Timeline for Is it illegal to refuse US currency for a purchase?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
29 events
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| Oct 21, 2023 at 15:34 | comment | added | hobs | What if there is a gate preventing you from leaving until you pay off the debt after purchasing use of a toll road. And what if the toll vending machine refuses to make change and you only have large bills? I'm surprised there haven't been class action lawsuits in California for this extortion. | |
| Jun 1, 2022 at 23:11 | comment | added | High GPA | I think whether or not there is a debt really depends. For example, if you entered a restaurant, finished your meal, then you are asked to pay, and you only have $100 bills. Do you think now you are in debt of the restaurant or not? | |
| Oct 19, 2017 at 15:36 | comment | added | Anoplexian | How does this relate to public debts, like parking tickets and the such? If I wanted to pay a $1,000 USD littering fine, would I be able to do so in pennies out of spite? | |
| Dec 4, 2014 at 1:14 | comment | added | Sonny Ordell | @PatrickM OK, I still don't see that as a valid reason to refuse a sale. It is a very inefficient way to 'clean' money, and I don't think that would happen often enough to warrant it being the basis of refusing a sale. | |
| Nov 22, 2014 at 18:45 | comment | added | Patrick M | @SonnyOrdell I'm not sure gnasher meant the number of "change bills". It might mean the amount of money. For instance, in the US, say you give me a 100$ bill to pay for a 1$ water. I might worry that you are trying to "clean" your counterfeit bill by making me pay you 99$ in change. In this case, the amount of change is a large amount in dollars, compared to the cost of the purchased item. | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 1:02 | comment | added | Sonny Ordell | @gnasher729 that sounds ridiculous. I don't think anyone would try to "clean" money by converting it to coin. Do you have a reference? | |
| Sep 29, 2014 at 7:12 | comment | added | gnasher729 | In Poland, and in other countries, refusing a sale on the basis that giving tons of change has a huge risk of "cleaning" forged money, and is mighty inconvenient if the store has no change left, isn't refusing "on an arbitrary basis". | |
| Jan 17, 2013 at 18:06 | comment | added | Chris Cudmore | Even if refusing the currency is illegal, the converse would also be true, and you couldn't refuse $99.50 in pennies as change. | |
| Jan 3, 2013 at 11:14 | comment | added | SF. | Interestingly, in Poland you can't refuse the sale on arbitrary basis. You may have no change, the cash register can be broken, or the wares may be restricted (say, liquor for minors) but otherwise, if it's on display with a price, given that amount of money you are obligated to sell it. This is a part of anti-discrimination laws. The likely origin is shops that refused to service Jews before IIWW. | |
| Oct 14, 2012 at 17:51 | comment | added | cbeleites | In the EUR-zone a contract about acceptable payments is very easily established: by the ticket machine saying which coins it accepts, or "no change is given" or by a note at the restaurant door or more commonly at the gas station that they do not accept denomination > 100 EUR. EUR-law says that no one besides central banks has to accept more than 50 coins for one payment. | |
| Jul 11, 2012 at 15:39 | comment | added | user6204 |
It is illegal to refuse legal tender for a debt. >> I think it is important to call out that refusing currency for a debt is not illegal in the sense that you will be fined or imprisoned. If legal currency was refused, a judge can (and most likely will) wipe the dept clean.
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| Jul 1, 2012 at 17:07 | comment | added | Richard Gadsden | In restaurants, unless there is a clearly specified contract (there isn't), then there is a debt and legal tender would be sufficient to pay it. In fact, that's one of the few cases where the legal tender laws actually apply in practice | |
| Jan 29, 2012 at 2:49 | comment | added | jmoreno | In your given example, there would be an alternative solution - accept the $100, and then not provide change. Simply write down a note saying that change is limited to $19 or less, hang it up and tell the customer if they want to pay 80 for a bottle of water, its fine with them. And then if they accept, give the money an extra going over... | |
| Jan 28, 2012 at 20:46 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| Jan 28, 2012 at 1:25 | comment | added | Sonny Ordell | @JonHanna that's correct. Trying to use Scottish money in England was a nightmare. It was impossible to exchange it outside of the UK. | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 17:56 | comment | added | Jon Hanna | @Chad relatedly, in the UK there are notes produced by the Bank of England that are legal tender, and others produced by individual banks in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Channel Islands that are not (strictly promissory notes from the bank in question). However, at one point there were so many Bank of England forgeries in Northern Ireland (it's not like explosives grown on trees...) that many shops refused the legal-tender notes but would take the non-legal-tender notes. | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 17:31 | comment | added | Chad | @DanNeely - Many convenience stores in the US banned them after a rash of counterfeit 50 and 100's were accepted. You could go in buy a 50 cent candy bar leave with 99.50 in real money and leave the fake bill. That is much less of an issue today with new anti counterfeit and detection techniques. | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 16:02 | comment | added | Sonny Ordell | @JonHanna That's a great point I failed to mention. It's exactly the reason you're not entitled to change on some bus lines for example. | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 15:59 | comment | added | Jon Hanna | It's also worth noting that in those cases where "legal tender" has real meaning (payment of a debt in court), not all denominations will be considered legal tender for all amounts in some jurisdictions (no paying them a truckload of pennies out of spite) and also, you cannot demand change and must give exact payment (so in the 30 Rock episode, if they insisted the shop-keep could have taken then whole $100 for the bottle). | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 15:48 | comment | added | Sonny Ordell | @DQdlM I think the common interpretation under contract law is that if the restaurant did not make it clear before they entered into a contract what they would accept as payment, then they must accept anything as the customer would be settling a debt. In practice it just isn't much of an issue. | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 15:46 | comment | added | BlueWhale | Also, some stores have a policy of not keeping large amounts of cash in the register to remove the incentive for robberies. (The cashier must deposit excess cash into a safe he cannot open). | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 15:39 | comment | added | Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight | @Jivlain I don't think the main reason many businesses ban $50/100 bills is that they'd deplete their ability to make change for future customers. Minimizing losses from counterfeiters is the dominant concern. | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 15:36 | comment | added | DQdlM | @Random832 good question, I wonder if it is the customer's responsibility to understand the terms of the contract before consuming the good. | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 15:34 | comment | added | Sonny Ordell | @Jivlain I wouldn't think so, but I guess it would depend on what kind of business they are doing. On a typical day if someone wants to pay with a $100 bill they should have enough $20 bills to give change without running out of change. That's assuming that people paying with large bills is an uncommon occurrence. | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 15:29 | comment | added | Jivlain | @SonnyOrdell: I would have thought it was the other way around: giving change on a large note depletes their reserves of change, putting them at risk of running out. Getting lots of small change only means whoever carries the cash to bank has a heavier weight, but means they'll have plenty of change available. | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 15:13 | comment | added | Sonny Ordell | @Random832 It's my understanding that in that case, they would have to specify their payment policies before hand. In practice I don't think too many people go to restaurants and try to pay with small change. Accepting larger denominations is not as much of an issue. | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 15:08 | comment | added | Random832 | How does it work when you pay afterward, like at a restaurant (as you have already eaten the food so there is no possibility to cancel the sale)? | |
| Jan 27, 2012 at 13:03 | history | edited | Sonny Ordell | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 27, 2012 at 12:50 | history | answered | Sonny Ordell | CC BY-SA 3.0 |