So that's the basis of a comparison. Cost of cash vs cost of credit cards over the economy.

I can't resist an aside. A buddy of mine was in a well known cash business. You can imagine. Anyways, hanging out with him, we'd be driving around and he'd need gas. He'd pull out 2 or 3 $20s, hand them to the attendant pump gas and go. Some gas stations gave a cash discount.

It seemed to me that credit cards were supposed to be fast and convenient, but if you're choreographed for cash, it ain't so.

> It seemed to me that credit cards were supposed to be fast and convenient, but if you're choreographed for cash, it ain't so.

This is very apparent in (many parts of) Europe. Cash is so much faster there than in America, for a few reasons. The primary cause, I think, is the fact that the prices are generally round numbers, with tax included. This means that you can, in most cases, pay with a small number of coins or bills. In the USA you'd be wrestling with pennies.

Euro notes also have different colours and sizes, making it much easier to get the correct ones right away. I find Euro coins more useful, too (highest commonly used denomination is 2€ vs 25¢). I'm annoyed by the 1 and 2 cent coins, though, and am in favour of abolishing them. They only clog wallets.

I can dip my credit card in the pump faster than I can walk into the station and hand over cash. Never mind what happens when I'm topping off before a trip and don't need $20 in gas, requiring change. That's not the best example of how cash is supposed to be fast.

> Handling cash ain't free.

But it's so much cheaper than handling credit cards that many small stores in Germany won't accept any cards at all.

It's the same in SF. There are so many "cash only" places that I now routinely check Yelp before going just about anywhere unless it's a relatively high volume place or franchise.

Don't German stores accept debit cards?

The cost is much lower on a debit card transaction.

Yes, debit cards are more widely accepted than credit cards, but many places take neither. Not just stores, bars and restaurants as well.

It's quite uncommon for stores not to accept debit cards in my experience, but next to nobody pays by card in bars and restaurants.

Thwy accept German EC cards, which is an entirely seperate network from MasterCard and Visa (and it's the E in EMV).

Mostly because their fees are even 10 times lower than MasterCard's debit card fees.

The "E" in EMV is for Eurocard which is something different (and now merged with MasterCard).

The fees for the German Girocard system (which is what colloquially is still called EC) are lower than MasterCard's fees but not by that much anymore nowadays. MasterCard debit should not be 50% more expensive than Girocard considering all fees (which of course still is more) if you shop around a bit. Even Aldi takes them now and they try to save money wherever they can.

> Even Aldi takes them now

Well, Aldi only takes some type of MasterCard debit - only the Chip + PIN edition Maestro cards, not any of the actual MasterCard network, nor mixed credit/debit cards.

They take all MasterCards, including credit cards. I paid with one just this Saturday in Germany.

Things have changed considerably in the last two years and whatever one knows about cards, acceptance, and fees from before 2015 can safely be forgotten.

Germany becoming the anti Sweden?

In the UK the bank charges us to pay in cash (weirdly cheques were free, haven't had any for a while, may have changed) such that payment by card costs about the same when you factor in our micro-businesses staff having take the money to the bank. How the banks get away with charging to be given money I'm not sure.

Re your last point: it's probably a similar risk for us as charge-backs.

Customers offer to pay cash thinking it saves us money, they're wrong.

These aspects also have some advantage - being handled on site means having employees that spend that money locally. All the credit card fees are effectively removed from the local economy.

So you think that companies who only take cash will pay higher wages thus keeping that money locally? I would assume that lower cost would lead to lower prices rather than higher wages.

No, I think they would pay a net higher local labor cost and lower remote processing fees.

Or it just means wasted work on deadweight loss activities, instead of doing something useful to increase the value of the shopping experience.