Cost of cash
Tuesday Mounkes (Penny Pincher)
Monday, August 31, 2009
PEOPLE UNDERSTAND their cost for convenience. However, it’s not just about interest on your credit cards anymore. I feel cheated and it makes no sense.
A fitness gym in town offers me membership with a monthly fee of $29 plus tax (that’s with a debit card). Yet, if I walk in with cash, my cost for that same month would be $6 higher.
My question is: Why does it cost me more to use cash? I’m irked by the whole idea of it all. I have to pay them to keep their hands out of my pocket, when instead my cash should be received with gratitude. Their idea is “Let’s see what we can take,” rather than “Thank you for your business.”
Tuesday Mounkes (Penny Pincher)
Emporia
HenryVIII (anonymous) says...
If you use plastic, they can automatically charge you again to renew your membership when it has expired. This auto-renew "feature" allows them to make more money on those who don't pay attention and cancel when they should. When you use cash, they can't automatically take more cash out of your pocket to extend your membership, so they'll charge you more when you use cash to make up for it.
Infomercials do the same thing. If you pay attention, you’ll notice how they'll throw in extras if you pay by credit card. “Pay by credit card and get 2 for the price of 1!” Usually it's only because they'll continue to send you (and bill you for) "next month's edition" until you call to cancel.
Just think of the extra $6 as a convenience fee so you don't have to call and cancel your membership before it automatically renews. I agree, though...sounds like a very shady tactic for a gym.
‘enry
August 31, 2009 at 2:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
deluvly1 (anonymous) says...
Not to get off the subject, it is a good one, but with buying from TV how is it legal for them to offer you extras or even another product if you just “pay shipping and handling.”
The shipping and handling can be 75% or more of the products advertised price. A friend wanted to order a power “wand” attachment for her garden hose. She went on line but refused to use her credit card because the company in question would not show a total of her charges UNTIL she’d submitted the “buy” option. She went to the pay-by- e-check section…with no intention of actually paying that way, and found out that the original $19.95 item, + the “free” one + paid , was going to total out at nearly $50. With all the worthless crap the government is doing in “our interest” why hasn’t someone in the post office or the state government cracked down on these people? If this isn’t fraud I don’t know what is.
August 31, 2009 at 3:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )