More and more places are demanding cash only

My wallet hasn't had any cash in it for more than a decade. Since about 2010 probably.

Which places are demanding cash only OP? Sounds totally made up.

None

Huh?

A quick few Google searches on your assertion turn up not a single news story in support.

Maybe give a little more information, if only by example, if want to put forth such a broad statement that goes against all trends.

The question is WHY for pity’s sake?

Many restaurants are charging extra if you pay with a debit or credit card, claiming card companies charge them.

psssst

R5 - card companies have always charged them - 3.5+% - it's nothing new.

More places want to scam out of taxes - that's the only reason people ask for cash only.

Sweden got rid of cash currency several years ago to eliminate this and black market for drugs/illegal transactions.

Another very low IQ DLer desperate for community so posting something, anything.

My barber takes cards, but I find it easier to use cash with him (my previous barbers have been cash-only). The most convenient postal location for me is a packing-shipping Contract Station post office. Cash-only for all USPS transactions, though cards are okay for UPS and retail items.

Otherwise, I have barely used any cash for years. I've experienced few surcharges, which are usually minor enough that I don't mind their passing them along vs. fumbling with cash.

I generally have between $50 and $100 in cash on me. I pay for gas with cash and my nail salon 'strongly encourages' cash payments and tips. I don't have a problem with either. I work from home 3 days a week so I buy gas about once every 2 weeks and get my nails done every 3. I hate putting things under $10 or $15 on my credit or debit card. Carrying cash allows me to control my spending.

Right now I have $45 cash in my wallet and another stash of $200 in a desk drawer that has been there about a year.

Years ago my spending was out of control so now I only carry my credit cards when I am sure to use them - large purchases, big restarant meals or traveling.

[quote] Carrying cash allows me to control my spending.

Exactly this. It helped when my bad spending habits needed attention. Easier to budget. I mostly use debit now but try to keep around $50 in my wallet just in case, as every once in a while there's a machine glitch or a defective/damaged debit card.

There are some DataLoungers who just don't live in the real world as it exist in 2025. More businesses are demanding cash only? Nonsense.

The trend is in the other direction. During the pandemic, many businesses stopped accepting cash, and some never dropped that rule even when all of the other restrictions lifted.

R10 - a lot of 'body service' places like cash - my massage place does as well. But I know it's tax evasion and it doesn't sit right with me. How do I know? They never ring up the sale - but I see them write it down in a paper book. Meanwhile you see so many nail salon owners driving expensive Mercedes.

They take advantage of their own country's immigrants, probably paying them low wages or under the table, and also do tax evasion at the same time. How are other legit places supposed to compete?

I pay the gardener and housekeeper in cash. I pay my barber in an app, but hand him a $20 bill for the tip. Also keep 5s & 1s in my bag for tips when traveling. Otherwise never have cash on me.

Moreover, R12, more places are allowing European-style tapping at the table, rather than taking the card away, returning with a paper bill to pay.

I haven't encountered any business "demanding cash," but I have seen cash discounts offered by various home improvement vendors – roofers, tree fellers, landscapers etc.

I have 400 copper pennies! Someday I’ll make washers out of them for no discernible reason and you’ll report me. I hate you.

There's a great little seafood joint about a half hour down the road from me where they only take cash. The prices are reasonable and the food is great, so it's a place I go periodically when I want to treat myself. I heard it's family owned, and I always tip my waitresses generously when I go in there, because I'm almost always there by myself, and they remember me and treat me well.

Hell, what's the matter with a little tax avoidance, especially with a little family place like this one? Wealthy people do it all the time.

R12 R15 Exactly. Nearly every establishment where I am moved almost exclusively to card/tap-to-pay . Most places don't even want to deal with cash anymore (except for the occasional sit-down, dine-in restaurant).

The credit card surcharges are a defacto price increase without saying it is a price increase.

Businesses know damn well few carry cash anymore. They can add 3% to the bill and blame someone else.

This comes up in Congress occasionally. They limited debit card fees a while ago (Durbin Amendment), which is why you see businesses prefer debit. They did not lower prices though, which is why many people balk at limiting credit card surcharges. Banks will discontinue reward credit cards, and prices will not go down.

I start off every Monday with $100 in my wallet. If I still have money left over from the week before (which I usually do) I just top it off to $100. This is what I call my "go to hell money". Money for little incidentals during the week. I often stop at farm stands and buy things and they don't take cards. Or times when I need a small tip for someone. I refuse to use my card(s) anywhere that charges me an extra fee

You reminded me, R20, that we have an Eastern European deli (food shop), that's debit-only, no credit cards.

Germany and I think Austria still have a lot of cash transactions particularly in restaurants, convenience stores, bars, etc.

In much of the rest of Europe you can pay for the least thing with a credit or debit card. Any everyone routinely pays uses direct bank transfers for payments for utilities, subscription services, repairs, barbers, festivals, taxis, and for settling your your part of the restaurant or tab tab that one friend charged on his card. Personal checks don't exist; it's cash transfers or charges to a card.

Everybody is aware of credit card surcharges (which are very significantly lower in Europe - see link). Nobody thinks he doing anyone a favor or saving the small businessman buy throwing around cash because the fractional surcharge is built into the price.)

I can withdraw 600€ from a cash machine and will typically have have almost half of that in my wallet two months later. Spending cash is definitely not on the upswing..

"I pay my barber in an app, but hand him a $20 bill for the tip."

How much is the haircut? I'm just curious about what seems like overtipping. if your haircut $80? $100?

I hate it, but I carry cash to tip the valet and hotel attendants, but that's about it. I use Apple Pay or Venmo whenever and wherever I can.

Hit send to quickly. Once my state adopts digital ID, I'll be done with wallets forever.

I pay cash tips to help the servers evade taxes. And I use cash when I can get the cash discount too.

“ Germany and I think Austria still have a lot of cash transactions particularly in restaurants, convenience stores, bars, etc.”

Europeans LOVE cash outside of the UK and Nordics. The Germans loathe traceable credit transactions.

More and more places are demanding I show hard dick to enter.

Do you have to show your hard dick, too?

All you really need now is a phone. Using apps - my phone has my DL and all cards on it and I just tap to pay.

I heartily approve of that R28. Please show us :)

But it's small and bent. They just want to humiliate me!

I rarely carry cash, and if I do it's only a few dollars. I pay for everything with my phone or my card.

CC Only

I hate being behind in line of someone paying by their phone. It takes them a long time to key in all the shit. Just use your fucking credit card, bitch. It just takes a few seconds to swipe or insert the card.

[quote]I hate being behind in line of someone paying by their phone. It takes them a long time to key in all the shit.

What are you talking about? You just hold your phone up to the machine, and it's done. Who is keying in stuff?

i know carrying cash is a Boomer thing to do (I'm in the second cohort of Boomers - born in the 60s) but, after Superstorm Sandy, I always try to have cash on hand. No ATMs were working and only a few banks and gas stations had power. Restaurants cook with gas so you could buy food - but only if you had cash.

I tried to simplify my payments at cashiers by setting up my watch for payments. But starting up the wallet and then unlocking the app takes longer than paying with a credit card. So now I turned off NFC and pay with a card that's attached to my phone with a silicon sleeve. If somebody knows how to get around the unlock mechanism, please let me know.

If the internet gets hacked by terrorists, we will immediately revert to cash. Paying with cards, apple pay or venmo will be impossible. Maybe keep a couple hundred in small bills somewhere to be safe.

Most I go to say no cash. I always have cash in my wallet--and it lasts a long time because no one wants it! Good for tips, though. Service workers prefer it to adding to check.

I used to go to the UK annually to visit friends and would get some Pounds from the bank in advance. But then didn't go for a few years because of the pandemic.

Before my 2022 trip, I went to the bank to get Pounds was told they don't keep them any longer and I'd have to order. But, why bother, since no one in Europe takes cash anymore.

Didn't believe that but figured I'd use the ATM once there. But I never did because I didn't need to. Never went to a place where cash required. It's equal parts great - because cash is a pain; but also kind of strange and kind of sad.

I keep $40-60 in my wallet just in case — came in handy last year when a bar's CC machine was down — but try to use a CC for everything to get the points. Still, there are places like the local farmstand that only take cash.

I keep $100 in tens in my wallet, but I have the mattress stashed for when Trump lowers the FDIC limit, administratively.

Local restaurants, post two different prices as to whether you pay by cash or credit card. I’ve seen it as low as 4% difference in prices.

Europe is a much heavier user of cash transactions than the US. But we may see this change in the US with the ability of shops to provide a cash discount in lieu of credit.

Over 50% of European transactions are in cash right now

In the US on the other hand? Under 20% cash transactions.

Weed stores only accept cash and something called aeropay. I try to keep $60 so that I’m stinky, but not too stinky.

The weed stores can’t use cc payments in my state. Cash or cash from the ATMs located in the store.

R35 Your post makes me laugh, because often we hear about that old-timey stereotype of some old person holding up a checkout line when they pull out their checkbook to pay - something I haven't encountered personally for at least a decade now. But the last three times I've experienced a lengthy delay like that has been with some young idiot fumbling with around with their phone and not having installed the store's app properly or trying to clip digital coupons while they're in line.

R42, I remember going into my local Jersey Mike's for a sandwich. Just as my order was ready and I was ready to pay, their system went down. They said it would take about 20 minutes for the system to reboot. She wrote down my order on the back of bag, totaled it, and I paid in cash. The line behind was having a hissy fit because all orders had to be handwritten and totaled (God help them as most can't do simple math), and they weren't sure if they would earn their points toward a free order. I wonder how many gave a false CC number and got their food for free.

I keep about $5,000 cash in the house. California. You never know when there might be an earthquake or a fire or a breakdown of the ATMs -- It's hidden in a book (of which there are many hundreds in my house).

And I always carry cash with me, up to $100 -- the other month I got a flat tire and being me, I had no idea how to put the spare on. Two guys at the neighboring parking lot came over and did it for me, I gave them each $20. You also never know when you might need to tip someone.

R51 I was going to post the same thing about earthquake preparedness here in California. My boyfriend and I have been collecting $1 bills for about five years now. We have over $2000 in a metal box in case of that type of emergency. And while neither of us pay much with cash, we usually have about another $1000 between us in the house in case of some emergency.

[quote]The line behind was having a hissy fit because all orders had to be handwritten and totaled (God help them as most can't do simple math),

And nobody used the calculator on their phones?

I am convinced Bitcoin and other digital currencies were created as a solution for cash laundering. It makes no other sense to me.

[quote]The weed stores can’t use cc payments in my state

They can't use CC payments in any state. Weed is still illegal on a federal level, so they can't use any bank/payment process that could shift that money across state lines.

They are, at best, limited to banks charted within their own state, and have no branches out of state, and even then most local banks don't want to take the risk.

I never use cash. It's 2025.

Cash is passé.

Cash is definitely passé in the US - no question about that.

Until...

I only use cash at the farmer's market and for the occasional food truck. Almost everything else is by credit card, except for one utility bill, prescription cat food from my vet, and my local comics shop.

I’ve encountered at least 2 cash only businesses recently in NJ as well. Places like that usually have an ATM machine on site or there’s one nearby.

[quote]They can't use CC payments in any state. Weed is still illegal on a federal level, so they can't use any bank/payment process that could shift that money across state lines.

Thank you for explaining something I'd been wondering about why my dispensary only takes cash or debit.

After big hurricanes, it's often reported that power outages force businesses to go cash only, with ATMs in turn not functioning or running out of cash. After Hurricane Helene last year, one report I heard said stores were even accepting ... CHECKS!

I also remember reports like that after Hurricane Sandy, and one in particular about how people on EBT (food stamps) couldn't swipe their cards to process transactions.

[quote]Thank you for explaining something I'd been wondering about why my dispensary only takes cash or debit.

What is interesting about debit R62, is they are not running those as debit like Kroger/Walmart do. They are running those transactions as ATM withdrawals.

They run them as an ATM transaction and just keep the cash, so it is still a "cash" transaction. They are not actually transferring money from your account to theirs.

I live in the Bay area, and that ain’t never happenin here. Everybody would go apeshit.

r35 You might be 'slow.'

r61 "ATM machine"

Oh, dear

R1 never tips.

[quote]More and more places are demanding cash only

Whew chile, the ghettoo

How do you "I never carry cash" queens tip? You must not get out much. Parking attendants, bellman, hotel staff, caddies and lots of other low level service jobs don't have card scanners or cash apps ready to receive you payment.

In California and other parts of the world where an earthquake of a large magnitude is in inevitable, cash is at the top of the list for survival kits. Preferably in low denotations. No one is going to have a working credit card reader, cell phone or internet when you need to barter for food or gas or water.

r69 Meh, you tried

r8 Says the person who has now posted 4 times in this thread.