Cash isn't free for people either the vast majority of banks either charge you withdrawal fees or bake them into your flat account fees.

If you are a large business then cash handling companies that securely transfer, count, and deposit / clear it for you charge the same and even more than many credit card companies.

Cash is only "cheaper" for really small businesses that handle the count and the deposit themselves.

And even then there are some fees because banks can also charge a deposit fee when you bring in unsorted cash.

Many business owners prefer cash so they can avoid paying taxes and directly insert the cash into their pocket. Its nearly impossible to trace whereas there is a paper trail left when a credit card is charged.

However, that's tax fraud and carries a risk of significant penalties.

But there are other reasons for preferring cash. For instance, a bank or authorities cannot quite as easily shut down your business if it runs on cash money, compared to having everything in bank which can be confiscated instantly, on-line.

> Cash isn't free for people either the vast majority of banks either charge you withdrawal fees or bake them into your flat account fees.

I haven't found that to be true at all. Are you speaking about a non-US context?

In the US you can almost universally go to your bank ATM and withdraw cash without a fee. There's also no fees for having a checking account.

There are indeed fees for a checking account at all physical banks I know of. Typically they waive the fee if you maintain over a certain balance so they can invest it while you're not using it and make a profit on it, which they then use to [more than] pay your fees and profit from. Many also have further restrictions e.g. Charging you a fee for checking accounts unless you have direct deposit set up from your employer into their checking account.

Here's a comparison of checking account fees for various banks: https://www.nerdwallet.com/checking-accounts?account_feature...

His point is, cash isn't free. It costs money to secure it, have guards refill ATMs, check it for fraud, etc. Somehow, as a customer of the bank, you're paying for it. Either though service fees, poor exchange rates, etc.

> There's also no fees for having a checking account

In the US, people with poor credit are often unable to get even a checking account. This is because banks figure those customers are not going to be profitable since they're not going to use the services they can earn fees on.

No-fee checking accounts typically pay no interest and have a minumum balance requirement. That is what makes them profitable to the bank.

Many (not all) banks have requirements to keep your account free. Number of debit card transactions/bill pay, minium balances, direct deposit requirements, etc.

"Going to your banks ATM" isn't very convenient 99% of the time unless you never leave town. You end up going to the closest ATM. Especially if you are on foot.

There are many ATMs which don't charge any fees at all, even for other banks. I'm on the other side of the country as my credit union, and I have lots of options for fee-less withdrawals. Although you may end up paying a fee if you need money quickly and you just go to the nearest one, which may or may not charge a fee.

I've never seen one that doesn't charge anyone at all in the US.

Credit unions have alliances that they can join to use each others ATMs fee free, same with banks. That doesn't change the fact it's often inconvenient to go to an ATM you don't have to pay for and you need to pay sometimes.

Poster you replied to is talking about deposits, not withdrawals.

Banks treat cash very carefully. If you bring in a stack of cash that they have to count once to see how much it is and then again to verify it's going to take time and they might charge you for that.

> Poster you replied to is talking about deposits, not withdrawals.

They literally said "withdrawal fees."

I don't know of any bank which charges you to deposit cash. I occasionally drop off large stacks of cash and have them count it—there's never been an issue.

It is true that business bank accounts typically aren't free, but that isn't what the poster was talking about.

If you get paid via direct deposit then you almost certainly have many options for getting a free checking account regardless of what city you live in.

Banks that don't charge those fees directly bake them into other fees.

Maintaining ATM's and counting and transporting cash costs money, cash isn't free I don't know about US banks specifically.

> Banks that don't charge those fees directly bake them into other fees.

What other fees? I've literally never paid a fee to my bank for anything. And it's a major bank (Chase).

What's the interest rate on your savings account?

Because the bank is buying Treasuries at ~1% or so and making money off of your deposits, and is likely only giving you 0% or maybe 0.05% interest.

If you've got $10,000 in the bank, that's basically a profit of $100 / year that the bank is getting from your account.

My interest rate is maybe 0.3%, so they're definitely making money on that.

But that's not a "fee." Obviously banks cover their operating expenses somehow. That doesn't mean they charge me to have an account or to deposit cash (in fact, charging for deposits would be counterproductive).

They do it directly or indirectly, I don't know how US banks works but usually over the world bank accounts vary accounts with no/low fees give low interest and vice versa.

Many (most?) business checking accounts charge for large cash deposits.

I think, for small businesses, the problem is that the setup cost and fixed operating costs are amortised over too few transactions to be negligibly cheap - and that's before considering the slightly higher actual transaction fees for such businesses.

Square, iZettle and I think PayPal and a few other are doing things in this area, leveraging smartphones, but it's still early days.

The Square POS terminals using tablets (it is iPads?) that rotate for you to sign are nice. I especially like how they'll automatically email you a receipt, which is great for reimbursements or filing taxes because it means I don't need to scan anything.

I've never been impressed with anything using a cell phone though. It's too clunky of an experience. I get that it might be useful for farmer's market and other very small retail situations, but when I'm going into a retail store, a real POS terminal is better.

Do you know where debit cards stand? I have a cost for using debit, but does the merchant pay a significant one too?

0.05% plus $0.21 in Interchange fees for most people

https://www.cardpaymentoptions.com/fee-sweep/debit-fees-expl...