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Always use cash from now on, not credit cards


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2021 Sep 4, 4:36pm   41,962 views  345 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

Drove to a restaurant today with my wife and was first of all creeped out to find that they knew my name from my phone number, which I had to give to get on the wait list. They said they use a centralized database of many restaurants for that.

They have a window where you can order a beer while you are waiting. So I ordered a beer and they refused to take cash.

OK, I wanted the beer, so I paid with a credit card. Then the total had an extra $1.50 on it. I asked about that and was told that I added a tip. I specifically did not add a tip because I was pissed that they don't take cash.

I got the manager and made him remove the tip.

We are rapidly approaching the CCP utopia of complete tracking of all citizens at all times.

Lesson: call ahead and make sure a restaurant will take cash. If they will not, don't go there.

Comments 1 - 40 of 345       Last »     Search these comments

1   Patrick   2021 Sep 4, 4:50pm  

Hmmm, there are disposable debit cards you can get which protect your privacy, right?
2   AmericanKulak   2021 Sep 4, 5:35pm  

Here's a few. Most have a monthly user fee, probably to compensate that they can't sell your financial information.

https://www.creditcards.com/prepaid/
3   Patrick   2021 Sep 4, 5:43pm  

You know, maybe the French have the right idea.

Picnics!

Just don't go to restaurants at all anymore.

There's some work in preparing, but it's cheaper, there's no demand for a phone number or a credit card, no wait to be served, and no tip, no jab passports, and no masks. It's probably much easier to park at any picnic place as well.

Maybe the resistance should be called The Picnic Club.
4   Tenpoundbass   2021 Sep 4, 5:46pm  

Patrick says
Hmmm, there are disposable debit cards you can get which protect your privacy, right?


I don't carry cash and use my debit card exclusively. Even if I have to pay a little more in special circumstances.
But the day establishments stop taking cash, will be the day I realize, that my Debit card is NOT same as Cash. And would a)Consider going back to using cash exclusively. and b)Never do business with those businesses that refuse cash.
5   Patrick   2021 Sep 4, 5:48pm  

Debit cards still give away your identity though.
6   AmericanKulak   2021 Sep 4, 6:10pm  

Subsidize the Farmer's Markets and "ethnic" markets and Ghetto Flea Markets, folks.
7   Patrick   2021 Sep 4, 6:11pm  

Yes, buy up stuff for a nice picnic, invite friends, and go someplace with a view that even the best restaurants don't have.
8   Patrick   2021 Sep 4, 6:15pm  

MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says
Here's a few. Most have a monthly user fee, probably to compensate that they can't sell your financial information.

https://www.creditcards.com/prepaid/


Are there any that let you load them via paper cash, and have no link to your real identity whatsoever?
9   clambo   2021 Sep 4, 7:18pm  

Prepaid Vanilla Visa or MasterCard for sale in CVS might be good.
10   Patrick   2021 Sep 4, 7:18pm  

Thanks, I'll have to see if they will accept cash for those.
11   richwicks   2021 Sep 4, 7:44pm  

Dude - just use cash. If they don't accept cash, go somewhere else.
12   ThatGuy   2021 Sep 4, 7:56pm  

@Patrick, I'd go with "Ain't no picnic" for deniability
13   AmericanKulak   2021 Sep 4, 8:39pm  

If you must have a card, your Patprivacy LLC can get a prepaid card.
14   richwicks   2021 Sep 4, 8:49pm  

Patrick says

Are there any that let you load them via paper cash, and have no link to your real identity whatsoever?


No. It's illegal. The excuse is to prevent money laundering. Been this way for a decade.
15   NuttBoxer   2021 Sep 4, 8:52pm  

Patrick says
Thanks, I'll have to see if they will accept cash for those.


All prepaid cards usually require you pay exclusively in cash. If you have some sort of membership with the store, DON'T use it when you buy the card. They all charge a fee, usually around $6 to activate, but no fees after that if you never reload, and only use them to make purchases in the same way you would your bank or credit card.

Of course if you use them that restaurant you gave your real number to, it's pointless. Learn to start using fake data in your every day transactions. Or at least data that doesn't tie back to you.

My family and I refuse to do business with anyone who won't take cash. It's an invasion of privacy, always a hard stop for us.
16   AmericanKulak   2021 Sep 4, 8:53pm  

richwicks says
No. It's illegal. The excuse is to prevent money laundering. Been this way for a decade.


Might get help setting one up from an unbanked individual. Once you have it... I think it can be loaded in 'multiple ways'. But, this is only hypothetical.

Of course, the LLC Card idea is the best. For starters, it's legality is unquestioned. Pat might want to have a lawyer fill out anyforms with instructions that ALL of it will be EIN of LLC only, never SSN or Pat's Name.

But yeah, could just use cash - but can't buy much on the internet that way.
17   NuttBoxer   2021 Sep 4, 8:55pm  

richwicks says
No. It's illegal. The excuse is to prevent money laundering. Been this way for a decade.


100% false. I have been using them for two years. I fill up $500 every time I buy the card to maximize the activation fee.
18   Patrick   2021 Sep 4, 8:58pm  

richwicks says
Dude - just use cash. If they don't accept cash, go somewhere else.


Problem is, it wasn't just me.
19   PeopleUnited   2021 Sep 4, 9:04pm  

Patrick says
Maybe the resistance should be called The Picnic Club.



I like it, but I am not part of the pansy resistance like the lame new Star Wars movies or leftists whining about the 2016 election landslide. I feel like we are rebels, because they have painted us as outlaws.

Join the picnic Club and do your part for the rebellion!
20   komputodo   2021 Sep 4, 11:22pm  

Patrick says
Lesson: call ahead and make sure a restaurant will take cash. If they will not, don't go there.

But the cash back awards and the airline miles? And the convenience? lol
21   komputodo   2021 Sep 4, 11:26pm  

MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says
Ghetto Flea Markets,

Why "ghetto"?
22   richwicks   2021 Sep 4, 11:27pm  

NuttBoxer says
richwicks says
No. It's illegal. The excuse is to prevent money laundering. Been this way for a decade.


100% false. I have been using them for two years. I fill up $500 every time I buy the card to maximize the activation fee.


@NuttBoxer - In order to get the card, you had to disclose your address and your phone number in order to activate it.

Now maybe I'm wrong, but I've checked into this. Even with PayPal you have to disclose the last 4 digits of your SS # and your phone #.
23   Onvacation   2021 Sep 4, 11:37pm  

komputodo says
MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says
Ghetto Flea Markets,

Why "ghetto"?

'cause that's where they are in Cali.
24   richwicks   2021 Sep 4, 11:39pm  

Onvacation says
komputodo says
MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says
Ghetto Flea Markets,

Why "ghetto"?

'cause that's where they are in Cali.


They welcome cash, because they are off grid.
25   Karloff   2021 Sep 4, 11:40pm  

For as long as I knew this existed, I refused to patronize establishments that automatically added a tip to the bill. Olive Garden was one of these places. It's presumptuous and arrogant.

The choices these days are easy. I am persona non grata at all restaurants due to my status as a second class citizen.
26   AmericanKulak   2021 Sep 4, 11:42pm  

komputodo says
Why "ghetto"?


They're not always Ghetto, but the big ones near/in cities usually are.
27   gabbar   2021 Sep 5, 5:31am  

We don't fill up our automobiles with unknown octane gas, why do we fill up stomach with unknown quality food served by a business whose goal is to maximize profit
28   Booger   2021 Sep 5, 8:09am  

Greek restaurant around here is cash only.
29   RC2006   2021 Sep 5, 8:39am  

If we are talking resteraunts in bay area can't you just walk out without paying? Paying for food in bay area sounds so pre 2010s.
30   RWSGFY   2021 Sep 5, 8:55am  

RC2006 says
If we are talking resteraunts in bay area can't you just walk out without paying? Paying for food in bay area sounds so pre 2010s.


Yes! Keep it under $950 p/p and you're GTG.
31   Patrick   2021 Sep 5, 9:48am  

This particular place wouldn't let you order without paying by credit card from you table first.

No waitresses either, only a QR code to get the menu, and then you have to put in your credit card.

I won't go back.

Booger says
Greek restaurant around here is cash only.


My wife points out two reasons why small family-run places love cash:

1. They don't worry about being ripped off by the staff, because the staff is family.
2. They don't want to pay the credit card vig of 1.5% or whatever.

But there is a third one of course. It's much harder for the IRS to know how much money a cash business really made. And that's fine with me.
32   Onvacation   2021 Sep 5, 10:41am  

Patrick says
It's much harder for the IRS to know how much money a cash business really made. And that's fine with me.

It's a plus for me!
33   Patrick   2021 Sep 5, 10:45am  

gabbar says
We don't fill up our automobiles with unknown octane gas, why do we fill up stomach with unknown quality food served by a business whose goal is to maximize profit


@gabbar Yes, that's another good point.

You have much more control over the food when it's your own picnic, assuming the ingredient lists on what you buy are accurate.
34   mell   2021 Sep 5, 10:49am  

Patrick says
This particular place wouldn't let you order without paying by credit card from you table first.

No waitresses either, only a QR code to get the menu, and then you have to put in your credit card.

I won't go back.

Booger says
Greek restaurant around here is cash only.


My wife points out two reasons why small family-run places love cash:

1. They don't worry about being ripped off by the staff, because the staff is family.
2. They don't want to pay the credit card vig of 1.5% or whatever.

But there is a third one of course. It's much harder for the IRS to know how much money a cash business really made. And that's fine with me.


Many places in the bay area, esp. Asian family places in SF only take cash. Though with with plamdemic many may have been forced to change that as they switched to delivery since people usually don't pay cash for (online) delivery. All part of the plan.
35   NuttBoxer   2021 Sep 5, 11:31am  

richwicks says
@NuttBoxer - In order to get the card, you had to disclose your address and your phone number in order to activate it.


The cards I've used for the past two years have required a phone number and address for online use, yes. The vanilla ones don't even require that, you just fill out a phone number and billing address on the merchant site during checkout.

If you are getting a gift card to use around town, well, when the last time you were required to register a gift card someone gave you..?
36   AmericanKulak   2021 Sep 5, 11:32am  

Go to 7/11 or Home Depot and ask an unbanked person to help you set up a prepaid card.

Then go to one of those Loan/Cash Centers, refill that card with cash, and put on your best Slavic Accent "Me no understand, Dy Rect Depozite. I get pay'yd ze cash for dry vall installayshion. I give ze cash to yyou, nyo? I haff no ID, zorry."
37   gabbar   2021 Sep 5, 1:22pm  

Patrick says
gabbar says
We don't fill up our automobiles with unknown octane gas, why do we fill up stomach with unknown quality food served by a business whose goal is to maximize profit


@gabbar Yes, that's another good point.

You have much more control over the food when it's your own picnic, assuming the ingredient lists on what you buy are accurate.


Every time you take a bite of food, consider that you are programming your biology for health or disease. When you eat healthy food, you are, in fact, eating medicine. ― Mark Hyman, The Pegan Diet: 21 Practical Principles for Reclaiming Your Health in a Nutritionally Confusing World
39   NDrLoR   2021 Sep 17, 2:33pm  

gabbar says
eat healthy food
healthful
40   NDrLoR   2021 Sep 17, 2:35pm  

MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says
Go to 7/11
I've been going to their generic equivalent and eating an ice cream sandwich every day! I always loved those.

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