I can recall my first little part time job at HEB (its a texas grocery store) and making some cash in high school. This was in 99-00... I was a junior. Anyhow, I remember going out on dates, tipping people no problem because I always had cash. without a bank account, it was sweet. I'd get paid 250 a week, plus I had pretty much had zero bills other then my car insurance. My wallet was big and fat! When your 16, 250 bucks can make you fill like a millionaire.

Well.....


Now fast forward to 2009. My pay check's are directly deposited into my bank account, the wallet is full of plastic and its thinner than a super model.


Anyhow, this has been bugging me for sometime but I feel like a complete cheap ass when I can't tip someone. Today for example, my no cash debt card shame prevented me from taking my girlfriends car to get washed. I just never have any cash on me! Getting cash is such a hassle, either I have to find an ATM, a store that offers cash back or drive to Chase. All of those options require me to spend money. I need gas to get to chase, ATM's cost 2.50+ and I can't get cash back unless I buy something. My grandfather never had a bank account, he slept on all his money. Did he ever have a tipping problem? NOPE!

Yes, direct deposit has made our lives easier but at what cost? Should valet and car wash guys for example just sent up a debt card machine for tip purposes? How on earth do I buy that bag of M&M's without cash?

 

Muahahaha, Australia and New Zealand don't tip. Cheapskates of the world unite!

 

I don't understand how its hard to have money in your wallet. You go to an ATM, you take out as much as you can i.e £300 (so you're not contstantly running out and having to replenish) then when that has run out go get some more.

I always carry both my debit card and cash but I hardly ever tip (UK FTW!), never a single reason to. Drop a couple quid after a meal buts usually only the ever time when a tip is worth it in my eyes.

 

Guess I shouldn't feel bad lol!! Recall what don't you understand? I don't need cash because everywhere takes Debt Cards. However, This is why I don't have cash to tip....

 

You clearly need cash.

You can't have it both ways. If you wish to tip you must get cash. If you don't want to carry cash, you have to accept you can't tip.

 

first its Debit Card not debt unless you mean a credit card the debt does apply and just plan a weekly trip to your bank and pick up what you feel you will need for tipping for the week

 

I've gone back to the tried-and-true method of paying cash. With the increased popularity of debit cards came the rise of card cloning.

After getting my card cloned twice in a year, I decided to use my debit card at my bank's ATM once a week and carry cash instead.

 

The only place I ever give tips is at a sit-down restaurant. The majority of them have an extra line on the receipt where you can write in a tip amount and have that added to the charge on your debit card, so I don't need cash there. The only time I really need cash is quarters for laundry and I usually get enough of those to last me for awhile whenever I go to the bank to put something in my safety deposit box.

I'm not familiar with Chase, but do they not have their own ATMs around that you can use without paying a fee? If not, open an account with a bank that has more of an ATM presence, or an ATM that's along your typical route of travel, and use theirs without paying.

Pretty sure most stores will take a debit card for something like that.

 

Some of the smaller stores won't accept plastic unless you are over a certain limit.

I pretty much use only plastic. If I lose my wallet, call the credit union and they lock my card. If I lose my wallet with a bunch of money (I've got a whole long story about my wife leaving hers in Shopko with a good part of our tax return....) I will probably never see it again.

Chuck

 

Here's a tip. Carry some cash.

 

Yeah it's like that at most resturants I go to too. I usually keep cash on me all the time, I prefer it than using Debt cards

 

I use my debit card everywhere. I rarely carry cash - it's so much easier to swipe a card than to pull out some bills. Then again I'm sure you save more money with cash  

 

I've found that it's useful to have about $20 cash (in small bills) in my wallet at all times for those weird and increasingly rare instances that a vendor or what have you doesn't take plastic. Otherwise I use my debit card for almost everything so I can track my spending.

I don't know about anyone else's area, but in mine, every single place you can eat at has an option to add a tip in with the regular charge on the ticket. If I and whatever company I'm with linger at a table a while and it gets busy after I've signed off on the ticket, I'll usually slip in a few extra dollars on top of the charged tip.

 

Oh the irony...

 

or perhaps you need a bank that doesn't charge ATM fees. My bank doesn't as long as I use one of their ATMs. I hate to use my debit card. I will usually get $100 or so at a time. That covers expenses for a week or 2.

 

Most cashpoints here in Britain are free to use, which is always good for drawing cash. I really prefer to pay in cash whenever I can as then I can keep track of my dosh better. The only time I'll use my card is if I don't have enough cash on me. And I definitely don't use a card when buying petrol as every other week here I hear that one petrol station or another around here has had card cloning going on.

As for tipping, as a couple of others have said, it's not such a requirement in the UK, so I rarely do it. People get wages already and to me tipping is only if you've offered me service beyond what your job requires anyway (be that extra and sincere politeness or a faster than normal service). If you're a pizza delivery person then I'm not going to give you extra cash for just doing your job. That said, my girlfriend is American and comes from that tipping culture and used to deliver pizzas herself back in the day, so many times we've had heated discussions over tipping people. I prefer to answer the door to the pizza guy here or she'd give all my cash away to him in tips.

 

Well, I wash and park my car myself. Any other tipping, I tack onto the debit card receipt. Haircut, restaurant et cetera. I only really have cash for vending machines and it takes a month to go through twenty bucks.

 

I normally use my debit card wherever I go. I pretty much don't have the luxury to dine out at a sit-in restaurant. I very rarely, if ever, carry much cash on me and when I do, it's usually to get myself something from the vending machines while I'm on campus.

Though if you really want to have some cash on you for tips, I'd just go to an ATM. Yeah, fees might suck, but it's better than nothing.

 

I've never actually had a meal at a restaurant without there being somebody in the crowd without at least enough cash to leave the tip. There's always somebody who has cash and if not, a lot of restaurants are building the tip function right into the Debit card machine itself.

 

alittle off topic but i think H-E-B'S are not just in Texas hence you said "a Texas grocery store" and i also seen some in Mexico