US local phone numbers, English:
Master card
800-627-8372,1,1
Visa
800-847-2911,1,4
Script:
I’m calling to urge you to immediately end your new policy that unfairly targets the adult content industry, making sex workers even more vulnerable. I’m also asking you to sit down with stakeholders- specifically sex workers and adult content creators- to develop solutions that ensure equitable access to financial services, create stability, and reduce harm for sex workers.
It’s mostly small places that don’t. I think they started during covid so they didn’t have to physically take anything from the grubby customers, and found they didn’t lose much (if any) business over it.
Cash still costs money to handle, either for the time or wages of taking it to the bank, or paying somebody to collect it every day.
I guess it helps that contactless payments are now ubiquitous. Practically everyone has a phone, and readers like SumUp and Square can be had for a few quid.
But then there are places that still only take cash, because it’s easier to hide that from the tax man.
Recently, I’ve actually found the opposite to be true in the US. Smaller places prefer cash because they can avoid the CC fees that they get charged for every single swipe. Many places have a sign at the register that they add an additional ~3% to the bill to cover fees which it can be avoided by paying in cash. I’ve started using cash over the last year to avoid the additional charges, especially for takeout.
We had a card surcharge ban bought in a few years back. The shops aren’t allowed to charge extra, and unless you’re employing family members or not declaring the cash (and for a lot of small takeaways, it’s probably both of those) it probably works out more expensive to handle the cash.
That makes sense. I wish we had that here, but I’m happy they at least are required by law in my state to tell people about the surcharge.
I guess that Americans are used to seeing charges applied at the point of sale anyway, for sales tax and so on.
In the UK there price on the shelf is the price you pay, and if for some reason it isn’t, then you can guarantee several arguments a day.