Best Of

My point is that there are many different tax situations or even cash flow situations. On one of our trips to Africa there were other guests who found a need for cash and thought they were going to find ATM machines or be able to cash checks at the hotels. Neither was the case. I ended up ‘cashing’ a few checks for people who needed cash. I have had credit cards go ‘inert’ on trips several times, so I am not comfortable if I don’t have a reasonable amount of cash with me. I once got caught in a restaurant with ‘dead’ credit cards, and no cash. I will not repeat that mistake. I made more than a couple phone calls getting one of the credit cards reactivated … which they said they could not do …. but they did when I told them we were getting ready to wash dishes. (;-). Those who think they can visit remote places with nothing but credit/ATM cards will eventually be proven wrong.

I don't know about people from other countries but in the US yes cash only will often get you a discount because the person is likely not intending to pay tax on the amount. We've definitely had workmen giving us a discount if we pay in cash.

I’ve seen businesses give a cash discount vs credit cards, because they are passing on some of the savings, of not having to pay the credit card fees when a customer pays in cash, to the customer.

It surprises me how people would pay 15-20K for their trip, but complain about paying the TD $15 per day,, when they are the ones working hard to make sure you have an invaluable, carefree, amazing vacation.
Be grateful!

Sealord - A thought for Mike and others who think ‘cash’ is not important.

If someone can give me a good reason why cash is superior to a credit card payment at the end of a tour, I'd consider it and balance it against my desire not to carry a lot of cash. Hiding the cash payment so they don't have to pay tax on it is not a sufficient reason.

It’s carrying the cash that is the problem. That is what the main discussion is.
Our upcoming tour begins in Buenos Aires and last time we were there, the Tauck tour director firmly told us not to wear any jewelry and certainly not watches. Just take one credit card while out and about. Carrying cash was a no no. That was our ending city so that’s an example of not being able to go to an ATM safely to get money for tips.

mil - It surprises me ...

Totally missed the point of the discussion. It's not about paying a tip, it's about carrying the cash all through the tour in order to pay the tip.

Not all people feel as secure in doing this as others, why not provide a method that allows people that don't feel comfortable carrying that amount of cash to safely tip, and still allow others to pay in cash. It really isn't that complicated!!

I don't think how the tip is paid makes a difference. If a TD on a land tour will provide better service because they want the tip at the end of the tour, I don't think that will change if they get the tip in cash or through a credit card payment on the Tauck website. It's all money to them.

There's no correlation between being wealthy enough to pay $1,000 per day and being concerned about carrying a lot of cash. Whether I was rich or poor, I’d have the same level of worry about being robbed.

Like British, I don’t bring anything of value that I don’t absolutely need during the trip.