Legal Tender

miroku12g · Senior Member

Legal Tender

Greystone · Senior Member

It is not illegal to reject cash. https://banknotes.rba.gov.au/legal/legal-tender/

dabbler · Guru

It's not illegal to refuse cash. It's increasingly common to expect non-contact methods of payment due to the Covid-19 dangers. Various health depts have warned businesses of these dangers to staff and customers. "Legal tender" refers to the rules, regs and laws controlling the use of currency. This mostly means the quantity of each denomination a vendor is legally required to accept if they accept cash payments. A bus driver can refuse a $50 note for a $4.70 fare for instance.

Whenarewethere · Guru

Cash is legal tender but they do not have to accept cash, as long as they give you one other form of paying & that transaction does not have any surcharges. So it can be credit card only but they can't charge you a processing fee.

There are businesses around Manly that are no longer accepting cash, small & large, including our local Woolworths branch.

I used to pay cash for phone bills, then I couldn't do that anymore so posted cheques, then they would not accept that. Card or transfer only in the end.

I have put a scalpel blade through the aerial in my cards so there is no chance I pay the 0.4% or so service charge even on debit transactions.

Paywave is a third party service simply for not using a password & some shops pass the fee on & some don't. Credit or debit, it's the same.

Granty · Senior Member

It is a safety measure against transmitting Covid19 and in my opinion anyone who doesnt accept it needs to have a serious look at our current situation.

bgt · Guru

Way back in my legal study days I was told that you don't "buy" something but make an "offer to buy". So the seller has the right to either accept your offer or not. So they don't even have to accept a card let alone cash.

miroku12g · Senior Member

Interesting
Thanks everyone, Ill let my mate know, at least he parked for zilch,

Dave

oldbloke · Guru

No company policy or procedure can over ride the law of the land. Although some MDs and CEOs seem to think so.

oldbloke · Guru

No company policy or procedure can over ride the law of the land. Although some MDs and CEOs seem to think so.

montie · Guru

bgt wrote:
Way back in my legal study days I was told that you don't "buy" something but make an "offer to buy". So the seller has the right to either accept your offer or not. So they don't even have to accept a card let alone cash.

A contract consists of an offer, an acceptance and a consideration.

Advertising a parking facility is making the offer which you accept when you drive up and offer the required consideration.

Payment of the consideration is a separate matter.

bgt · Guru

Montie a shop displays goods. You "offer" to buy them. Lawyers at 20 paces anyone,?

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

We all know that we are heading for a cashless society & the COVID-19 has encouraged shops, etc to push that "ideal".
In NQ where we've had negligable cases of Covid, I generally use cash - in fact businesses on the Atherton Tablelands prefer cash over cards, any time.
What irks me are women who buy their kids a treat before/after school that costs a dollar or less & pay by card! People complain about the bank fees they pay, yet are going along with it willy-nilly!

Am I old & grumpy? Perhaps it's our generation of baby boomers!

Whenarewethere · Guru

Warren-Pat_01 wrote:
People complain about the bank fees they pay, yet are going along with it willy-nilly!

This is why the banks stopped the $2 ATM withdrawal fees, pretending they were helping the customer because they are making money hand over fist from contactless fees.

DMaxer · Guru

When a shop displays an item it is an "invitation to treat". When you select the item you offer, they accept the offer by allowing you to take the goods on the basis you pay, which is the consideration. Just because they have an item marked for sale does not mean they must sell it if someone wants to buy it.

dabbler · Guru

I thought banks stopped charging transaction fees as a marketing exercise and eventually because it was made illegal. It certainly wasn't deep from the heart. On cash vs card, my folk's business was in a small mines housing community with almost nonexistent banking facilities. Their commercial banker was a 3 hour round trip. managing daily register floats were a nightmare. Cash handling cost them more money and time than card transactions. Their accountant helped them setup older style customer trading accounts with regulars on the condition monthly statements were paid with card or direct debit.

Gus1949 · Senior Member

I would have told him to p15s off and stop being a d**k given the threat of covid19.

MickandJacki · Member

How does one pay at donation camps, using the honesty box? I'm guessing coins or a $note are still acceptable.

Onedodger · Guru

This transition to a cashless society worries me, as what will happen to those road side places selling farm and garden produce plus the many small markets we have?

Whilst I agree with the card in a pandemic situation after this is over what is going to happen?

The wife and I prefer to use cash and thus it is much easier to stay within a budget.

spida · Guru

The 'cashless' society people obviously have worked out the alternative to trade when the power system crashes....... as it has done often in the past! What happens when eftpos, phone, internet etc wont work - and if the power is off long enough thir battery back-ups will not work..... Then with the power cut they probabaly wont be able to open the shop doors anyway. This happened in a tourist town in NZ a couple of years ago!!!!! The whole town with no power for quite a few hours! Chaos.
No doubt someone will make lots of money with the new parking meters, washing machines and all the other things that need a coin to operate. So we buy [on a card] tokens instead of using cash????

miroku12g · Senior Member

Hmm !
what about the tooth fairy [can we say "fairy"] Sixpence in the Christmas pudding or [threepence,] depending how rich you were in the 50's [showing my age now]

Craig1 · Guru

Wont be long, we will all have a chip inserted, powered by a Honda eu22 when the power goes down

Bruiser · Newbie

Heard a story recently I think was from Sweden, they are apparently a cashless society, if not them may have been one of their neighbours, they are asked two very invasive questions every 6 months, if you dont answer they put a lock on your finances until you do. I dont know if this is true but have no reason to doubt it others may know if it is correct or otherwise

Craig1 · Guru

Our P M was sprouting early in the week, we should be heading for a digital society