credit cards or cash at hostels

[Adagio123]

What is the appropriate amount of cash to carry? Do hostels take credit cards?

[kayak karl]

i carry $100 and some do take cards. the amount of cash and where cards are taken shifts south to north.

[Tennessee Viking]

Carry an Debit/ATM card and as KK suggested $100. Most hostels are going to be cash only unless its a full business, store or hotel.

[tiptoe]

I encountered places in the South that charged more for credit cards than cash. I'm not going to name them.

[Slo-go'en]

Many people don't realize that accepting credit cards costs the business money. For small, low volume businesses, there is typically a 3% service charge in addition to a monthly rental fee for the credit card machine. Which is why I never took cards in my business. Heck, the CC companies make tons of money off of the cards, they should be paying me to take them.

[tiptoe]

I know it costs businesses money to accept credit cards. Up here in Yankee land, though, I've never run into two-tier pricing.

[Coffee]

I consider it a small courtesy to pay small businesses of all kinds in cash even when they take credit cards. The 3% fee is unnecessary and very rough on an already low margin business like a hostel or small town restaurant. I have a ATM card where I'm reimbursed for ATM fees so getting cash costs me nothing and I prefer to use cash on the trail (and also off the trail) whenever possible.

[Old Grouse]

I know it costs businesses money to accept credit cards. Up here in Yankee land, though, I've never run into two-tier pricing.

Except at gas stations, including in Bethel!

[tiptoe]

Except at gas stations, including in Bethel!

Yes,, you are right, Old Grouse. And guess who always pays cash for gas? Yours truly.

At least gas stations post their prices for cash and credit. Other businesses generally don't.

[BillyGr]

Theoretically (at least most places) the laws do not allow charging extra for using a card. However they do not prohibit giving a discount for paying in cash. Also know of at least one place (where insurance is involved) that offers a larger discount for cash and a smaller one for credit cards as opposed to paying with insurance.

[Neemor]

I usually carried around $40. Sometimes less sometimes more.
It was enough for emergencies and not enough to give in to more expensive place. Plus getting cash in towns at groceries was super easy in almost every single town.

[MuddyWaters]

Using cash does save credit card fees.
But it also saves the business a lot more, because many will fudge their income to exclude a lot of cash business. They cant do that with credit transactions.

[GoldenBear]

I know a bit about how it all works, and what small business owners prefer.

First and foremost, pretty much all small business owners prefer cash, particularly those with very few employees. There are two main reasons:
1) They avoid the 3% charge (more or less) from credit card companies.
2) It's easier for them to hide their income level. About half the owners I worked with were open about wanting to do that, and I'm sure the large majority of cash-based, small businesses illegally evade taxes.

There are few states that forbid credit charge surcharges, and even those states permit discounts for cash -- after 40 years of owning a credit card, I still don't see the difference between the two.
Note that some credit card companies forbid this practice.
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/business-surcharge-card-customers-1585.php
Thus the answer to the question, "Can a business charge more for using a credit card?" is, "It depends."

The larger the business, particularly in its number of employees, the more sense it makes to prefer credit cards. Doing so almost completely eliminates losses due to "shrinkage," which currently amounts to about 7% of business revenue
http://www.statisticbrain.com/employee-theft-statistics/
and also makes balancing the daily books a lot easier -- it takes much less time to add up CC sales than to count bills. It also allows merchants to extend "credit" to customers who they have never met, and have no idea whether the customers are trustworthy or not. Basically, the CC companies are doing the work of establishing credit-worthiness, allowing businesses to determine that fact about a potential customer in seconds instead of months.

One more advantage of permitting customers to use CC: such customers tend to spend more when they do.
Thus, many businesses are perfectly willing to pay CC companies for the service that the latter provide, the same way they would pay an accounting firm to do an audit, or a security firm to protect the business from shrinkage.


Hostels that take CC are quite rare -- the advantages of doing so are almost non-existent, given the size of both their staff and their cash intake. I always assume a hostel will ONLY take cash unless it explicitly and clearly states otherwise.

[Patrickjd9]

I know a bit about how it all works, and what small business owners prefer.

First and foremost, pretty much all small business owners prefer cash, particularly those with very few employees. There are two main reasons:
1) They avoid the 3% charge (more or less) from credit card companies.
2) It's easier for them to hide their income level.
As a teenager, my brother worked in a small grocery store where the owner only rang the cash register during standard office hours.

[Patrickjd9]

Returning to the subject: Even if very small businesses like hostels take credit cards, I prefer to pay them in cash. The data/phone connections required to use credit cards are usually painfully slow in small stores in rural areas.

[CarlZ993]

I usually paid in cash at most hostels. If I saw they had a Visa/MC logo in their office, I'd use my CC. It was convenient for me & had some cash-back revenue to use.

I'd usually start out w/ $200 on my person. When it dwindled down, I'd replenish it from an ATM or cash back from a debit card.

[lemon b]

Cash is King.

[Heliotrope]

Many people don't realize that accepting credit cards costs the business money. For small, low volume businesses, there is typically a 3% service charge in addition to a monthly rental fee for the credit card machine. Which is why I never took cards in my business. Heck, the CC companies make tons of money off of the cards, they should be paying me to take them.

Amen! My business pays a bundle in card fees on top of the interest charged. Big banks want a bite out of every sale in every business and debit cards make that a real possibility. We can change that by using cash as much as possible. And business owners love it!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kayak karl]

hostels should just raise their prices if hikers want the convenience of using cards.

[rickb]

I am surprised none are insisting on keeping credit card info (and zip) on file to provide some recourse should there be damages or such. Especially with square register and the like.

[Brewerbob]

This is good to know. I almost exclusively use CC or debit.

I was also told CC = 3% while debit = 1.5%. Never looked it up tho.

I prefer plastic to cash because once I break a $20 it disappears quick. With a CC/DC, I spent exactly $11.37 on lunch. I don't have to deal with change and I can't spend the $8.63 that was given back to me.