Comments on: Citi CashReturns: Our Wedding Spending 5% Discount Secret Weapon

By: denon

denon — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 07:45:19 +0000

Many vendors do offer a discount for paying by cash or check. As a consumer, you’ll find that there are tons of places that do – they may not be up front with you about it, as most of them assume you don’t care. I was at the dentist a couple weeks ago. As I walked out, I went to pay my bill (there’s a discount for paying the day-of). I pulled out my Amex Blue, started to run the transaction, then asked “Oh, is there a discount for paying by check?”. Turns out there’s an additional 5%, in addition to the same-day payment of like 10%. Nice!

Also, those of you in the business world probably already know – but most distributors/wholesalers offer substantial (2-3%) discounts when you pay by anything but credit card. If you have a good working relationship, you’ll probably also be able to get net 30 terms. So, you save the 2-3% actual, plus you’ve got 30 days of float interest @4-5% APR.

Long story short — always ask if there’s a cash discount. Anyone with a clue will probably offer you the 2+% they’ll save. As retailer, it’s not like we enjoy giving money to merchant services.

By: MoneyNing

MoneyNing — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:53:38 +0000

Oh btw, the vendors don’t want to cut us a break because the salesperson you deal with don’t care about what the company cares about his/her commission and not the company’s profit.

By: MoneyNing

MoneyNing — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:51:09 +0000

Ha! Perfect since I’m having a wedding too! I will have to look into this!

By: jim

jim — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:33:27 +0000

The merchant agreements don’t allow charging a fee but they do allow offering a discount, is it the same? Sort of but not really, by offering a discount instead of a fee, the “full price” is listed and is then used to compare with other stores. I would imagine a tacked on fee at the point of sale is less desirable for the card since you’ve already made the buy decision at that point and using a card is seen as a negative but ultimately I feel like it’s like six or one half dozen type of thing.

I think banks just want you to open an account, taking on an extra fee hardly matters to them but it’s a thought.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:47:16 +0000

Our wedding expenses are going on the Starwood AmEx to help cover the honeymoon first class flight upgrades. A lot of our expenses have been early on and the reception hall only accepts credit card for the deposit not for the payment (cash, cashier’s check, or money order only). Otherwise this card would be nice.

By the way, is offering a discount to use cash or check different from adding a fee to use a credit card? Seems the same to me but maybe Mastercard and Visa are more lenient when it’s a “discount”.

And speaking of credit card rewards, I’ve been recently amazed by some banks allowing you to open an account funded by a credit card (Jim – new post idea!). I’ve done this recently with at least five banks. I opened with the maximum amount allowed by credit card (varied from $100 to $2000) and then just paid off the credit card out of that bank account to get free rewards points. Seems just silly for the banks, especially in the case of Chase: opened Chase bank account for $75 reward and funded with maximum $2000 opening deposit by Chase Freedom credit card that gets me an extra $20 in rewards and then immediately paid off that credit card using the account just opened. WAY too easy.

By: k

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:48:48 +0000

There is no way I am paying cash for anything wedding related. Consumer protections are so much better with credit cards. Especially when you’re booking things a year in advance, even though the people we’re dealing with seem honest and trustworthy, their businesses may fold, they may be seriously ill and unable to perform under the contract, they may screw up or forget something. In those cases, it’s much easier to get your money back from the card than from a cash payment.

Our wedding expenses are all going on my AmEx Blue–we’ll be over the 6,500 threshold due to a furnace replacement, so we’ll get a hefty amount back.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:55:51 +0000

I had very good luck with our vendors accepting cash and giving a discount. Our photographer took cash and slashed her price by a 50%. The venue and catering people (one bill) actually groaned when I whipped out my Citi Card. They at first told me that I would have to pay and extra fee to use the card, but when I reminded them that they can’t do that, they changed their tune and offered up a 5% discount to put the card back in my wallet. The DJ liked the idea, but wanted a MO instead of the cash.

By: FMF

FMF — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:44:50 +0000

How much are you planning to spend on the wedding?

By: Al

Al — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:26:56 +0000

You should be aware, if you are not already, that the link shown on this message goes directly through a tracking cookie. If that’s what you want, at least advise readers. I don’t want tracking cookies on my machine!
The Citi card would be great for a one time event.