Story Archive

Paper or Plastic?

Visa Inc. wants its credit cards to be used more (they get a percentage of each charge), so it’s trying to convince businesses to go cashless. Restaurants often prefer cash since they generally pay about 3 percent of each charge transaction. “The good thing about cash is that there’s no merchant fee,” says the owner of a BBQ food truck in Denver, Colo. “If we could do anything, we would do cardless,” not cashless. Visa knows small businesses struggle with that hit to their bottom lines, but claim that by taking cards, it frees up employee time, and thus actually costs less. Business owners are skeptical, so their “Visa Cashless Challenge” will give $10,000 to up to 50 small restaurants who agree to only accept plastic. (RC/Denver Post) ...Whereas robbers promise to pull guns on 50 businesses that pledge to stay with cash.