Why does Home Depot refund Cash for Debit Card purchases?

[DerbyDad03]

The reporting of a $10K transaction has nothing to do with taxes or income.

Research IRS Form 8300

[DerbyDad03]

What gave you the impression that I'm "paranoid" about carrying $200?

That has nothing to do with it.

[George]

Maybe they dislike banks inserting themselves into every possible transaction as much as I do?

[Jim Yanik]

DerbyDad03 wrote in news:j05e3n$a3j$ [e-mail]:

maybe the others are not that cost-conscious? or just willing to eat it. Maybe it doesn't occur often enough for those other businesses to worry about it.

[George]

Likely you will see more of it and similar things to remove banks from every transaction. For some reason folks assume credit and debit cards don't cost anything and even if they do it must sure cost a lot to handle cash anyway.

I know an enterprise that has 400+ locations. In modern competitive times you look at everything and today have much better tools to do it. They have determined that handling credit cards is significantly more expensive than handling cash.

[mkirsch1]

Bull$hit. It's about collecting taxes.

No drug dealer or money launderer with any self-respect at all is going to report all transactions over $10,000 to the IRS, and if he doesn't the IRS is NEVER going to know about it.

These guys are dealing with cash that trickles in in individual $20's, $50's, or $100's from people on the street. It's not like they go to the ATM and pull a briefcase full of cash out of their checking accounts. It's not like they take briefcases full of cash down to the local Chase Manhattan and deposit it. This is totally off the radar, no way for the IRS to pick up on any of it. The money is in closets, mattresses, warehouses, guarded by armed thugs 24/7. Much of it has been "out of circulation" for decades.

[mkirsch1]

What else could it be? The principle of the thing???

Surely you take cash out of your bank account on a regular basis. Hell, I go through $100 in cash each week just for incidentals. What you perceive as a major inconvenience is at worst a minor inconvenience and at best a major time-saver because now you don't have to stop at the bank to take out cash for a couple of weeks.

[Larry Fishel]

No, but that means they can't easily deal with legitimate financial institutions since they are the ones who have to file the report. It doesn't stop them, but makes life more difficult, which is about the best the feds can hope for.

Yes, but that is largely because of this requirement. They used to do it all the time when the banks were not specifically required to report it.

If nothing else, it's one more violation to throw at them when (if) they do get caught...

[jw]

I'd be pleased that I would get cash.

I like Menards and most of it's products. However I recently bought something at Menards that was listed on the sign at $4.99. I went to the check-out, used my debit card to pay for this item and others, and I left the store. When I got to my car, I felt I had payed more than I had estimated. I looked at my receipt and found they had charged me $12.99 for this item that had been listed at $4.99.

I went to the Customer Service counter, had to do the whole "return item" thing (pain in the ass). They admitted that their price computer had a duplicate listing on this item and it was their fault that I was overcharged. I was given an instore credit for about $8.00 (plus tax difference). I told them I wanted CASH back, (or refund to my debit card), not the instore credit. They said they could not do that.

I could have really filed a complaint about this. They admitted it was their fault, yet they wont give me cash back. I shop there often enough that I did use it up a few days later, but still I had to struggle with that piece of paper and make sure I remembered to use it. In other words, just an all around hassle of ANOTHER piece of paper to keep track of. Plus, Menards got interest on my money before I used it. This is NOT right.

I did not persue the cash refund because I had already wasted a half hour straightening this matter out and I had to get somewhere, and did not have more time to waste. However, I was NOT PLEASED.....

[The Henchman]

Just venting...

If you purchase something at home Depot on a debit card and then return it, they will only give you a cash refund.

Even when you don't have the receipt, their system is able to find your purchase if you give them the debit card, so they are obviously linked up in the bowels of their computers.

Every other store I know puts the refund back on the debit card, most times without even having to show them the card.

I'm now walking around with close to $200 in cash because of some returns I processed yesterday.

I wonder what their rules are if I buy $10K worth of lumber and then returned it. Would they give me $10K in cash which I would then have to report to the IRS?

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Walmarts in My part of Canada refund in cash only if you used debit cards. Home Depots here refund debit purchases to your debit card.

[trader4]

Yes, exactly. Without the reporting rules, a drug dealer could walk in to any bank with $100K in cash every week and it would be handled as a routine transaction. It's about making it harder to avoid laws, both regarding income and other illegal activities.

Exactly. And money laundering carries some very heavy penalties. Even if you can't prove drug dealing or another crime, you could put them away for a very long time just on the money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, etc. You can even prosecute someone under the RICO statutes if they were a big time money launderer.

[trader4]

Another interesting aspect to all this. I was talking to a guy that runs a local glass business. He said that when someone uses a credit card he doesn't even know what the fee is that he will be charged. The amount depends not only on the card, VISA for example, but also how VISA rates that particular customer's card. For example, if it's a VISA card that accrues airline miles with each purchase the glass guy gets hit with a higher fee than another guy with a different VISA. Even worse, he said there is no way for him to know exactly what the fee he's going to pay will be on any given customer's card.

[krw]

Apparently true. My brother was a veterinarian. He hated cash-back cards (so I showed him mine ;-). He hated bounced checks more, though.

[George]

I thought he said that (the collecting taxes part)?

Give it some more thought than that. Lets say you operate a business and you decide to cater to folks who pay with large sums of cash (they might be say a drug dealer). How exactly would you launder the money (lets say you did only say $100k to launder)?

Actually they used to take suitcases of money to the bank just as you described. But since the banks are required to report it that laundering method is gone.

[krw]

I regularly have $500-$1000 in my wallet. I'm a bit low now ($300) because we went to the big city over the weekend. As noted here, as long as you don't flash it around, no one knows you have it so it's not a big deal.

[Home Guy]

Any purchase made by cash will be refunded in cash; any purchase made by debit card will be refunded to the original debit card.

[krw]

A laundromat or three (not kidding). Any cash business. An acquaintance had a sandwich truck. His home safe was crammed full of Franklins. The burgers and dogs business was all above board. He bought the soda and cold cuts across the counter at a grocery store. All that income went South.

Vegas.

[Ed Pawlowski]

That's what is says, but I've been given cash in return, not on my card as expected.

[trader4]

How exactly does one launder money in Vegas? The casinos are subject to the same $10,000 cash reporting as a bank.

[Shaun Eli]

You come in with $10,000 in cash, buy chips, cash them in and claim it's winnings. Or do it with $9000 and ask for a check.