Why you shouldn't be forced to pay with credit cards

10th of February 2025 7:00pm

Hey there, it's been a dog's age since my last post :V

I'm writting this because of a bad experience I recently had with a 2nd hand book store, where I felt extorted into paying with my debit card instead of actual cash.

I apologise in advance if you feel that this post is mainly me ranting about this, but I really wanted to share this story.

It all started a few days ago when I went to a second hand store. I wanted to buy a book for my mom as a gift and I had no clue on what to give to her, so I wanted to pick one of the "surprise" books, which is basically, you pay 5 bucks and you get a random book. It's gambling on books, I know, but that's the fun part.

In any case, I took the surprise book and a book for me that looked interesting, this one had a 2€ label at the front, so I picked it up. But when I went to pay, the lady in charged told me that if I wanted to pay in cash, I'd have to buy a 10€ pass to get 3 books but I could pay anything I wanted with card. I initially refused to do so and asked:

— Why the price tag then?

— Oh, that's just the price it had when it was bought at the time.

I asked for the reason behind this, and she excused herself saying that it's been like that for years (there was a sign telling this), and she couldn't do anything. One problem It wasn't the first time I've been there, and the woman that attended me before told me fixed prices. So on top of it all, she straight up lied to me, and this was a recent change.

I ended up giving in, paying seven bucks in total (5€ for the surprise one and 2€ for my book because it seemed like a fair price for me) and leaving the place.
I'm not going back ever again

The biggest problem I have with this, is the obligation to pay with card. While it's more common for people to pay with credit card as time passes, at the point where now workers think by default that you're going to pay with the card rather than with cash, I find unfair to force you to pay with card instead of cash and, atleast here in spain, refusing to accept physical cash is illegal.

I've already said I'm no lawyer, and maybe this mode of operations is to avoid said law in a legal loophole. But to my eyes, it's clearly an anti-consumer practice.

Another grudge I have against this practice, is privacy concerns. Paying with the card means you will be identified no matter what. I'm starting to sound like a schizo but it is what it is. Unlike other people, I don't really mind paying with my card from time to time. But that does not mean it's an excuse to remove my freedom of choosing the payment method.

Of course, that doesn't mean I would try to pay in bitcoin or US dollars($) on a ramen shop in japan just because "freedom", that'd be stupid to say the least. The actual problem is removing the freedom to use physical cash of the country's currency and forcing you to pay in a different method. That's unfair, specially considering that by law you can't do that here in spain.

In conclusion. You, as the consumer, are able to choose the method you want to pay with, either cash or with the card (or other method if the stablishment accepts it), but you shouldn't be forced or extorted in any way to do so.