if they work on commission, its like a free bonus if the store lets you get away with it since you can say they actually paid anything they want. Especially in a trade-in environment like computer parts or second-hand music to name a couple.

[One-Fang]

We have a store here that I have finally gotten into my head does cash deals. Major national chain. They don't actually do "cash deals". What they do is interest-free hire purchase deals.

But if you pay cash the price is reduced.

Twice I've opted for interest-free payments to make paying for it easier then gone with cash when I've seen what the cash figure is, how much cheaper.

So yes, at least here, asking "what about if I pay with cash" is perfectly valid.

[Chromatix]

It does actually have a point, though it's possibly out of date - depending on how much transaction charges are these days.

It costs a certain amount to install and maintain a card payment system, and there is also a surcharge per transaction. So most shops increase their prices for everyone, so that the card transaction *appears* to be free.

Because they have to assume that *everyone* will pay by card (to avoid risking a loss), the price increase is perhaps a little greater than necessary. But if *you* pay by cash, the shop doesn't have to incur the transaction charge - so in theory, they might be willing to give you the difference. On a small order, it might be a substantial difference.

Not all shops have a policy of doing this. Many - especially larger ones which can negotiate better with the card vendors - probably have a policy of not doing so. But I wouldn't consider a customer sucky for asking politely about it.

[Norton]

My company (landscaping) gives discounts to customers that pay cash, as well. It's not completely bad advice. You just need to show some common sense regarding what businesses to try it at.

Of course, many people will read that and then try to haggle a deal at Wally World, where of course that will only give the poor cashier a headache. Corporate stores do not haggle.

[Bagga]

IN the early 70s, when credit cards were only just starting to become popular in the UK, we had one guy who asked for a discount. He was refused discount.

So his response?

"Do you take credit cards?"

"Yes sir, we do."

"Well, you pay the credit card company 2% of the sales price for using the CC facility, so give me that as a discount."

"Sigh. Ok sir, that will be a discount of about erm... 40 pence then sir"

Customer walks of thinking that he has WON. The whole transaction becomes famous throughout the region, and the shop vows to follow policy by returning his camera to the manufacturer should anything go wrong, rather than fixing lesser problems onsite where possible...

Discounts - SCs often don't care about the actual money, they just wanna FIGHT THE POWERS THAT BE... Even if they are acting against their own interests.

[Geek King]

We have several local gas stations that will knock ten cents off per gallon of gas if you pay cash. Not sure what the rational is there, unless they have some serious transaction fees, or maybe big issues with CC fraud.

[Becks]

The Exclusive Company has a lower price for CDs and such if you pay in cash.

Or they did.

I haven't been there in a while.

[Nashida]

We have several local gas stations that will knock ten cents off per gallon of gas if you pay cash. Not sure what the rational is there, unless they have some serious transaction fees, or maybe big issues with CC fraud.

Same, there's quite a few that can be 5-10 cents cheaper if I don't use a card and use cash. But i never have cash on hand, so it's almost useless to me.

Some even count debit cards under the "cash cheaper" thing.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Depends on the kind of store where you try this. A mom-and-pop kind of operation may be more willing to give you a discount if you pay cash because credit card processing fees are a bigger chunk out of their profits.

In a big-box store, those processing fees are chump change so they most likely won't bend.

I've never heard of any gas stations around here offering discounts for paying with cash, and I wouldn't take them up on it if they did. It's much more convenient and quicker for me to just pay with plastic.

[mattm04]

We have several local gas stations that will knock ten cents off per gallon of gas if you pay cash. Not sure what the rational is there, unless they have some serious transaction fees, or maybe big issues with CC fraud.

Connecticut now allows that. I guess the rational was that thy had to pay a flat fee + a percentage of the transaction to the CC company. Wiht $4/gallon gas the percentage kept increasing.

[PepperElf]

I think that all depends... if haggling is allowed, then perhaps... but if it's a store that doesn't normally haggle i doubt offering cash instead of plastic will make a difference.

if anything, with regular department stores etc... i would think "plastic money" would actually be more convenient than cash. It's all on the computer so there's accountability right there. And there's less temptation for someone to dip a paw into the till. Some places - like airports - actually encourage credit/debit cards over cash.


Now... if a place is one that normally haggles on a regular basis, there may be a benefit to offering cash. One man I spoke with once said that when he bought cars he usually did cash-on-hand and found that the dealers were more than willing to cut him a bargain in exchange for the guaranteed payment. His claim was that he bought a brand new car, fully loaded, for less than the flat-rate.

[tigerlily0]

RE: gas stations

At one point (I think a decade or two ago) around where I live, pretty much every gas station had a "credit card" price and a lower "cash" price. But then they all started putting in those pay with your credit card at the pump things, and all the prices went back to being the same for cash or credit. I remember some gas stations having large signs saying "cash and credit -- SAME PRICE!!!!". I'd guess some people complained about being charged extra for using their charge card.