While the industry as a whole waits for merchants to take broad advantage of the new discounting opportunities found in the Durbin Amendment, those merchants with less active points of sale may find it helps their bottom line by offering a simple discount for cash.
Paying interchange fees is just one of the issues merchants deal with when accepting credit cards – there’s also cash flow to be considered.
“When (customers) charge, we don’t get the money right away,” said DonnaMarie Hasenfus who owns the business with her husband, Bill. “It can sometimes take up to four days or a week to get the money in the account.” Skydive Adventure is one of a number of businesses that offer a discount to customers who pay with cash.
The other side of this are consumers looking to save money as well.
Increasing awareness of cost of payment can spur buyers to negotiate their own discount
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“I don’t always get it, but if it’s a big purchase I have no hesitation asking if they’ll give me a cash discount,” said Judy Knudsen, family living educator with Brown County University of Wisconsin-Extension. “Anything you can save is great.”
We’re not seeing any widespread adoption of either of these strategies; they still seem to be grounded in small businesses.
However, value is a two sided transaction and when all else fails – cash speaks volumes.
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