Diplomatico

That's an article regarding debit card cashback. As far as I can tell, this discussion thread is centered around the OP's query as to whether credit card cash back is practiced in the USA, as the OP claims it is in his own country.

Often1

For a merchant to return cash other than as a cash advance, he would have to falsify the sale, e.g., ring up a $30 item as $50, charge the $50 and return $20 to the customer. But, that involves an accounting fraud or a complex set of entries to show the proper sale.

Merchants, primarily hotels, do offer cash advances and most ATMs will handle cash advances as well. Those are a bad idea unless one is in a real pickle and needs the cash on the spot.

In the US, these transactions are better handled using a debit card where cash back is a common feature and many merchants are willing to accommodate.

sdsearch

As mentioned above, the merchant doesn't have to do anything per-transaction for Discover's "Cash Over" feature. At stores where it's supported (which are typically chain stores, and the whole chain supports it), it's the customer who selects it, and Discover has set it up so that presumably all the cashier has to do is hand the customer the cash. It's built into the system once, and then works decade after decade (I haven't used it much since the late 80s and/or early 90s I think, but I see it's still around).

While in the USA it's only offered with Discover, and only at certain grocery store chains (It's not nearly as many separate companies as it looks once you look over the whole list and see how many of those chains are just different region's names for the same parent company's grocery stores, from grocery store families a la Kroger), I can image how perhaps one big merchant in another country could have do it, especially with one particular card in another country. Again, it would make most sense at a big chain merchant because (a) it only requires coding once for the whole chain of stores, and (b) it gives promotional value cross-promoted between the store at which it works and the card that it works on.

I don't know the OP knows enough about it in their country to have been accurate about how widely it is available there. Perhaps the OP has the one and only credit card in that country with that feature?

And if the country happens to be Denmark, remember that Denmark (at some subset of merchants there) has weird credit card terminals which only accept Denmark-issued cards, not cards issued in other countries. So who (that doesn't live in Denmark and know the details of it) would know how exactly credit cards that only work in Denmark interface to those Denmark-specific terminals? Certainly no one outside Denmark could if their cards don't work there (unless they know someone within Denmark who's well versed in such stuff)!

mia

Understood. In the USA a merchant's cost to accept a credit card is very different than the cost to accept a debit card, but in the European Union the difference can be much smaller due to rate regulation. This means that a practice which originated for debit card transactions may now also make sense for credit card transactions in that country, but not in the United States.

Diplomatico

OP specifically referenced euros....Denmark's currency is the kroner. Would lead one to believe that Denmark is not the country in question.

Diplomatico

Concur and it remains speculation unless the OP clarifies.

storewanderer

I have been given cash back frequently when being overcharged on items in a grocery store due to a scanning error or similar, after paying them with a credit card. I won't go into which specific chains. This usually involves small amounts like a dollar or two, not really enough to tip the needle.

Most stores or gas stations in the US, however, will link the refund transaction to the purchase transaction and automatically credit your credit card when you have a situation as described above.

EmailKid

I would not say often, but yes, sometimes they will just hand be back a few dollars back instead of doing it via CC.

The most I ever got was a hostel in Vancouver where additional $10 was charged for key deposit and cash was refunded in morning, though on my last hostel stay in Las Vegas it was refunded to CC.

sdsearch

And then of course if it's a different entity giving you the refund / rebate, it could be cash since they don't know if you paid by card or not. In Seward AK, there's a parking lot next to a pier where glacier/wildlife viewing boat cruises depart, and one of those gives a refund of the $10 parking fee. Well, I was able to pay the parking fee with a card, but you can also pay by cash, and the cruise line doesn't know or care about that (you just show them the parking receipt and they glance at it), and so they just give you a cash refund.

tmiw

That reminds me about the one time that Home Depot refunded me in cash instead of putting it back on the card since they couldn't scan the receipt. I immediately gave them back the cash, though, since I was replacing the thing I was returning with one that worked.

In short, hope that the receipt printer is running low on toner?

sdsearch

Or just carefully spill some coffee onto the part of the receipt that would needed to process a credit card refund, but not onto the part of the receipt that would needed to process a cash refund?

Need

Costco refunds in cash pretty much always. I don't own a Costco credit card and they seem to not like refunding to non-Costco credit card. Once time they over charged me at the register so I went to Member Service and told them. They refunded me cash.

Is cash okay?
Normally I don't like cash but for you I will make an exception.

mia

See also this thread:

Retailers that allow large Cash Back with purchase

drvb

Sorry, I missed that there were questions for me. This is common in Sweden and it has worked for me with both Visa and Mastercard credit cards. It works at supermarkets such as Ica/Hemköp/Willys (but NOT Coop!) and discount stores such as Netto/Lidl/ÖoB/Ekohallen and some pharmacies, if you ask politely. I stated the amounts in Euros because most of you probably can't easily relate to Swedish krona (or Swedish peso, as some jokingly refer to it nowadays since it has lost a lot of value lately).

akr1970akr

This might be more tolerable in Sweden because of the differences in interchange rates.

Friction costs in the US are much higher, especially with the fancy rewards cards prevalent here.

It is not yet like the quasi cashless society the Skandis are getting close to