Is there a limit to how much you can an invoice "in cash" before "others" become interested/require notification etc ?
presumably they are interested in the source of that cash, tax status of it, whether from dubious deeds etc?
Jim K
doh
I was going too mention that!
certainly any business that receives cash transactions above ?15,000 needs to register with the revenge as a "high value dealer"
In general, no. For example, you are prefectly entitled - indeed, strongly encouraged - to pay me £50,000 in cash for this reply. Where please may I send the invoice? Pretty please??
But the person you are paying may have set limits or have other requirements because of money laundering regulations. Andy Burns has mentioned businesses who may not want the bother of registering as high value dealers. There's also solicitors who often set limits 'cos of the money laundering regs. And anyone may set a limit to avoid the risks and costs of handling cash. They should though tell you in advance.
Slightly OT, but was in a Subway a while back, and I noticed they had no facilities to pay by card - and a big notice by the till "CASH ONLY".
It made me wonder ... clearly that's as good as saying "this is the shop you need to hold up" to anyone with bad intent.
Depends on what security they've got behind the counter. No more than £100 in the till at any time, and a time delayed safe/ cash drop which the shop staff can't access immediately are common. Keys or combination for immediate access are held by the company that takes the cash to the bank. The time delay can be set for long enough for the police to arrive, even if you're in London.
As a customer, all you'll see is that the cash drawer from the till is swapped and taken "out back" every half hour or so, and they'll moan like mad if you pay with a £50 note..
To me it spells out "this place is going bust" because it means the retailer can't pass the credit checks needed to open a merchant account.
Or they've not been open long enough. Or, if it's a hastily scribbled note, the line to the £$%^&* bank's gone down *again*.
Ah, that would explain why the "Textiles Direct" closing down in the local mall had a "broken machine" and could only take cash ....
This a Catch 22 for online retailers. You can't get a merchant account without a trading history and you are going to have serious problems getting a trading history without a merchant account.
Or it is a business that relies upon rapid turnover and accepting cards would slow that down. Or it is one where cash predominates and it is not worth incurring the costs of accepting cards (of which the data security cost can be significant) for a small minority.
Colin Bignell
in a place where average spend is going to be 5 or 6 quid
Methinks it's more likely they are tight arses who don't want to pay the costs
tim
On Wednesday 16 January 2013 14:11 Nightjar wrote in uk.d-i-y:
But you don't need a merchant account to get going with online retail. There are loads of payment gateways and providers offering various models from Paypal upwards.
If the business grows to the point where it would be sensible to deal direct, you will hopefully have built a good rating in the meantime.
On 16/01/2013 17:55, Tim Watts wrote: ...
For which you pay through the nose and the online retailers I know who have used PayPal found it very unsatisfactory.
Colin Bignell
Sorry, but it is comparable to other services for a given sales volume.
Works just fine for me.
MBQ
More likely because the bank would keep any money paid in.
On Wednesday 16 January 2013 19:19 Nightjar wrote in uk.d-i-y:
It's not the only option - I was just showing it as an example.
PayPal I can understand and they are expensive but if you look you can find some pretty good deals on merchant accounts. The other half was looking before Christmas and one of the local small business support agencies was offering a mobile terminal(*) (as in connected via mobile phone) for around =A325/month and the fees per transaction were very reasonable if not low.
(*) A landline linked terminal isn't any good at a craft fair in a tent =
in the middle fo field or even down at the local town hall...
All the online retailers on Ebay take Paypal. There must be thousands of them.
Only because eBay owns Paypal and insists all auctions accept it as a payment method.
Just one of the reasons I stopped selling on eBay.
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