XPost: calgary.general, can.general, can.politics 
 XPost: edm.general, hfx.general, mtl.general 
 XPost: qc.general, tor.general, van.general 
 XPost: wpg.general 
 From: spamsucks@crazyhat.net 
  
 In message  gapope@vcn.bc.ca wrote: 
  
 >DevilsPGD  wrote: 
 >D> In message  gapope@vcn.bc.ca wrote: 
 >D> 
 >D> >DevilsPGD  wrote: 
 >D> >D> Of course if I get mugged with $1000 cash, I'm out $1000.  If I get 
 >D> >D> mugged and lose my credit card, I'm out a 3 minute phone call, plus I 
 >D> >D> have to be available the following day to sign for my replacement 
 cred 
 >D> >D> card. 
 >D> >D> 
 >D> >D> If I pay for a brand new Palm and I get in a car accident on my way 
 ho 
 >D> >D> from the store, I get another brand new Palm, no charge. 
 >D> >D> 
 >D> >D> If my Palm dies 366 days after I bought it (on a one year warranty), 
 I 
 >D> >D> get it repaired/replaced for free. 
 >D> >D> 
 >D> >D> If I fly to Texas to hang out with some friends and get back to my 
 hot 
 >D> >D> room and find all my stuff stolen, I get all my stuff replaced. 
 >D> > 
 >D> >All those are examples of INSURANCE that you happen to get with your 
 cred 
 >D> >card -- how do you suppose the insurance is paid for? 
 >D> 
 >D> In part, with the annual fee I pay.  Primarily by the interest people 
 >D> pay on their credit cards. 
 >D> 
 >D> >D> It costs money to deposit cash to a bank (on a business account) -- 
 In 
 >D> >D> addition, there are other overheads dealing with cash, including 
 >D> >D> possibility of loss/theft, increased risk of robbery, increased 
 >D> >D> insurance rates (due to increased risk of robbery) 
 >D> > 
 >D> >But __I__ don't have to pay for YOUR use of cash, unlike with credit 
 card 
 >D> >__I__ have to pay extra to cover the store's costs for YOUR credit card 
 u 
 >D> 
 >D> You completely missed what I mentioned above -- Cash costs well over 3% 
 >D> for a business to handle.  You're looking at 1% just to deposit cash 
 >D> into a bank, and usually another 2% towards insurance (which doesn't 
 >D> cover employee theft, only robbery) 
 > 
 >I missed nothing -- it costs significantly MORE for credit card use than for 
 >cash, for the business -- the 1% cost is applied fairly to all customers, 
 but 
 >the additional 4% for the credit card isn't so equitably distributed, and, 
 in 
 >fact, businesses will penalize cash users the full fees that credit card 
 users 
 >generate, because the stores prefer the cc users, since they tend to  pend 
 more 
 >on big ticket items, and a no-fee approach to them encourages them, and f*** 
 you 
 >if you're not a cc user -- you can pay their cost of transaction, too! 
  
 I had the opportunity to discuss the matter with one of my wholesalers, 
 (as an example) he pays 3.5% on Visa, and 3.9% on cash (1% to deposit, 
 ~3% insurance) -- So he'd actually prefer I pay with my credit card 
 rather then showing up with cash. 
  
 The owner mentioned that he's had a few mugging attempts (not all were 
 successful) and in one case they lost several thousand dollars.  Their 
 insurance covers cash on the premises if they can show sales receipts 
 within the last 24 hours (so they're required to deposit cash daily), 
 but it does not cover losses during transportation unless an armored car 
 or other security precautions are taken, which would add another few 
 percentage overhead. 
  
 The preferred option there is cheques, but they do credit checks and 
 have other anti-fraud mechanisms in place, so cheques aren't much of a 
 risk. 
  
 And he isn't subject to employee theft due to the type of business 
 (Small transactions with large amounts of cash, where there is only one 
 person who accepts the cash, so it would be extremely difficult for any 
 employee to pull anything without getting caught immediately) 
  
 *shrugs* 
  
 Dealing with cash isn't as cheap as you seem to think. 
  
  
 -- 
 God must love stupid people; He made so many. 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)