Cash No Longer Welcome? Overheard at the Doctor's Office.
Several weeks ago my son and I were in the waiting room of his allergist's office, where we go for weekly allergy shots. While waiting we overhead a conversation at the receptionist's desk where a patient was told that the office no longer accepted cash payments. While I didn't hear for sure, my guess is that the office didn't like keeping cash on hand and was therefore only accepting cash or plastic.
The patient paid via another method but was understandably a little irritated. While he didn't get downright argumentative he did get back in line after he had paid and pointed out to the receptionist that paper money has the phrase "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private" written on it. That point was something I was vaguely aware of but hadn't thought about in some time. It was an interesting exchange and something of a teaching moment for my eleven year old who was listening intently.
4 comments:
This sounded interesting to me and I found the answer at the US Treasury: http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.shtml
While legal tender, there is no federal law requiring the acceptance of cash so private businesses may refuse it.
Interesting, AnnMarie. Thanks for sharing.
The solution would have been simple. Just say, "all I have is cash, I don't carry credit cards and I don't have my check book"
We used to manage a mini storage and I put a big "no cash accepted" sign on the front door. This was to discourage thieves, as it was a terrible neighborhood.
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