Posted on 12/23/2012 11:34:39 AM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
To the question "Can you use a check ordering from Pizza Hut online?" We have this answer:
You can only used a credit card or a Pizza Hut gift card to purchase online, no checks accepted.
And, driving up to their window in South Central Texas, the same sign is posted. No checks accepted as of January 1.
Wonder how many other establishments are going to do the same? I thought the economy was recovering....
It's not, obviously, and I get your sarc, but am interested in why you take the "no checks" as an indicator?
Yes I once reviewed a franchise package (they never promise any specific figures but sometimes will at least indicate some “possible” or “typical” numbers). Also, to be more current, you can google “pizza hut profit margin” and you can find that figure. (It might be a high estimate, many restaurants don’t clear that much. But its probably pretty good as a “talking point estimate” for an average-ish outlet? Some, of course, go broke. ). Hope that helps.
>>We simply made the decision when the CC companies decided to adjust rates with “so and so” many days notice that what if one day they raised rates beyond our ability to pay? Or what if the Cycle of payment was shortened past the current 28 days? Or what if...<
I have never had my CC payment cycled reduced in over 20 years. If you use your CC the same as cash and always pay it to zero then it IS the same as cash. The billing cycle is irrelevant if you have real money to cover the purchases.
>>We work hard for the income we have, therefore we guard our ability to make decisions in the manner we spend it. <<
As opposed to us trust-fund babies who work 60-80 hours a week and put on (until recently) 20+ hours travel a week.
You are confusing “spend” with “pay.”
>>Works for us although it is not for everyone.<<
It works now. In the near future it wont work at all and you won’t be in a mature position to deal with a 100% plastic society.
>>>Does it cause some POS problems? Yep. We’ve learned to carry more ID for checking into a Hotel if necessary, budget how much cash we should have on hand, and not spend more than we have coming in.<<
Rented a car lately? Without a credit card it can’t be doe at all. And resort hotels put between $500 and $2000 on your card when you check in. It might be a DR card but that meas you are “paying” that much.
>>I might disagree with the Government not creating money on plastic - EBT, Veteran Benefit Cash Cards, etc - those are (at least until a budget is passed) created electrons representing Credit/Debit/Cash available that does not truly exist.<<
You need to learn about M0/M1/M2/M3 etc. The government does not “create” plastic money. All those plastic EBTs need to be “filled.” They are ECHOS of the federal Monetary supply. The problem is at the federal level where they “fill” the accounts that used to “fill” with funny money.
The routing number is only part of the system. The development of Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) became a necessity due to the post-WW II explosion amongst the consumer class, of monetary transactions via checking accounts. Bank ‘backrooms’ had all but seized up trying to manually process the paper.
http://www.frbatlanta.org/filelegacydocs/er08no4_QuinnRoberds.pdf
The strong postwar growth in the U.S. economy led to an extraordinary increase in the demand for payment services. Over much of this period, this demand was met primarily through the increased use of checks. The check payment system simultaneously underwent a number of noteworthy changes that, though again evolutionary in nature and largely invisible to the check writer, greatly improved the overall scope and efficiency of the system. These improvements led to an unprecedented expansion in check use, as can be seen in Figure 3.
A critical development was the mechanization of check processing through the introduction of MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) technology. By the early 1950s, the check payment system had almost become a victim of its own success. Postwar prosperity had expanded the use of checking accounts by middle-class households, leading to a “crisis” in check processing. The overall number of checking accounts in the United States almost doubled between 1939 and 1952, from 27 million to 47 million, while the annual number of checks written increased at an even more rapid rate, from 3.5 billion to 8 billion (ABA 1954).
While there was some use of automation, in the 1950s most check processing was still done by hand. A check that moved across banks was manually sorted and tallied six times on average (McKenney 1995, 41), and continued restrictions on bank branching guaranteed that 80 percent of checks fell in the latter category (ABA 1954). In response to this situation, researchers at Stanford University, working in cooperation with the Bank of America, developed the MICR processing technology that is now the industry standard. MICR encodes the information necessary for processing a check—the bank’s identifying number, the bank account number, the check amount, etc.—on a single line at the bottom of the check, printed in magnetic ink. A model of “backward compatibility,” the MICR line did not alter the basic appearance of the check, which now became readable by both machines and humans. MICR did not completely eliminate the role for labor in check processing since, for example, someone still had to enter the amount of the check on the MICR line. By reducing the costs of check processing, however, it paved the way for the massive expansion in check volume that was to follow.
Following the Bank of America’s successful pilot program in 1954, in 1956 the ABA designated MICR as the standard for automated processing of checks in the United States (McKenney 1995, 50–51). Although the cost advantages of this technology soon became apparent, adoption took some time. By 1962, 97 percent of banks were encoding some checks with MICR (ABA 1962), but many checks continued to be processed by hand. MICR did not become the full industry standard until 1967, when all checks routed through the Federal Reserve were required to contain the MICR-coded identification of the bank on which they were drawn (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 1967).
I know people who work in a bank and the stories I hear are becoming incredible. A HUGE number of people can no longer keep a bank account as they can't pay their account fees OR bills. A spike in attempted check fraud is occurring as I write this.
The place where I work got a 20 dollar counterfeit and the bank people tell me they're now getting 10s and 20s as counterfeits. The real indicators are out there, but the MSM doesn't report on it very much. That pizza joint until recently accepted checks. Now it doesn't. Recent change.
I see paper checks occupying the same status as first class snail mail, print newspapers and land line telephones. Not gone, but on an irreversible downward slope.
I agree the Baraqqi Depression grinds on, but view companies getting out of the check biz as more like the normal march of biz efficiency.
Funny how things are inconsistent from business to business. My mobile home park doesn't take electronic payments at all, but my storage unit gives a 5% discount. Neither takes cash for good reason.
Some more stuff. Here’s a clip from History Channel on banking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiL0Cq7_iyI
And here’s the story of the computer that could read the MICR font.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Recording_Machine,_Accounting
ERMA (Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting), was a pioneering computer development project run at SRI International under contract to Bank of America in order to automate banking bookkeeping. The project ran from 1950 to 1955.[1]
ERMA was under the technical leadership of computer scientist Jerre Noe.[2] After the project’s successful conclusion, General Electric was contracted to build 32 ERMA machines. They were so successful in operation that Bank of America was propelled ahead of other banks in profitability, and became the world’s largest bank by 1970.
They need to look into credit unions, although many will be ineligible due to past NSFs.
The key fact that explains why ERMA and MICR had to happen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Recording_Machine,_Accounting
“In 1950, Bank of America was the largest bank in California, and led the world in the use of checks. This presented a serious problem due to the workload processing them. An experienced bookkeeper could post 245 accounts in an hour, about 2,000 in an 8-hour workday and approximately 10,000 per week. Bank of America’s checking accounts were growing at a rate of 23,000 per month and banks were being forced to close their doors by 2:00 PM to finish daily postings.”
Larger food_selling stores can survive on lower profit margins than small pizza shops. For instance, walmart makes 3.6 percent and Safeway supermarket makes around 1.3 percent. (Compare those figures and you can see why many of us questioned walmart’s wisdom of pushing into groceries _- the thought was it should have expanded into higher-profit-margin merchandise instead, but wm seems to have pulled it off successfully).
This is true for large regional and money center banks. However, there are still some smaller Community and State banks that offer accounts with no fees, or comparitively small fees.
Still it has long been a policy of the government and the banks to wring the inefficiencies out of the banking system when it comes to checks and the processing of checks.
This process includes a bundle of checks being put on a plane and sent to a processing bank near to the bank the check was drawn on in order to clear the checks and get the money sooner. An expensive process to be sure.
That is one reason for the move to electronic presentment, and check images rather than actual checks coming with your statement, because this process of flying checks around is not needed to clear the checks if people pay electronically.
Ultimately we each make our own decisions. The “Plastic Money is the wave of the future and Cash will die” discussion has been around for a bit. It sounds like you have made decisions that are best for your situations as have we.
Not sure exactly what the point of the above is. If you have a trust fund and chose to travel, then that is what you have chosen to do? Perhaps I’ve misunderstood the discussion.
While we will not be in your “Mature Position”, we will be in our own comfort zone. Contrary to popular belief - there are alternate lifestyles which work acceptably in different sections of the world.
Haven’t rented a car lately - have had one rented for us under our Car Insurance Policy after an accident. For less than $7 per month - easily added to the policy. No other need beyond that.
I’m not exactly sure what a “Resort Hotel” is - we don’t Vacation much. Any “overnighter” has been paid in Cash when we arrive with the balance paid in cash upon checkout. Are there really Hotels that operate that way? I don’t suppose we operate on the same level as other people do. I make the assumption that if a business would like my money they will make allowances. Might just be regional I guess.
The above is pure semantics. The money does not exist. Credit Cards do not fall under M1, M2 or M3 - thereby are not considered within the monetary system until repaid - hence EBTs for example (which are never repaid or credited to the opposite side of a balance sheet) are part of the Monetary system @ POS, etc.
Sounds like we differ on Economic Systems that are/aren’t/can’t/won’t ever be in agreement. Interesting discussion none the less.
>>Not sure exactly what the point of the above is. If you have a trust fund and chose to travel, then that is what you have chosen to do? Perhaps I’ve misunderstood the discussion.<<
I was being sarcastic — we ALL work hard for our money. Spending decisions are what we all make. Paying decisions are what we are discussing.
As for the rest— be a Luddite all you want. Very soon you will find you are unable to purchase much other than what you can buy with cash at your local grocers (and even that for only a few years more). I am pretty sure you already pay the 25%+ markup from local retailers over what you can find for what is on the Internet ad pay with CC.
Your inability to understand money supply is beyond what I can help you with on this thread.
One advantage of accepting a check in these challenging economic times is that the retailer saves the 2% service charge that they typically pay for their credit charge transactions.
The only checks I use these days are for rent, charities and political pacs. I use to pay utilities and credit card statements with checks but have switched to on-line payments.
Thanks, it can be hard to really calculate PFO sometimes from the general info out there.
Until very recently, the technology that read/sensed these numbers was not commonly found at merchants. Banks had it, hastening the process of clearing checks once they were deposited.
The only time I eat Pizzu Hut is when I’m forced to.
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