The Intangible Costs of Merchant Credit Card Processing versus Cash and Checks

When considering the costs of merchant credit cardrequire pre-authorization for using them, and because
processing versus accepting other forms of payment,of this hassle customers would rather use a credit or
it is easier to account for direct costs than to considerdebit card.
the whole story told by all the associated costs ofCash has some other problems as well; large sums of
doing business with different payment methods. Atcash are more likely to be vulnerable to employee
first blush it may seem that cash has an advantagetheft, and although it is not usually a large problem,
over the use of checks or credit cards because itcounterfeiting is also an issue. Because of the security
does not have any processing fees associated with it.issue some businesses, such as apartment rental
However, there are some other things to consider withoffices, simply refuse cash. Cash is also an
cash, not the least of which is that because of relativeanonymous medium of exchange; if other businesses
safety and ease of using debit and credit cards theseare concerned about dealing with criminals then they
have largely replaced cash and checks for manymight require a credit card which has an identity
transactions. More people are carrying less cashconnected to it, so people that would prefer to stay
because of this and cash spending is limited foroff the radar will go to where they can deal in cash. If
transactions with a higher ticket price. Partly becauseyour business is not equipped to accept debit and
of concerns about identity theft, fewer people arecredit cards because you are concerned about the
writing checks as well; checks require recording moreoverhead associated with merchant credit card
personal information which more consumers areprocessing, you must also ask yourself what the real
concerned about sharing. In order to deal withcosts are when doing business strictly with cash or
problems concerning stolen checks, several merchantschecks.