Change is evil.

[RentalRacer]

Anytime anyone paid me in rolled change, I always cracked it open and counted it. Took my time too

Also, there is no law that a business has to take cash. If I open a business, and decide only to accept credit cards, thats my perogitive, Bobby Brown style Obviously, it makes good business sense to take cash. And, I only use the above argument when dealing with an SC who informs me that it is a law everyone has to take cash. In my line of work, we will only take cash at time of return to the chagrin of many, who are usually the SC's who insist there is a "law" we have to take cash. Sorry pal, not going to rent you a $30,000 car when all I get from you is the cost of your one day rental.

On a side note, anyone ever see signs in stores that say CC/Debit card purchases $5.00 minimum? Someone told me that is against the law, but I have not been able to verify it.

[Rapscallion]

It's more against the merchant contract with the credit card company. It was quite common to see the signs over here, interestingly enough, but either they had a crackdown on the places that were insisting on a minimum, or they stopped the universal flat fee that made people buying a newspaper on a card a loss-making exercise.

Rapscallion

[seeress_83]

Have you noticed how few people know how to count back change anymore? Let's say your purchase is $5.34 and you hand the cashier a $10 bill. The correct way would be to hand back 66 cents, making $6, and then count up to $10 with the remaining $4.

I'm a cashier, and I've noticed that. Some places don't count it back at all. I will admit, with my regular customers, sometimes I don't count it back, because hey, if we'd ever cheated one another, they wouldn't be regulars, right? Well, that is with the exception of $100 Bills. I ALWAYS count change back on those. And even though you have a register that tells you how much the change is, it's possible to forget to punch in an amount and just hit the tender button...in which case knowing how to count change is pretty darn useful.

[Reyneth]

The thing is, if the customer gets rid of all their change at the till, the next time they buy something, they will receive a handful of change back, because all they have are notes!

See, I never spend my change if I can help it. You don't notice the extra $.57 you paid by using a bill instead of giving $.43 change and it adds up! Plus I rarely am able to make it to the bank to get quarters for laundry.

[Scottya21]

The really sad thing is, I'm saying things like, "how 'bout kids these days and their inability to do math, or count change?" ... and I'm 22. But whatever.

The whole cash vs. credit cards thing FROM A BUSINESS'S STANDPOINT is really interesting. With cash, there's rather a lot more potential for employee error, and there's all the employee time spent dealing with it (counting it, putting it away at night, bundling it in convenient increments, bringing it to the bank), etc. With credit, you have to still deal with a lot of employee work( and possibly more manager-responsible sort of work), AND there's the fee with the credit offering group. So it's kinda of a toss-up which is better for ya.

And I agree about change adding up.. I accumulate it as well until I have a bunch, then I bring it to work and my boss is happy 'cause such businesses of course ALWAYS need change.

[seeress_83]

And I agree about change adding up.. I accumulate it as well until I have a bunch, then I bring it to work and my boss is happy 'cause such businesses of course ALWAYS need change.

See, that's just the problem here. We DON'T always need the change. We are a very small store in a very small town, and the bank is literally less than a quarter mile up the road. We don't use that much change. Not to mention it seems that people only want to bring me pennies, which we definitely do not use many of.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I admit to doing the "i have the change" thing after the cashier had already punched in the $20 bill that I gave her. But the change was a quarter and if you can't do the math on that, I feel sad for you. Also, it was right before Christmas at a trendy cosmetics store and I overheard another employee mention that they were running out of quarters. The girl, who looked high-school age, looked all confused and said, "but I already put it in..." so I said never mind, since I had to get back to my store and didn't have time for a math lesson. Then she proceeds to hand me 75 cents in nickels. Because she had no quarters in the drawer. I gave it to the Salvation Army guy playing the French horn outside.

I "love" the parents who come in with their little kids who've emptied the piggy bank into a plastic baggie and use it to buy their book. Yay for them spending their own money but, hey parents, can't you teach them how to count it at home, and change it for bills before you get to the store instead of holding up the line while Junior counts out $5.39 in pennies and dimes?

On getting rid of pennies: I saw a news thing the other day that said that right now with the price of copper, one penny actually cost something like 1.73 cents to make.

[Primer]

I don't know about you, but I learned the basics of counting money when I was in second grade.

Heck, I could even figure tax and total at that age...but then again, tax was 5% and quite easy to figure!

I remember one time when I was given an incorrect amount of change. I could not have told you if I was given too much or too little, but by golly, I know it wasn't correct! I had already figured out what my total was, and how much my change was supposed to be!

[purplecat41877]

Where I work, we have a coinstar machine. The customer puts their money into the machine and brings the slip that prints out of the machine up to the service desk to get cashed.

[Imogene]

Not to mention nobody knows math these days, grr.

Thanks... the fact that I went to bed the other night with a math formula in my head means nothing, then?
*note: I haven't had a math class in years (Hmmm... 1.5 for Tech, a year of no school... a year of college after Calculus... ) Four and a half years since my last math class...

I used to stun my managers at Chesterfield by knowing how to do division of large numbers in my head, and usually had a pretty close to correct number before they'd even punched in the numbers they were working withb on the calculator.
Also managed to piss a few of them off by being fast with my mental calculations...

[Scottya21]

Thanks... the fact that I went to bed the other night with a math formula in my head means nothing, then?
*note: I haven't had a math class in years (Hmmm... 1.5 for Tech, a year of no school... a year of college after Calculus... ) Four and a half years since my last math class...

I used to stun my managers at Chesterfield by knowing how to do division of large numbers in my head, and usually had a pretty close to correct number before they'd even punched in the numbers they were working withb on the calculator.
Also managed to piss a few of them off by being fast with my mental calculations...

Not at all, it was a *generalization*. If you can do that stuff, Good for you!