Originally Posted by
Happy
In particular, CC is very prevalent in US, even in our neighbor Canada, it is far less prevalent. In Australia and New Zealand, CCs charge quite a hefty fee to own it. CCs ownership in Europe also is quite low comparing to what we saw in US.
How do travelers in Australia, NZ or… Canada and Europe reserve hotels and guarantee the stay ahead of time without a credit card? Do they leave a large cash deposit to rent a car? Seems all very impractical.
Originally Posted by
Happy
Another example is Arco the gas station chain in California has long been only take cash for refill yet their gas is quite a bit cheaper than other brands. There is one of the examples that the merchant chose to pass the saving to the customers.
Another example, but not a good one: I don’t know what they do now in CA, but in OR Arco for years now has accepted plastic, and they charge more for plastic than for cash (gas tends to still be cheaper than at the major brands). It doesn’t matter if plastic is Credit or Debit - they gladly pocket the extra dollars from the higher price even if there is only a low-ish debit card fee.
And in years past, when I lived in CA, the workaround to using credit cards at Arco without any fees was to simply buy an Arco giftcard with plastic somewhere, preferably at 5X at an office supply store. No fee, no hassle with cash. I don’t buy enough gas anymore to bother with that. I just pay the higher plastic price if I stop at Arco, or use fuel points at Chevron. The few cents for gas make little difference to me, but - to bring this back on topic - expecting people to pay hotel bills with actual cash seems ridiculous, so I just consider it a junk fee. What’s next - pay airline tickets with cash at a ticket counter again to avoid a surcharge?