Do people still use cash?

Cash for 75% of purchases,
Credit Card for the rest.
Always have cash in pocket !

When we use a debit or credit card to pay for goods, the store looses 2 to 6% to the card company. In order to make up for the loss that the card user causes, the retail price is increased. Think about every time you bitch about the price of gasoline, you are the cause of the price being higher than it needs to be.

Use cash? Sure do, for almost everything. Being old, eccentric, and a bit of a Neo-Luddite, rarely use plastic. Credit cards are used for big ticket items, car repairs, vet or medical bills, and not much else. When traveling, plastic is used for lodging, most places prefer or even insist on it, but gas is always cash at the discount stations such as Arco, both home and away, even though I do have one oil company card that is only used when there is a promo that offers cents off card gas purchases. Am perhaps in a very tiny minority of persons that have never, ever made a debit card card transaction or purchase, even though I can. Never, and have no intention of ever doing so. Have not written a check to make a purchase in over 20 years either. Cash most of the time, credit card not often, and the charges are always paid in full when due, cannot the recall the last time paid interest on a credit card, it has been that long ago.

Now using the ATM card to get cash is a bit of another matter. Being a dedicated horse player, long ago pinpointed my bank's ATM locations close to every race track and simulcast site that I patronize. Very useful to make a quick stop on the way to the track, or on those days when you take a shellacking and need to stop on the way home. Same goes for out of town trips to gambling centers; Las Vegas, Laughlin, Lake Tahoe, Reno, etc., know just where to go. Do not have a credit line in any casino, and the track sure as heck does not let you bet on credit, so cash is still king.

You're being too harsh against credit card use.

Retailers often prefer credit cards to cash because:

1. Decreased robbery exposure, bringing with it decreased danger for employees and security costs.
2. Ability to sell to people who lack liquidity.
3. Easier to capture impulse sales.
4. Eliminate exposure to counterfeit currency.
5. Risk of the buyer not being able to pay is shifted to the card company.
6. Decreased exposure to employee theft.

On balance, the use of credit cards can actually decrease the cost of providing goods and services to customers.

btw, it is extremely rare for a per transaction credit card or debit card fee to be over 3%. A lot of the fees that are charged would be charged whether a merchant ran 1 or 10,000,000 credit cards on their Merchant ID in a month. And a business in 2012 would doom itself to failure if it tried to operate on a cash only basis.


When taking a credit card transaction, if you got the proper authorization and signature, you can be 99.999999% sure that the exact amount of the transaction less the fee is the amount that is going to hit your bank account. If you take a cash payment, you run the risk of burglary, your employee giving too much change, employee theft, any of which will prevent the correct amount from going to your bank account.

cash transactions also are slower than debit or credit card transactions. businesses can lose business over long lines at the register. I promise you that it is a rare business that begrudges the credit card company that 2 point whatever % fee.

Well put.