A Tale of Credit Cards and Consumer Behavior
In the wake of the pandemic and rising crime rates many businesses have selected to eliminate cash payments from their businesses entirely. Recently I went to pick up a to-go order and was shocked to see that they wouldn’t take my cash. At a hair salon I was encountered with the same thing. Both places were more than happy to take cash for a tip though. At a parking garage I was forced to use my cell phone to use for my parking ticket and to make my cashless payment. This experience left me thinking about how these businesses came to eliminate cash from their business and their assumption that I’d have a cashless payment option available. I wasn’t notified prior to receiving service or when placing my order that cashless was the only option. In the parking garage there was nowhere to turn around and no alternative options for payment. Read on to learn more about the ways cashless have impacts businesses that operate in person and online, the consumer’s take, and how governments are overseeing this as a whole.
Before we go on it is fair to provide some perspective. I live in Las Vegas, Nevada and have worked in hospitality and service industries, and as part of the Hunter Marketing team I help businesses build from the ground up. This includes selecting payment gateways and building online stores. In all of the experiences I mentioned above I previously expected to be able to pay for in cash, as I deeply understand the cost of accepting cashless payments for businesses and tend to try to leave my credit cards at home. At the same time, I recognize value to having cashless payment options available.
What prompted me to write this was the actions taken by a local government, specifically one in the Pacific Northwest. In an effort to protect consumer rights the King County Council in Washington State, recently voted to require businesses to continue to accept cash payments. The resulting controversy has created a narrative, and operational undertaking to incorporate this option into businesses that have moved away entirely. Let’s examine the details about this entire topic.
How Cashless Came About
As more businesses moved online, and less consumers walked through brick and mortar stores the move to cashless seemed inevitable for most goods and services. When the pandemic shuttered businesses and shined a light on ways to eliminate transmission of germs, cashless, online, and touchless payment options seemed to naturally rise to the top. It seemed like a move to cashless was a cleaner option that consumers wanted. After stores were allowed to reopen many of them found that it was easier to keep cashless, and many businesses opted to eliminate cash entirely.
Positives of Cashless Payment Options

Benefits to Businesses
From a business owner perspective cash can invite issues. Employees handling cash could miscount it or just outright steal from businesses in various ways. As crime rates around the country continue to rise there is also a fear of criminals targeting your business and increased rates of theft both during business hours and from break ins. Then you have to maintain separate cash drawers for each cashier. Of course then there’s the runs to the bank to deposit cash and make change just to store it in a safe at the storefront. What many business owners and managers see as an elimination of this headache is worth the processing fees for many businesses. These are just a few of the examples we see in helping business owners remain cashless.
Benefit to Marketers
As marketers, tracking and reporting on sales trends is much simpler and more accurate through trackable payment options like credit cards than when everyone pays in cash. You can not only report more accurately on data, but can do this on a consumer level that allows trends on user behavior that can’t be seen when cash is used. Being able to identify user behaviors allows you to segment and target advertising towards the individuals most likely to purchase. In the end it allows you to create forecasts and provide more effective marketing messages, reducing cost of marketing compared to revenues.
Benefits to Consumers
Many consumers enjoy benefits from credit card providers to incentivize their use of credit cards. Discover historically rotates up to 5 percent cashback on purchases as places like wholesale stores, restaurants, and home improvement stores. Capital One has entire campaigns around “cashbacking” featuring actor and comedian Kevin Hart. Airline credit cards offer miles as a perk to using their credit cards. It’s easy to see the allure of using credit cards from a consumer standpoint. Smartphone users may even save their credit card information to their phone and have it in the palm of their hand for storefronts to accept Apple Pay, Google Pay, and now even Venmo.
Drawbacks of Cashless Payment Options

Increased Processing Fees
As cashless has become more popular, and more businesses transition to online and cashless payment options, processing fees have continued to rise. Coupling the cost of taking money per transaction and the cost of having a payment processor in place, which usually incurs a monthly fee, with the rising cost of raw materials and inventory has impacted many business bottom lines. Simultaneously policies regarding mandatory minimum wage increases and challenges in shipping have created a snowball of rising cost of doing business. This has caused prices to continue to rise on goods across the board. It has made some businesses reconsider cashless options and makes the “cash is king” mantra more attractive despite the issues that it brings along with it.
Skyrocketing Credit Card Debt
More credit card usage equals more credit card debt. Many consumers see how easy it is to get out of hand with cashless spending options, making budget-minded people go back to cash. The Federal Reserve has reported that credit card debt in America has reached nearly the 1 trillion dollars in 2023. Combine this with increased interest rates and a gloomy future is on the horizon for the average American’s debt to income ratio.
The Future of Cash Payments

Recent regulations have been suggested and passed to require businesses to take the national currency at in-person transactions. Many businesses may begin to accept cash, but offer no change. In theory they would immediately deposit all cash taken into a vault to eliminate the lure of criminals and thieves. This would minimize the risk for employees, managers and the storefront itself.
Business Response: If local governments would do something about the criminals and protect businesses then accepting cash and having change available on hand wouldn’t be an issue.
Consumer Response: We should not be required to pay by credit card, or have a reasonable expectation that we will be notified up front, prior to ordering or engaging in service that a credit card is required. The dollar is our national currency and while I don’t expect businesses to have change for a dollar and may require that I use exact change or expect no change back I should be able to pay for goods, food, and services in cash if I so choose.
As you can see, there are reasons on both sides to accept and deny cash payments, but offering a variety of payment options ensures that consumers choose you over your competitors.