"A grown man should have more than a dollar in his wallet"

[Jetfire]

In that case and given the length of time, I would be inclined to politely and nicely ask the manager when they might be expecting to be able to take those kinds of cards. Politely and nicely being the key words here. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask questions in that case. Anything more than a day or two, and I'd be wanting to know if I should just find an alternative longer term. Since most people's lunch breaks are short, it's not sucky to want to eliminate a wasted trip until they get their machines fully functioning.

True. I was debating going in and asking, to clarify too if it was the full card, or if you could run them as Debit instead of Credit (I think most folk would run as debit regardless; Canadians are not really used to Credit Debit cards like in the states).

Since it was a weekend trip for me (no deadlines) and I had other dinner options available that did work with my payment choices, I didn't bother going in.

[paperfiend]

I always carry cash. Rarely use it, always carry it. Don't want to be stuck with a bank-network outage and fumes in the car's gas tank.

It's about a 25% chance I will have cash in my purse at any given time. However, I have several dollars in quarters rolling around in the center console of my car (covered - and I keep meaning to corral them in a bag or something) to cover parking meters and the tire-filling-air-machines. Those quarters could also be emergency gas money if needed -- my car gets really good gas mileage so about $3 of gas would get me all the way home from anywhere in my normal radius.

[RootedPhoenix]

I don't carry cash, but I also wouldn't yell at the poor cashier. It's not like they personally did this just out of spite or have the control to fix it.

[Lovecats]

We do have a couple of restaurants in town that are cash only. Well, actually one of them will take debit or credit cards for a small ($.60) fee. I always try to at least have $5 on me anyway.

[notalwaysright]

The tiny Asian market that I go to has a minimum for credit card transaction, and I always try to have cash for them anyway because I know the processing fees can add up. Another store, a super hippie store, has signs which break down how much the store has to pay each week/month (can't remember) in credit card fees, and asks for cash please. I also like that store because they save boxes for customers who are buying heavy items. So much easier to carry, and free.

Anyway, I generally don't have cash unless I intend on going to those stores. Even a lot of parking meters take cards now. If I need cash I try to remember to get cash back at the grocery store. And yeah, crap happens, I wouldn't get mad at a cashier about it. Once in a while, if the power flickers, it can kill our card readers for a little while. So we will open a cash line. Some are happy that we can even take payment, and others are OUTRAGED I tell you. They want us to write their card number down and process it later... What year are you living in, we will NOT do that.

[protege]

Just saying that not everyone routinely carries cash.

I'm one of those people...mostly because I work in a crappy area. I mean, we have an actual crack house next door, and lots of drug activity in the neighborhood. Up until last year, there was an ATM at the bank across the street. At least until the bank closed anyway. Last time I used that ATM, someone saw me punching out more than $20, and as I crossed the street, the guy started to follow me back to the office, probably hoping to jump me when I turned the corner. He only turned around when a police car came up the street

The other thing, is that not all of us have long lunch breaks. Again, shitty neighborhood = very few restaurants = having to drive to the nearest shopping center. It's not very far away, but if you get caught behind the bus (which stops at every corner, even if it's empty and nobody is waiting), a short trip can easily take a long time. Throw in the multiple traffic lights, the long lines at the restaurants, and you're talking an hour round-trip

With all of that said, I can understand the frustration. Still though, that doesn't excuse someone from snapping at a lowly cashier.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I carry a bit of cash for emergencies (and emergency Costa machine usage!) cuz you just don't know what's gonna happen. Case in point, at my place of work one day, all our card machines failed and the manager would not let us close cuz he thought that we'd lose money. In actual fact, we lost far more trade cuz we could not take cards than we would have if we'd closed for ten minutes to allow the tech people to reboot the tills. Anyway, there were loads of customers grumbling and grousing cuz they couldn't get petrol, due to not having cash or debit cards on them. Whereas the ones who did carry cash or had debit cards were able to pay/stroll over the road to the cashpoint and pay, and go on their merry way.

So yeah, if you don't want to have actual cash on you, at least carry the means of getting it, should you need it.

[Android Kaeli]

On the rare occasions that I DO carry cash with me, it's $5 or less and in one dollar bills. I have little to no need to be carrying anything more then that as I'll use credit cards. On the occasion I'm at a place that has their credit machines down, I'll go elsewhere or come back when I can use my credit card again.

I don't have a debit card with me, learned a very hard lesson about them a number of years ago (former co-worker had her debit card stolen and it took her nearly a year to get her money back, whereas her credit card took only a week or two for the charges to be reversed) so I don't carry one. I rarely use checks as well, my bills get sent to me and get paid through my credit card.

[Catwoman2965]

I always carry cash on me, as I find it easier to budget that way. I know my groceries for the week are between $250-$300. I take that out on payday, pay bills online and anything left is free spending money.

I do exactly the same thing; i take out the same amount each week; for gas, groceries etc. and what's left I put aside as "fun money" I also do that with the $$ I make dog sitting for friends etc. Started last Jan, and by September had 3K saved up towards a big vacation I took.

[Crossbow]

Only time I carry cash on me is when someone has used it to pay me for something (buying lunch) or if I have to pay for a service that doesn't take credit (like my lawn guy). Otherwise I use plastic for everything. Granted, it's a credit/debit card so I can usually get something out of the bank if I need to...

[Lace Neil Singer]

I don't have a credit card, so don't know this. Can you use one to get cash out the bank?

[Nunavut Pants]

You often can. It's called a "cash advance", and there is almost always a fee of some percentage of the withdrawal (with a minimum charge of course). And typically the banks start charging you interest the very instant you get the money, rather than giving you a chance to pay off your balance before they start charging. With card companies that do "dual-cycle" billing, this can easily rack up a lot of interest charges that you weren't expecting.

(Not that I'm bitter or anything.)