We are so screwed.
Posted on 12/26/2017 4:54:24 PM PST by artichokegrower
The other day at Dig Inn, a just-opened lunch spot on Broadway and 38th Street in Midtown Manhattan, Shania Bryant committed a customer faux pas. She placed her order for chicken and brown rice and yams, and when she got to the register, she held out a $50 bill.
“Sorry,” the cashier told her. “We don’t take cash.” Not, “We don’t take $50s.” No cash. Period.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
When Atlanta International lost power the other weekend, same deal. The vendors weren't making any sales.
I’m no lawyer, but it would seem to me that the key element would be whether the purchaser has taken possession of the item. If he has, then he owes the vendor the price of the item, and the vendor must accept cash or forgive the debt. If he hasn’t, then the vendor can simply refuse to make the sale.
Anyone know what the actual laws are regarding this?
I've always wondered about that when places say 'No Cash' or limit to under $20 or $50 bills. Where is the law stand on this?
It takes work to trace how a person spends his cash. His electronic money is traced automatically as a default.
If I remember my contract law, the tender of legitimate payment satisfies the buyer's obligation. Refusal of the seller to accept official US currency relieves the buyer of any additional obligation, and he is free to walk away with the "purchase."
There are exceptions. Airlines can refuse to accept large-denomination bills simply because they don't want to risk carrying a lot of cash for change. You probably can't pay for your new car with pennies (although it could certainly be argued that those coins are also legal tender).
But this was a perfectly legal tender of payment, refused for no good reason.
I just bought three prepaid Visa cards for Christmas gifts. They were around seven bucks a pop.
From the US Treasury:
According to the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled “Legal tender,” which states: “United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.” Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.
Public Debts: This means that any existing public debt, charge, tax, or dues held in the US can be paid in any form of US legal tender. That includes coins, small bills, etc.
Feel free to walk into any courthouse or treasury office and pay a parking ticket in pennies, pay your property taxes in coins and small bills, and dump a truck bed full of nickels in front of the IRS Headquarters building. It is all legal payment and must be accepted by officials.
Private Transactions: The legal tender law is a federal law and does not apply to private businesses, people, or organizations. These entities are able to make their own financial policies regarding the form of payment. This is why stores are able to refuse bills larger than $20 or similar monetary policies when performing transactions. This also only applies to existing debts, not the purchase of goods or services, which no federal law covers. Therefore, a store can refuse to sell you something if you walk in the store with a little red wagon full of pennies.
Private transactions can also require payment in the form of proprietary tokens, coupons or other non-legal tender payments. A good example of this would be a bus or subway token, or tokens for slot machines.
Contradicting Example? Even though the law states that all debts can be settled in legal tender, Michael Powell, a Texas resident, was held in contempt of court and fined for paying a $1000 court settlement in pennies. The payment had to be made to an individual who won a court judgment against him. The $1000 assessment was due by a certain date and Powell made the payment in its entirety 2 days early – in pennies. He was sued and fined an additional $533 to pay for the time, expense, and legal fees the other person had to go through to cash his pennies and take him back to court.
Powell would probably have had his $533 fine reversed if he hadn’t told the judge at the appeals court his reason for paying in pennies – Powell answered that he wanted “to make a hardship upon [Tarlton, the person suing him],” for whom he had no respect “in any shape, form or fashion.”
He probably would have won on a further appeal, but how far do you really want to go to win back $500? He would have had to pay more than that in lawyer fees and court costs.
Conclusion: Stores can make their own policy in terms of which form of payment to accept, but public enterprises must accept any form of legal tender. Feel free to pay your taxes, court assessments, or other public debts in assorted coins and bills. But also be prepared to put up with some ticked off people if they have to count out every coin and dollar bill. Oh, and if you try this with the IRS, don’t be surprised if you get audited for the rest of your life!
____________________________________________________________
This excerpt from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s website, written in response to a similar question:
“The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled ‘Legal tender,’ which states: ‘United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.’
“This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.”
So, the short answer is that the restaurant can set whatever policy it likes when it comes to payment, as long as it is established before a transaction occurs and the customer incurs the debt.
____________________________________________________________
questions & answers
Question: Can a company refuse payment with cash? A new policy became effective stating they will only accept money orders, and credit/debit. i was advise if i take cash they will tell me to get a money order.
Answer:
It is technically illegal to refuse legal tender (cash) for services already rendered, though it is not illegal to refuse it for services not yet rendered. Therefore, a business that accepts only checks or credit must post a notice indicating this, so that the customer is aware of the fact prior to making payment. According to the “Legal Tender Statute” (section 5103 of title 31 of the U.S. Code), “United States coins and currency (including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.” This means that all U.S. money, as identified above, when tendered to a creditor legally satisfies a debt to the extent of the amount (face value) tendered.
However, no federal law requires that a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services not yet provided. For example, a bus line may not allow payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. Some movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations as a matter of policy may refuse to accept large bills, such as above $20, and as long as there is a notice posted and a sale for goods or services has not already been completed, these businesses have not violated the legal tender law.
If the company has posted a notice about the new policy of only accepting money orders and credit/debit, they have fulfilled the requirement, and they are not required to accept cash for purchases. For more information you can visit the Federal Reserve online.
CAN be used for all debts, public & private.
Aren’t debit and credit cards backed by cash or credit in an account? This is idiotic and truthfully may or should be illegal.
Funny how that works. I know of places that are very happy to take cash for very obvious reasons.
I don’t think you need to be Dick Tracy anymore to track somebody. Law enforcement needs only to upload my photo and maybe my SSN or DL number to their database and the computers do the rest. It’s quite pervasive, all this surveillance, and it’s accelerating. Do you notice all the cameras overhead on our highways? They are not just for toll collecting or mailing out speeding tickets anymore. You can’t go anywhere in our big cities without being video-recorded. Soon that will roll out to the small towns. Surveillance cameras used to be prohibitively expensive and were of poor, grainy quality. Now they are cheap and tiny. They can easily be hidden in light fixtures. Soon they will be the size of a dime and cost just pennies. There will be millions of them installed over the next few years.
Beat me to it - Thanks!
Tell the merchant to just buy one of those magic markers that detect forgeries. Although one good reason for not taking cash is if the store is in a high crime area and robbery is common.
I’ve yet to see an arrest or prosecution because a person had only cash for a retail transaction.
“You will learn what the big deal is when there is a power failure.”
I know families in Puerto Rico - you are simply TOAST if you don’t have cash there. In one family, they had one of these paranoid women who didn’t trust banks and stuffed all her money under the mattress. Guess who’s laughing now.
It’s all fun and games until the hurricane hits.
Cash price per gallon of gas is 10 cents less than paid by card at several places around here.
I misspoke. You do not have to take cash unless your state's law requires it.
We are so screwed.
I’m familiar with this business. They have a small different menu every day with slightly upscale homestyle food and they serve many customers very quickly. Average time from ordering to leaving with packed lunch is about 1 minute and waaay faster than “fast food”. They serve mainly office workers who are used to credit cards.
I could see how cash seriously slows down their line and eliminating it would greatly benefit them.
However cash is the only reason I and several people on my block had fresh food after Sandy took power out. In an emergency, cash is king for at least several days.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.