$100 Bills

[Ginger Tea]

This thread, along with numerous others on CS make me wonder about the banking system in the USA.

Yes $100 is legal, but if most shops don't accept them (even on purchaces over $50), why do they mint them in such quantities that banks give them out in preference to smaller denominations like twenties?

Most ATM's in the UK only offer £10 and £20, it's been years since I've had a fiver spat out at me and then it was when I withdrew £100, buying something over £50 and splatting down nothing but fivers, great for the store keeper's change draw, but christ it made my wallet needlessly fat.

I get my wages done direct, and only go to the teller of my savings account to put random ammount of cash in (enough over the month to cut my rent and storage unit cheques and a buffer)
Withdrawls (aside from building society cheques that don't bounce Escrow?) are always via ATM's and I know which ones are free and use them.

Depending on how close to pay day (or how much I've withdrawn to my other account) I just use the chip and pin DD method at the supermarket, I only have a few notes in my wallet and will use them on short trips, but most times as they have a DVD wall, I could spend more on movies than food (and the fiver movies not full price chart ones) something I hate doing, I have too many movies to watch as it is, yet this movie is only £3 and probably not even worth that

....

Any hoos back on topic
Having to go to the safe to break $100 after $100 would have me keeping stacks of singles bunched up in tens.
you want to buy a newspaper with a $100 (even if it's not really your fault its what the teller gave you) here are 99 $1 and a fifty have a nice day.

Hence why I don't know why those that DON'T want a $100 bill just don't go to the ATM (unless it charges an arm and a leg) and just withdraw $20 if all you need comes to way less than that.

Edit:
or I would make some form of comment to a co worker to look for the billionaire handing out $100 as everyone seems to be paying with one.

Edit:
Oh I now find that one of the links actually linked to fratching (and I also repled there) whoops, perhaps merging this onto that one?

[DrFaroohk]

I used to hate that. I worked the night shift at the store and at the crack of dawn all the fisherman came in with hundred after hundred...I'd usually give them back a shitload of ones and tell them to get smaller bills at the bank. Or just pay them differently. like maybe buy more stuff with that 100! or something...

[HYHYBT]

Yes $100 is legal, but if most shops don't accept them (even on purchaces over $50), why do they mint them in such quantities that banks give them out in preference to smaller denominations like twenties?

Most ATM's in the UK only offer £10 and £20, it's been years since I've had a fiver spat out at me and then it was when I withdrew £100, buying something over £50 and splatting down nothing but fivers, great for the store keeper's change draw, but christ it made my wallet needlessly fat.

Well, you've just answered your question. If you're getting several hundred in cash, you don't want smaller bills, at least not for the whole amount, because then your billfold won't.

Also... when you're giving someone money from your drawer and they don't say they want it a certain way (as hardly anyone getting change from a purchase does) do you give it to them in as few bills and coins as possible (within what's available) or do you go for that stack of 1's no matter what? I'm betting the former. People know they can't always get a 100 broken when they want it; they should, therefore, try to break it *before* spending the last of their smaller bills.

As for not taking large bills... I'm not sure what you mean by "most shops." The only places I've seen that won't take them, period, are gas stations and a few fast food or Waffle House type places. (Others might refuse if they don't have enough to break it, of course.) And for gas stations it makes sense even if you're buying more than $50, not only for the safety of having less money in the till, but also because when you pay they don't know how much your purchase will be.

[guywithashovel]

It's been a very long time since I've had a $100 bill. When I worked at Wal-Mart, those big bills sometimes got on my nerves because when you first got on a cash register, they only gave you ones, fives, and a round of change. So if your first customer had a cheap order and paid with a $100 bill, you either had to empty out your drawer or hold up the line to get change from a CSM. Also, you'd likely have to listen to the customer bitching and/or making snide remarks.

I don't know how it is in other places, but every ATM machine I've ever been to only gives $20 bills. Also, at the banks, they only give you big bills if you ask for them, and even then, they'll only give you $100 bills if you specifically ask for one or are getting several hundred or more in cash. Recently, I took out $338 to make my car payment and asked for big bills, and the only big bills I got were $50 bills.

[Andara Bledin]

The boyfriend rand into an ATM that spit out $50 bills. He was startled by that, and a bit annoyed since he needed a couple of $20s.

^-.-^

[jackfaire]

When I would cash my pay checks at the bank they would always give 20s before giving hundreds. They only gave out hundreds if you asked but would go for the 20s first.

[Mytical]

My bank always asks..'how would you like that?' Wait..that would make too much sense..

[AdminAssistant]

Well, some people want the largest bills possible because it makes them look good or...something. When I worked at a retail store near an urban area, I had a lot of people ask if they could give me 5 $20 bills for a 'Benjamin'. Very classy, these people.

[Cats]

I work 3rd shift, and will not give back more than $40 in change. So of course, $100 bills are a nightmare when pepole come in with them because I have to refuse the sale more often than not. They get all pissy with me over it. I can't give back change I don't have to give! We limit our change overnight for safety reasons, and the place is in an area near where there's drug use and such. So even if I actually have the change, I'm not going to tell them that. My safety > their random middle of the night munchie cravings.

I've seen people with huge wads of $100's in their pockets and wallets. WHY? Even if you just cashed something big at the bank, why would you carry it ALL with you, and even so, why keep it all in sight? Isn't that just asked to be mugged? When you work at a cash register all day, you've seen it all, and no cashier I have ever met is "impressed" with a large bill beyond their first day.


We have occasional issues with people who need to break their $100 and it's the last bill they have. They like to whine, "but I've been to 5 places already and no one will break it!". Well, DUH. No one is going to carry that much cash in their drawers in the middle of the night. You should have seen a pattern here and been smart enough not to carry that and that alone in your wallet.


Even if a bank gives large bills by default, they're a BANK. You can ask for smaller bills in exchange as long as you don't act like a total douche.

[HYHYBT]

I've seen people with huge wads of $100's in their pockets and wallets. WHY? Even if you just cashed something big at the bank, why would you carry it ALL with you, and even so, why keep it all in sight?

If carrying money in a wallet counts as "in sight..."

[Andara Bledin]

If carrying money in a wallet counts as "in sight..."

When you have to pull the entire wad out every time you pay for something, that counts enough as "in sight" to be stupid.

^-.-^

[Skunkle]

Yeah, it does. I know someone who's not the brightest bulb, who likes to carry only hundreds, if he can help it. He gets mildly annoyed when shops can't break them, but still insists on carrying them because, so he claims, (imagine this in a manly-man voice, sounding fake because he makes his voice much deeper than it is - think very thick 'B's) "I like BIG BILLS!" He likes to feel rich, and he - I hope he never gets mugged because of this - likes to flash 'em when he buys something.

[Eisa]

This reminds me how my aunt paid for Taco Bell last night with a hundred. I was about to tell her that they probably couldn't break it, but then they could. Probably because it was late enough in the day that they had change. But still.

[Peppergirl]

Yeah, it does. I know someone who's not the brightest bulb, who likes to carry only hundreds, if he can help it. He gets mildly annoyed when shops can't break them, but still insists on carrying them because, so he claims, (imagine this in a manly-man voice, sounding fake because he makes his voice much deeper than it is - think very thick 'B's) "I like BIG BILLS!" He likes to feel rich, and he - I hope he never gets mugged because of this - likes to flash 'em when he buys something.

While I'd never wish a mugging on someone, this guy sounds like a total douche. He's just asking for trouble.

[Skunkle]

Agreed that he's asking for trouble. I think trying to make others think he's a BIG MAN is of secondary importance - first is his desire to make HIMSELF feel like a big man, boosting his confidence that he's manly.