Cash is no longer legal tender?

[terry1156]

Apple announced that they will no longer take cash for those wanting to purchase an iPhone:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/te...th&oref=slogin

While this may be an isolated instance, I'm curious what others think about the idea of cash being refused for the purchase of a product and where this may lead in the future?

[disneysteve]

I can see stores not wanting to handle cash for large purchases due to the security risk of having large amounts of cash on hand. Just imagine how crime would drop if stores didn't accept cash. There would be no reason to rob a convenience store or gas station if no cash was kept there.

[InDebtInDC]

Originally Posted by terry1156

While this may be an isolated instance, I'm curious what others think about the idea of cash being refused for the purchase of a product and where this may lead in the future?

With all due respect, this idea of refusing cash as legal tender is not new. For example, you can't pay bus fare with $100 bills. The vendor is not obligated to accept cash as legal tender is there exists no legal obligation (debt) at the time payment is tendered.

Personally, I believe that nothing beats a good cash deal; however, the premise is that you have faith in the government that backs up the cash. If you don't believe in the legitimacy and/or stability of the government, then money issued by that government is worthless in your eyes.

But Apple is still accepting debit and credit. So it's not like they've totally moved to a barter system.

I don't think this will change much. Right now mail order companies don't accept cash sent through the mail so it's not a new concept.

[Broken Arrow]

What Steve said. In general, when there's a large amount of cash in one place, it poses a particular risk for the business. Besides burglars, employees might be tempted, and special arrangements with armed security and armored trucks are typically involved.

In this case too, it would seem that Apple has some very specific tactic in mind to make it harder for individuals to buy more than 2 iPhones for the purposes of unlocking them and then reselling them for a profit on the internet. Cash purchases would have been extremely difficult to track, but debit and credit purchases comes along with customer data, which is likely what they're doing to track who has bought how many....

[nanamom]

Decades ago when I was selling computers we had a customer buy a business system with the works. Cost was about 3 thousand and change. He paid cash. Walked in carrying a bank money bag and as soon as he left we immediately made a deposit at the bank across the street! It wouldn't fit in the cash drawer!

[disneysteve]

Eliminating cash would also benefit our tax system. How many billions of dollars are transacted in cash transactions that never got reported for tax purposes? The government could likely collect millions more in taxes if everything was electronic and there was no way to evade taxes by dealing in cash.

[InDebtInDC]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Eliminating cash would also benefit our tax system. How many billions of dollars are transacted in cash transactions that never got reported for tax purposes? The government could likely collect millions more in taxes if everything was electronic and there was no way to evade taxes by dealing in cash.

Originally Posted by InDebtInDC

Personally, I believe that nothing beats a good cash deal

What exactly are you implying, steve?

[shizane101]

I would be okay with all businesses dealing with plastic only. I use credit for everthing I do anyway. Might as well get 1% cash back on all my purchases.

[simpleyme]

yes we should go all plastic as credit card companies deserve to profit on every single thing we do and of course the continual monitoring will help
reduce crime further
people having garage sales and boy scouts selling door to door do not usually pay visa any money either!
and lord knows that pan handler is not paying tax on that quarter I gave him! I would rather run my visa through a machine attached to his sign ,it would be funny as it would actually cost him money! 25 cents a swipe plus 1 percent or so more if I use my rewards card!

funny thing about no cash people you are so screwed during blackouts!
we had a huge storm a few years back all lights out I only took cash no checks no IOU, so if we were cash less I would lock the doors of the store take what I need and go home

and if there were no cash criminals would steal goods! if they can't rob me of money they would steal all of the cigs,about 10K far worse than the 300 in the till

[momof1in150]

I was at the Dollar Store and they will not take $2 bills. She said that their machines don't read them. Even though I had other cash in my wallet I walked out of the store. I am having issues with stores that don't take cash and commercials that advocate using plastic and making cash look so bad.

[PrincessPerky]

Maybe you could trade camping equipment for boy scout popcorn..

OHH I know instead of cash (because I doubt many of us would feel safe giving our credit info to a pan handler), we could all start carrying around those visa pre loaded cards, so you could give a plastic card that equals 5 bucks to the pan handler, or one you used most of to buy a coffee...then he could take his pile of those cards to the store to buy...umm food of course. much better than a pile of coins....

See money is money....no way to get around using money unless you go with barter...and not all 'stuff' is worth the same to every person...cash on the other hand is legally required to be worth the same (worth diddly squat, but all the same amount of diddly squat)

Plastic on the other hand is worth a smidgen less than diddly..the same diddly, minus the fees the stores have to pay...not to mention credit cards have that after purchase fee (called interest) to make them negative worth.

Having said that, I use plastic most of the time.....cause of that law meaning it costs me the same, and the store can't do anything to me about those fees they pay...I am selfish....That and I just don't care if the government knows how much I pay for groceries every month, I am not a very good libertarian really.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by simpleyme

people having garage sales and boy scouts selling door to door do not usually pay visa any money either

I don't think anyone is suggesting we eliminate cash entirely. It certainly serves a need, just less of a need than it used to. I just saw an estimate of the predicted online sales for this year and it is far higher than ever and rising steadily. Those transactions are all cashless.

funny thing about no cash people you are so screwed during blackouts!

Very true, and that's why you'll often hear me encourage people to keep a stash of cash on hand in small bills. Everyone should keep $500 or so around the house for emergencies.[/quote]

if there were no cash criminals would steal goods!

They already do that anyway, so that wouldn't be any difference.

[simpleyme]

it was my understanding that we were eliminating ALL cash and that would eliminate all the evils in the world disneyseteve LOL

sorry I loves me cash ;-) I also love to quote Mr.Crab from spongebob squarepants LOL

[sweeps]

Cash will be a collector's item in 25 years.

Dad: "Junior, I used to pay for things with these green pieces of paper and these shiny round objects."
Junior: "Oh yeah... and I suppose you walked to school both ways uphill in the snow, barefoot, right?"
Dad: "Ugh, never mind, go listen to your ultra-mini-micro-nano IPod thing-a-ma-jig."

[Ingtar17]

I'm not sure why, but not being able to pay for something with cash makes me nervous. You would think cold, hard cash would be something anyone would accept.

[Jaun22]

That is some serious evolution there. Without cash where will this lead with financial accountability.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Jaun22

That is some serious evolution there. Without cash where will this lead with financial accountability.

IMO, financial accountability is far easier using credit and debit because there is a paper/electronic trail. I can go online 24/7 and see exactly what I've spent on my credit card. No such record exists of my cash purchases. So it is much easier to stick to a budget and quickly see where I'm overspending by reviewing my credit card statements.

[simpleyme]

see I find that silly that credit is easier to track, I am present when ever I spend money LOL

and people also say but I lose money if I have it,come on , how do people that lose money by dropping all over the place find their way home at night ?LOL

people who claim that credit cards are great tools for the responsible should also be capable of using cash in a responsible manner

I could use credit for everything but find cash easier its funny how that irritates people

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by simpleyme

see I find that silly that credit is easier to track

people who claim that credit cards are great tools for the responsible should also be capable of using cash in a responsible manner

I agree completely. I never said I couldn't use cash responsibly. I do it all the time. At the end of each month, though, nobody mails me a list of all the cash purchases I made. At the end of the year, nobody mails me a breakdown of all my cash purchases for the year, sorted by category like auto, dining, travel, entertainment, etc. My credit card does that.

And, most importantly, when I use cash, nobody sends me a check rebating part of my spending and nobody sends me certificates for free hotel stays. My credit cards do that very nicely.

I have no problem at all with people using cash. I just prefer to get the rewards that come from using the credit card and not having to walk around with lots of cash on me.

[shizane101]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

I agree completely. I never said I couldn't use cash responsibly. I do it all the time. At the end of each month, though, nobody mails me a list of all the cash purchases I made. At the end of the year, nobody mails me a breakdown of all my cash purchases for the year, sorted by category like auto, dining, travel, entertainment, etc. My credit card does that.

And, most importantly, when I use cash, nobody sends me a check rebating part of my spending and nobody sends me certificates for free hotel stays. My credit cards do that very nicely.

I have no problem at all with people using cash. I just prefer to get the rewards that come from using the credit card and not having to walk around with lots of cash on me.

I agree with disneysteve's post 100% I couldn't have said it any better.