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Underground > Switchboard >

Do the businesses you buy from talk behind your back?

03:40 / 11.08.04

I rather like the idea of a No Spy Pledge, and I think I'm going to write a few letters. (I think I'm also going to start spending more cash and less plastic...)

14:04 / 11.08.04

Well, as someone who already shies away from using his credit card for most things, you'd be surprised with how much suspicion trying to purchase larger items with cash can incur. Case in point: I bought myself a laptop in June, and after pricing went in with enough cash to pay for the whole thing there and then. The salesman's reaction was...interesting. Management were consulted, I was repeatedly asked if I was sure I wanted to pay in cash, and they wanted to take down my address, which I refused (as it's no business of theirs). While the common perception seems to be that using cash everywhere makes your life easier, the reverse seems to be true. Whether it's connected to the issues highlighted in your link...that's something to think about.

14:33 / 11.08.04

Interesting... In the UK the Swedish Furniture firm Ikea has recently announced it plans to charge customers paying by credit card extra since, in the UK at least, banks charge businesses on every credit card transaction they handle...

15:12 / 11.08.04

The problem businesses have with cash transactions is that there are a number of new money laundering regulations that make it a criminal offence for someone to take cash without carrying out certain checks. I work in a solicitor's office and if we take cash without checking its provenance everyone involved, from the bloke in reception up to the senior partner, can face criminal charges, which obviously makes people a bit nervy about it.
This is all part of the "war against terror" (tm). If you ask me there is something very dodgy about making businesses check up on where their customers' money comes from. Let the bloody government do its own policing.
Meanwhile credit card companies charge you a percentage of the transaction for the privilege of using said card. Debit cards are better as they merely charge a flat fee of a couple of quid per transaction (which is why shops have a minimum price for using a credit card).
All of this makes me want to move to a cave and switch to a barter economy.