Nothing Bigger Than a 20

Ok so it is getting late last night and I pick up two of my kids and take them home to collect my daughter. It is just after 7pm and nobody has eaten (my wife is off helping someone paint their house).
Not really any money in the bank, so I swipe a $100 bill from the emergency fund and take the kids to Subway (sandwich shop). We stand in line for more than 15 minutes getting our sandwiches made and all that. I get up to the counter and the charge is $28. I hand the girl behind the counter my $100 bill and she says sorry but we can't take any bills larger than a 20.
This is all I have, and she looks at me like I am some kind of criminal. Now I could have used my bank card and deposited the cash to cover the debit charge, but instead I looked her in the eye and said well, than I guess we are are done. I gathered my kids and left.
We went over to the Safeway deli and got some food. For some reason they didn't have any problem taking my $100 bill.

The clerks are usually just following orders by not taking the larger bills. Even though common sense would say take it, she most likely would have lost her job had she accepted the bill.

In the end, it's all about her boss not wanting to take a chance on having "large" bills there that could be stolen during a robbery. Chances are though that there were MANY hundreds of dollars worth of 10's and 20's in the drawer.

Maybe you should call and speak to the owner, explain what happened and DON'T tell them what day/time and remind them that your business has been lost forever. MAYBE then the owner will see how stupid that rule is.

sabidoo wrote:

Maybe you should call and speak to the owner, explain what happened and DON'T tell them what day/time and remind them that your business has been lost forever. MAYBE then the owner will see how stupid that rule is.

Very good idea, and I understand it wasn't the clerks fault. But a U.S. hundred dollar bill was still legal tender in this country the last time I checked.

I listen to a LOT of talk radio. A caller one night had a similar experience, except it was for gas that he had ALREADY pumped. The clerk refused the $100 bill. He held it out, told her she had five seconds to take it or he would consider the gas was "on the house".

She still refused so he left the store and went to his car. Minutes later the cops arrived. The caller went back into the store, explained the situation............







AND THE COP TOOK OUT THE CASH AND PAID FOR THE GUY'S GAS. Told him to have a nice day.

That's funny, good to hear the cop had a good sense of humor. If I was a cop I don't think I could arrest someone because they tried to pay with a $100 bill.

If you have a retail business, you run the risk of taking counterfiet money. That is just the way it goes.

But there are ways to confirm a counterfeit. Even at banks, you will see cashier's using those little ink pens that turn certain colors when it reacts to real US dollar ink. Why not use those?

Personally, not wanting to take a $100 bill is just silly. Even with a magnifying glass, you can quickly determine if it is real.

I would rather have the large bills in the safe when it comes time to count the night's deposits anyway. It would save time when the clerk closes out their register for the night.

Here you can choose at the ATM what paper money you need.
You can choose for a bills of 10, 20 Euro's
Not much stores accept a bill of 100 euro here.