Restaurants asking for tips to be left in cash

[myrdale]

I do not understand what difference the credit card transaction fee would have? When they run the card, there is only (1) transfer of money correct and the restaurant has to take the tip out of that or am I wrong?

[disneysteve]

I do not understand what difference the credit card transaction fee would have? When they run the card, there is only (1) transfer of money correct and the restaurant has to take the tip out of that or am I wrong?

Let's say your bill is $50 and your tip is $10. If the CC fee is 3%, it's $1.50 on the food bill. They will pay an additional $0.30 if you charge the tip but they have to give the server the full $10. If you pay the tip in cash, they don't have to eat the 3% fee on that money.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

unfortunately since I don't carry cash often it's CC or nothing. Same with eating at the restaurant. They'll be lucky if I don't turn around and walk out if they take only cash. Sorry but I can't help it. I've turned around when i realized I didn't have cash to cover eating somewhere.

[disneysteve]

unfortunately since I don't carry cash

I can't imagine ever walking out of my house without cash in my wallet.

[~bs]

Minimum wage for servers is $2.13.

Tip your servers well folks.

$9 in my state. A lot of servers make good money actually, really depends on the place and quality of the server.

[amastewa93]

It all really depends on where you work too. I did a lot of food service throughout college and for a few months after I graduated.

Bigger chains you will get your tips at the end of the night (for cards and cash) and usually get paid the minimum waitress wage for the area. Privately-owned establishments, on the other hand, held my tips that were made with credit cards until my payday and I was taxed for that. When I worked at a smaller restaurant that worked that way, I was always happy when customers tipped in cash. However, it did make payday something to actually look forward to. The smaller restaurant also gave me $4 per hour compared to the $2 and change elsewhere.

Catering brought the best tips and the best pay out of everything though - $12 an hour plus tips made me feel like a millionaire at the time, especially after making $2 to $7 an hour waiting tables or working fast food haha.

[myrdale]

Let's say your bill is $50 and your tip is $10. If the CC fee is 3%, it's $1.50 on the food bill. They will pay an additional $0.30 if you charge the tip but they have to give the server the full $10. If you pay the tip in cash, they don't have to eat the 3% fee on that money.

I didn't realize it was a percentage, I thought it was a flat fee, per transaction.

[scfr]

I didn't realize it was a percentage, I thought it was a flat fee, per transaction.

In my extremely limited experience (I only know what one organization where I used to do volunteer work was charged), it was both. There was a small flat fee, plus a percentage. On a small purchase, that "small flat fee" can represent a fairly large percentage of the transaction.

[disneysteve]

In my extremely limited experience (I only know what one organization where I used to do volunteer work was charged), it was both. There was a small flat fee, plus a percentage. On a small purchase, that "small flat fee" can represent a fairly large percentage of the transaction.

Yes, it'll be something like $0.20 plus 2.78%. Just making up numbers and it varies by card and processor but you get the idea.

[~bs]

In my extremely limited experience (I only know what one organization where I used to do volunteer work was charged), it was both. There was a small flat fee, plus a percentage. On a small purchase, that "small flat fee" can represent a fairly large percentage of the transaction.

That is correct. The credit card fee also varies depending on the interchange service and card provider. They're all different, but will generally be in the 2.5%-3.5% range. The type of business, amount of business, and your chargeback rates also matter.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I can't imagine ever walking out of my house without cash in my wallet.

So I leave the house with $20 in my pocket. Not a huge amount but not really able to buy lunch for my kids and me. Even for myself depending on where it could be "tight"

[QuarterMillionMan]

At least you have a choice of cash or credit card to tip. What would you do if the restaurant automatically charged a gratuity as in let's say parties of 10 or more automatically assessed an 18% tip? Or as in my case last night at my Indian casino for a party of just myself when I checked the bill tip was automatically assessed. I politely requested they remove the tip since I preferred to leave a cash tip on the table and they eventually removed the tip from my bill but think of all the other people who don't or didn't check their bills. I was disappointed to discover that they automatically charged me the tip in my bill.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I sort of like the gratuity added but they should tell you. It happened where DH double tipped and they refused to give us the money back. He didn't notice and paid and then looked at the bill and was like what?

[QuarterMillionMan]

In my case no mention of the mandatory gratuity was mentioned by my waitress. And I couldn't find any disclaimer on the menu or signage in or around the restaurant displaying the mandatory gratuity added to the bill which I thought was quite disingenuous.

[~bs]

I sort of like the gratuity added but they should tell you. It happened where DH double tipped and they refused to give us the money back. He didn't notice and paid and then looked at the bill and was like what?

You can dispute that. I find it dishonest when they simply accept the extra tip without letting the patron know of potential double tipping.