Dollar Dollar Bill Y'all

I noticed this little bit on Kings Island website about the "no fee cards".

"There are no fees to convert your cash to a prepaid card and no fees to use the card in or outside the park. As long as the card is used regularly, no monthly fees will apply. After 92 consecutive days of no transaction activity, however, a $3.95 fee will be charged each month"

It looks like Kings Island (or Visa) will be keeping any leftover money that's either forgotten about or maybe too small of an amount to make a purchase with.

So in light of the cash vs plastic in regards to tipping, here is a tipping question - do you tip based on the total bill or do you subtract off the tax and only tip based on the food/beverage total?

We go round and round with friends about this. We tip on the total bill, probably because it is easier and my wife was a waitress for several years so we usually try to bump up the tip amount. Friends say we are crazy - why tip on the tax when the server did nothing to earn that bit of money.

It's a hard, ****ty job that has even ****tier base pay. I move the decimal point one place, double it and round up to get to something over 20% and don't overthink it. Post-pandemic, there's no universe where I would nickel and dime those folks.

For bar service, usually $2 per drink for the first round, a dollar each thereafter.

On a $100 restaurant bill, the tax is going to be around $6-8 so the additional tip on the tax would be around $1.50. If paying that much more is going to inflict pain in your life, you shouldn't be spending $100 at restaurants. (And the same conclusion holds if you're spending $30 at restaurants and the additional tip is around $0.40.) Do the waiter a solid and feel good about yourself.

As for whether the waiter "earn[ed] that bit of money," it's no more work for the waiter to bring out the $30 steak than to bring out the $10 burger. So by that logic, you should just find the lowest priced entree on the menu and tip as if you ordered that. What your friends are really saying is that they don't want to tip any more than they have to in order to avoid looking like stiffs. Which is, you know, one way of living.

Sounds like a bunch of friends trying to re-enact Reservoir Dogs.

With less death.

Straight up 20% and round up.

We were at a place that has a "beer wall", where you buy a card and tap it on a pad over a set of taps. Pouring you own beer. The discussion after dinner was *do you tip your normal amount since you got your own beer*. Not even a thought. Straight up 20% on the total bill, round up.

These servers not only serve you, but they clean up after you. Pay them for it. Life is simple.

I agree with everyone's thoughts on tipping. I guess I run with some thrifty friends as it is not that they cannot afford the extra $1.

Now back to the main topic, my perception is that there are still a lot of people that tip with cash as that allows the server to cheat on the taxes. I gave up tipping with cash years ago as it is a pain in the butt for me. I guess maybe that it built into my tipping habits as I am almost always over 20% so I figure that makes up their tax burden of having to report it.

But based on the responses here, maybe tipping with cash is not as prevalent as I assumed it is.

I go by the total with tax. Tip 20% sometimes more. Yesterday was more. I tip in cash but I pay for the whole meal in cash so that's a given.

Restaurants are typically set up for tips with credit cards. Some take CC fees out of the tips which bothers some customers who as a result leave cash tips. I understand that some places pool tips and split with entire staff which may bother some customers as well.

But some places are not set up for tips with credit cards. Our go-to ice cream place only accepted credit cards during covid. There was no option to tip. A few times I was there with nothing under a $20 bill. With cash pay, you break the $20 and give a couple dollars tip. With credit card only, the choice is between leaving a $20 tip or no tip at all. I suspect that employees didn't like the credit card only policy. Its now back to cash or credit card.

I went zip lining over the weekend. Last minute plan when the weather was too cool for water park which was the original plan. Walked up to a place a little after 3pm who told us they had a group coming at 4 that we could join. We figured we would just walk around the nearby resort a while to pass the time. But the guides talked a little and 2 of them said they would take us out right then so we didn't need to wait. They hustled to get us through and let us do the last 4 lines twice (10 lines versus 6) though I suspect that is the norm when no one is waiting/backed up. When we got back I asked if they could run my credit card again for a tip but they said no. Scrounged for cash but ended up leaving them about half what I would have had I been able to use a credit card.

Restaurants, I prefer to pay cash if I can. If it's a bigger bill or there's some free money offer (I get airline points charging meals at certain restaurants...) I might use a credit card, but if I do, I always tip in cash. At worst I might tip enough on the card to round up the total, but more often than not the tip line gets a big goose egg and the server gets a cash tip.

I figure it reduces the overall percentage of that server's credit card tips, which in turn reduces the amount they are expected to bring in as cash tips. Of course I am certain that every restaurant employee is completely diligent about accurately reporting cash tips and wouldn't think of holding out for tax reasons. But cash tips also mean the person has a bankroll at the end of the night and doesn't have to wait for payday.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(BTW...taxation is theft... 8-) )

Don’t even get me started Dave. They tax it when you make it, spend it, or invest it, every time money changes hands those scumbags have their hands in it.

That's not true at all. The more I make and invest, the less I pay as a percentage in taxes. Totally different problem, but very real.

You know, because roads and schools and the military just materialize out of thin air.

Is the argument that they tax you too many times (like taking $1 three times vs. $3 one time) or too much overall? I don't agree with the latter, but I supposed there's a case for it (though, as mentioned a million times, everyone thinks other people's priorities should be cut, but there's should be funded) but the former seems silly when taxing can be used as an incentive for behaviors you want.

ETA: The thing I find most problematic is that (as Jeff alluded to) the richer you are, the more loopholes you can take advantage of and thus the less (relative, but sometimes also absolute) tax you pay.

There are places in the world where one can escape taxation if that is a priority. But here in the US, the Constitution grants the government authority to collect taxes, and by remaining a citizen of the US, you are agreeing to the TOS.

Nobody reads that crap.

ApolloAndy said:

Nobody reads past Amendment 2 of that crap.

Fixed it for ya

Interrupting the natural flow of the conversation for a moment because I'm coming in late...

Kings Island was asking people not to use cash at the beginning of the season, of which I complied. I did have my emergency $50 bill in my wallet, but every time I've been to the park this year, and I am fortunate enough to have been there many times so far, I have used ApplePay for every transaction.

I did see that they would take cash if someone couldn't or wouldn't pay with a card or phone. I think the cash to card kiosks will allow them to refuse taking cash without it being too much of a burden on those guests.

Still, I liked it better when they asked, and did not force. I worry about my bank account not working sometimes. That's why I have the emergency $50 bill.

I prefer having options. I keep around plenty of things that may be considered outdated but still work and occasionally I find myself having to temporarily go back to them when technology fails or is just being crabby.

To the naked eye, gameplay has become particularly cumbersome. The games still only accept non-refundable stored-value game cards, not credit (or debit) cards. So if you want to play with cash, you have to first convert your cash to a debit card, then use the debit card to buy a game card.

It turns out that the game card vending machines are (other than the debit card kiosks) the only vending machines in the park that still take cash.

Also, I didn't check to see how the cash-to-card kiosks work...can you put $3 on a debit card, or is it a $20 minimum?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

There are definitely situations where cash is more convenient. We went parasailing last week and I wanted to tip the people on the boat. Way easier to hand Captain Wendy a 20 than to ask if I could have her phone number to Zelle or CashApp some money. If a bar is crowded and I only want one drink, easier to hand them cash and walk away than to make them run a card. And yes, strippers. Can't make it rain without a fistful of singles.

I never use debit for anything. Don't like the idea of money coming directly from my account.

Most other scenarios, though, I use credit. I have a card that's 3% off at grocery stores. One that's 3% off at gas stations. The RedCard is 5% at Target, One is 5% at restaurants. One is 1.5% everywhere. Like Jeff said, that's free money. And again, it's free money for people who already have it. Because if my credit was **** I probably wouldn't qualify for most of them, I'd carry a balance, and be paying 20% interest.