Indeed. I use my debit card almost exlusively for purchasing, but I do keep $40 tucked away in a hidden fold of my wallet for emergencies. I learned the hard way that not doing so can be painful.
Three years ago I was crossing the Sierra’s through one of the minor passes when I had to stop and get gas at a small station in the middle of nowhere. Their card reader was down, and I had no cash on me. They certainly weren’t going to loan a total stranger fuel on faith, and their sense of charity was on leave that day, so I ended up having to call AAA and have a tow truck bring out some fuel. All because I had no cash.
There are also still some places that, for some stupid reason, set minimal transaction amounts on all card purchases. A mile or two from my home is a little quicky mart that will NOT permit ATM or credit purchases for amounts less than $5. They claim it’s to counter the high merchant fees charged by the credit card companies, but I suspect it’s just a scam to get their customers to buy more. I just never stop there at all. I don’t stop at AM/PM anymore either, since they instituted their fees for pay at the pump ATM transactions (it was a 45 cent surcharge when I began boycotting them two years ago, but I’ve been told that it’s gone up since).
It is against the rules to limit the amount a person can charge.
A store may do so but if the credit card companies find out he could lose his ability to have cc transactions.
It probably is the merchant fees, convenience stores live on pretty small margins and depending on the contract they have they could be paying as much a $4 a CC transaction. With small purchases that’s just losing money.
I was at a sandwich shop near the beach one time that had a $20 minimum for credit cards. I didn’t know it when I placed my order. I got sandwiches for me, my GF, and my kid, and had $18 worth of stuff. Guy said it HAD to be $20 minimum, and I said I didn’t want anything else. He said if I wanted the sandwiches, I had to buy more stuff. I said no thanks, and walked out. He was angry, as there was no way in hell anyone else was going to get what i ordered for a sandwich. Oh well.
Another good example.
Sounds like some real nice people at that gas station!
I think some merchants do pay a transaction fee for every swipe and it probably does take a good % of the profit for small purchases. I’ve never heard of AM/PM nor, thankfully, have I heard of a gas station that charges for using a Visa Check card at the pump.