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biggsteve81 t1_j2aegop wrote

Reply to comment by amazonfamily in ELI5: Why is it that, at some gas stations, it’s cheaper to pay with cash instead a credit card? by tgjj530

The tradeoff is that having significant amounts of cash makes you a target for robbers, and you have to count the money and take it to a bank for deposit.

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drunken_assassin t1_j2ajlky wrote

On the other hand, having significant amounts of cash transactions makes it much easier to launder money from your criminal enterprises!

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SparklyMonster t1_j2as0ic wrote

Though I guess there must be some sort of control since the station is depleting its stock of gas, so it's not like they can order more gas and say they didn't sell what they had... (or can it?)

Which is a different case from doctors and dentists who'll only accept cash or charge more for any other form of payment that is not cash (including the ones that don't have fees).

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drunken_assassin t1_j2av70y wrote

> Though I guess there must be some sort of control since the station is depleting its stock of gas, so it's not like they can order more gas and say they didn't sell what they had... (or can it?)

Conveniently, I wrote a handy-dandy tutorial er..uh...answer to a question about money laundering earlier this year that addresses supply-chain management and other money laundering tactics.

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ThatOneGuy308 t1_j2cav0q wrote

Debit cards exist, in case you were unaware. And I suppose physical checks, for the 8 merchants who still accept them these days, lol.

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biggsteve81 t1_j2cclwo wrote

I often do forget about debit cards, since I don't have one. But still those and credit cards are often safer for merchants than cash.

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ThatOneGuy308 t1_j2ckvhk wrote

Ah, I misread and thought you meant cash was unsafe for customers to carry around, lol

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biggsteve81 t1_j2dm2uk wrote

That is actually also true. The number of muggings in the US is down significantly since most people don't carry a lot of cash anymore.

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ThatOneGuy308 t1_j2dmcwe wrote

Makes sense, no real point in mugging someone for their cards when they're just going to cancel them before you get a chance to use them anyway.

I suppose at this point muggings are probably focused on jewelry or small items they could take and sell rather than direct cash, which is probably enough work that it stops a lot of muggers from bothering.

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biggsteve81 t1_j2dnuod wrote

Yep. The tradeoff is that digital crime has increased significantly, since your money can now be stolen by people anywhere in the world.

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logicaltuvok t1_j2ddv4c wrote

Debit cards are still generally authorized on the credit card network and are subject to transaction fees (Visa and MC mostly)

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ThatOneGuy308 t1_j2dh718 wrote

While this is true, the fees for debit cards are usually smaller than the fees from credit companies, so it's still preferable to credit for a lot of businesses.

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