[brazzy]

> I have been to some mid-range restaurants that will knock 10% off my bill if I pay in cash instead of credit. This is the merchant fighting back using their own stratagems.

Not sure how things are in the USA, but in Germany, that has nothing to do with "fighting back" and everything with dodging VAT.

[neither_color]

Cynically that's probably often the case but if you're offering <$10 food items at a mom & pop shop the credit card fees are non-trivial so there probably is a very legitimate incentive to take cash. There's also benefits to getting immediate cash that you can put in the bank for expenses at the end of the day vs waiting a day or two for credit card money.

[brazzy]

> if you're offering <$10 food items at a mom & pop shop the credit card fees are non-trivial so there probably is a very legitimate incentive to take cash.

Yeah, but not a 10% incentive, especially given that depositing cash isn't free either, for commercial accounts.

> There's also benefits to getting immediate cash that you can put in the bank for expenses at the end of the day vs waiting a day or two for credit card money.

> There's also benefits to getting immediate cash that you can put in the bank for expenses at the end of the day vs waiting a day or two for credit card money.

patio11 actually argues that it's the opposite which explains why stores offer you to take out cash along with your purchase when you pay by debit card) in another article at https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/the-infrastructure-be... - "And so, getting magical paper out of the till and into your wallet without it first visiting the bank saves the retailer money. It can also, potentially, earn the retailer a small amount of float. Cash in its tills is dead money and may not be deposited until e.g. the end of the week or later, but selling that paper to a customer for real money results in it arriving in their bank account faster than physically walking it to the bank."

It might be different for a small mom&pop store that actually deposits their cash every day, of course.