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As a small pizza place, if I take a credit card payment, I must:

- have some way to process it. This requires hardware, often leased, sometimes owned.

- which requires an extra phone line, OR, internet connection

- and requires a service, and fees to be paid to that service (between 3 to 5% depending upon card).

- and, the money can be challenged (chargebacks), which requires loads of time to deal with... or you just loose the cash

When I take cash, I require... none of the above!

In both cases, I have a bank account, deposit fees, and more from the banks.

I'm guessing you're going to say things like "employees steal cash" or "fake bank notes" or some other such thing. Yet in 6+ years, we had one counterfeit $20.

But if not, what other hidden fees are built into cash?




A few more costs:

Risk of theft (employee, passerby, organized crime). Theft is way down largely due to lack of cash.

Convenience/time. It takes (paid) time to drop cash. And customer time to manage cash. And lost sales due to people not having enough cash on them.

Lower average sales. People spend more when using cards than cash due to psychological reasons.




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