Addendum to the last post.

The service shop wanted to know if I had a credit card. Now I don't have any credit cards. The way I look at it, I have money so why have a credit card. The check is just as good as money since the bank will cover it.

This reminds me of the time I went to a gas station with a fifty dollar bill in hand. Despite having real money, they still wanted me to have a credit card to buy gas.

Now the way credit card processing works, businesses do not get all the money YOU pay. Businesses have to pay a monthly service fee, a processing fee; usually this is a percentage of the transaction, and some credit card processes may have additional fees. So when all fees are taken out of the money the credit card processor takes from customers, the business may only get 90% of the money. The businesses don't have to worry about paying these fees since they take the money out of the money they receive from the businesses' customers before the money is sent to the business.

When it comes to accepting checks, the business receives 100% of the money. The same is true when a customer pays with cash. Therefore I don't understand why any business would demand everyone have a credit card in order to buy anything.

Businesses that demand I have a credit card will not get my money. Clearly my money is not good enough for them. I remember in 2000 Kmart did not think my money was good enough for them. I never went back to any of their stores after that. Since they did that to me, then it stands to reason they were also doing that to other people. The following year I heard the company had filed for bankruptcy. No surprise there.

Here's a simple view of businesses. Business is in business to make money, and if they can not, they either need to change what they are doing or close up the business.

So in the new model of the banking system, businesses need to make changes or risk going out of business.