refusing to accept cash

January 31st, 2018 at 2:06:56 PM permalink
terapined
Member since: Aug 6, 2014
Threads: 73
Posts: 11786
Quote: OnceDear
When I ran an ebay selling business as a sideline, my (unstated) refund policy was 'Two sincere apologies: A total refund, including carriage: The buyer kept the item with my compliments ( If he had received it ) AND a replacement sent by first class recorded delivery. Unless it was an export to Europe, where I also banned the buyer from buying from me again.
It might seem absurdly open to abuse, but I costed it all in to the business, and it was a success. I was able to mark up perfectly ordinary items by 100 to 300%


I saw an Item on ebay I was interested in.
The value of the item to me was about 60 bucks
Bidding started at 1 buck but shipping was 100.00 which I thought was absurd.
So I sent a question asking why shipping so high
The seller really got pissed at me for asking that question. He banned me from the sale and relisted at 100.00 with free shipping
I see a lot of over priced items on ebay
Sometimes we live no particular way but our own - Grateful Dead "Eyes of the World"
January 31st, 2018 at 8:57:20 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
I've used ebay only a few times. I don't quite grasp this silly auction stuff and usually would deal only with priced merchandize. A few times I've bought items on the cheap with three to four week delivery periods rather than pay Amazon's price with two day delivery. The two-thirds discount in price was worth the wait. Currently waiting on one item for thirty dollars rather than Amazon's fifty dollars. Its just that Shanghai requires paypal only, nothing else. I'm fairly certain that 'new' on ebay seems to mean new packaging of a refurbished item or sale of an older, discontinued model. Wouldn't trust anyone on ebay.
February 1st, 2018 at 2:27:59 AM permalink
beachbumbabs
Member since: Sep 3, 2013
Threads: 6
Posts: 1600
Quote: odiousgambit
Governments are evidently deciding that it's better to know every transaction we make. It is certainly true that there are ways to avoid taxes sometimes if you pay cash.

I sometimes try to get a deal with cash. Sometimes the merchant doesn't want to bother with it; older guys with small operations, service immediately rendered, are your best bet.

If I pay with a credit card, I will make sure I get at least 4 weeks to pay, up to 6 weeks. Thus I pay for almost nothing with a check.


One of the best places for me to use cash is with handymen/contractors. I got 10% off a new roof with cash, for example. Saved $600.

I suppose they've had any number of issues getting paid - probably why they have the right to place a lien on a property if they don't.

I usually have them quote me a price. Then I ask what they can do for cash on completion. Most of them want half up front or more, but the price improves considerably.
Never doubt a small group of concerned citizens can change the world; it's the only thing ever has
February 1st, 2018 at 3:03:40 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: beachbumbabs
One of the best places for me to use cash is with handymen/contractors. I got 10% off a new roof with cash, for example. Saved $600.
I suppose they've had any number of issues getting paid - probably why they have the right to place a line on a property if they don't.


1 USD =1,071 KRW
Quote: The Bank of Korea
on announced it will step up its efforts to reduce the circulation of coins, the highest denomination of which is worth less than $0.50. As part of the plan it wants consumers to deposit loose change on to Korea's ubiquitous "T Money" cards -- electronic travel passes that can be used to pay for metro fares, taxi rides and even purchases in 30,000 convenience stores. The proposals are just the latest step for a nation at the forefront of harnessing technology to make citizens' lives more convenient. Online shopping is the norm, as are mobile payments for the country's tech-savvy millennials. South Korea is already one of the least cash-dependent nations in the world. It has among the highest rates of credit card ownership -- about 1.9 per citizen -- and only about 20 percent of Korean payments are made using paper money, according to the BoK. But while convenience is at the crux of the central bank's plan, there are other considerations. The BoK spends more than $40m a year minting coins. There are also costs involved for financial institutions that collect, manage and circulate them.


I am convinced that South Korea has the correct concept. The real drag on business is coins. If you eliminate coins then small banknotes will follow.

South Korea will still make extensive use of its largest banknote, worth about $47 apiece.
February 1st, 2018 at 3:46:17 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Contractors often want a good chunk of cash upfront because they will be buying materials and don't want to be at risk of homeowner's whims.

Sure workmen can file liens and often do but its still an expense to them to take any further steps on it. Most mechanics liens are filed by subcontractors who are worried about payment from the contractor.

I find our card payment systems annoying. Often having to spend an inordinate amount of time declining cash-back, entering passwords for trivial transactions, dealing with screens that show only the fluorescent store lights, etc.
February 1st, 2018 at 6:53:39 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Fleastiff
Contractors often want a good chunk of cash upfront because they will be buying materials and don't want to be at risk of homeowner's whims.

The value of the upfront payment in theory could be done via electronic transfer as well as with physical currency.

Most countries of the world have a single city which completely dominates the population, government and economic landscape. Mass transit almost screams out for cashless payment systems. In the USA, outside of NYC, very few people ride mass transit, so we get by with cash.

Since most of the comprehensive mass transit cards based on RFID date back to a period of about 12-18 years ago, these cities have naturally expanded their small cashless payment systems to snack trucks, etc.






At any rate, most discussions of going cashless center on large value banknotes with the goal of eliminating money laundering, tax evasion, bribery, etc. The very largest banknotes, the US $500, $1000, $5000 and $10,000 banknote, the Swedish 10,000 kroner note, the 500 Euro banknote, the Singapore 10,000 dollar worth US$7600 are now gone.If Britain manages to eliminate the £50 = US$71 in the next five years, it will be the banknote worth less than $100 to be eliminated.



But a lot more efficiency in business could be achieved by making small purchases cashless,
February 1st, 2018 at 10:10:04 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Eliminate money laundering? Or eliminate petit money laundering leaving only the big players able to engage in wholesale money laundering.

Total cashlessness requires a greater incentive and a greater ease. Oyster cards, etc. will indeed be the way to go forward on this .... Bank of America offers a 'round off the darned cents' program wherein they round up the transaction amount to whole dollars. That might help eliminate coin use. Though I don't know if physical change is really that much slower than an electronic transaction.
February 1st, 2018 at 10:48:44 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Fleastiff
Though I don't know if physical change is really that much slower than an electronic transaction.


it probably doesn't make that much difference in the payment of goods.

It's the background where the try to reconcile accounts. Plus the difficulty of keeping enough cash on change. Then the stores must collect all the change and ship it to the bank. Plus the huge overhead of minting the coins and distributing them to banks and stores.

Half the coins minted in the USA are pennies. Truckloads of them. European Monetary Union, United Kingdom and Japan all have a coin equivalent to the US penny, but for some reason they don't seem to have make nearly as many of them.

The smaller countries have eliminated their tiniest coin. Notably Canada and Australia no longer use the penny but they still have coins close in value to the nickel. Swedish coins start at about the dime level. Korea has four coins starting at the penny level and working up to about 46 cents, but they plan on eliminating all coins by 2020.
February 1st, 2018 at 11:01:56 AM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
I saw a really good hour long talk
on Utube by Frank Abignale, the
guy they made the movie 'Catch
Me If You Can' about. He's been
an FBI agent for over 40 years,
specializing in money crimes.

He says he has never owned a
debit card and never will. None
of his grown kids have one. He
went down a laundry list of the
ways you can get royally screwed
using a debit card. And how it's
impossible to get screwed using
a reputable credit card.

He means screwed in the end, being
on the hook for charges you never
made. With a debit card, crooks can
ruin you.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
February 2nd, 2018 at 11:30:48 AM permalink
JimRockford
Member since: Sep 18, 2015
Threads: 2
Posts: 971
Quote: Evenbob
I was reading that the crooks have already
figured out 14 ways from Sunday to beat
the Walmart self scan app.

Saw this article today:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/stealing-from-self-checkout/550940/

Quote:
When Voucher Codes Pro, a company that offers coupons to internet shoppers, surveyed 2,634 people, nearly 20 percent admitted to having stolen at the self-checkout in the past.

Appearantly theft is pretty widespread.
The mind hungers for that on which it feeds.