I remember a while back having a conversation with my Dad about how I never carry cash.
“Why should I carry around all that money, when every place you go takes cards?” I asked.
He nodded, but then asked what would happen if I was stuck somewhere that didn’t take cards. Or I was on the side of the road and the only way I could get towed is to give the guy $60 in cash.
“I have AAA,” I said, smugly. “It doesn’t cost me anything up front to call them.”
You know, sooner or later, I’m going to start listening to people like my Dad, because you know, they’re often much more wise about the world than me, a hapless soon-to-be-31-year-old with an unnaturally optimistic view of the world.
Today would have been one of those days.
It isn’t that I hate cash, it’s just that I hate carrying cash, especially here. It’s rare you have a Metro station or storefront downtown without someone waiting to pounce on you the second you emerge with your change. When I tell them I don’t have any cash, I’m not lying. They may not believe me, but I’m not lying.
Besides, last year, I emptied out my penny jar on my desk and put it in an envelope and handed it to the guy who would block my path every day asking for “quarters, dimes, nickels.” I handed him the six pounds of pennies and said, “They’re pennies, but they’ll spend just the same.” He’s never said a word to me since then.
Anyway, I got to the Metro today with a SmarTrip almost on empty and a debit card in hand to add money … annnnd denied.
Turns out Metro’s entire computer system was fried, but you know, they didn’t really tell us that at Greenbelt. I tried twice to get the friggin’ machine to take my debit card before the station manager finally stuck his head out of his glass-enclosed nerve center (thank you, WTOP) and yelled, “NO CREDIT! NO DEBIT! NO PROBLEM!” …
No, not really. The last part of that was “No SmartBenefits.”
I really wish it had been “No problem.” That would have been really, really cool.
Fortunately, I had enough on the card to get downtown. They don’t lock you in … if you have so much as a penny on the SmartTrip, it’ll let you in the system and you exit the system like Rich Uncle Pennybags on the Chance card with your pants pockets turned inside out.
Ah, Dad. The ‘what if’ finally came, and as you predicted, I was mostly hosed.
I think I’m going to have to enact the $20 minimum policy (not to be confused with D.C.’s bar cover charge policy, which is oddly named the same thing …) to avoid getting stuck somewhere, because I have a feeling with my luck, it won’t be as swank a place as Metro Center.
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Opposites. You and I. I currently only carry around one credit card. A company credit card. Never have I owned a debit or ATM card. Cash is the way to go for me. Never ran into a problem cash couldn’t fix!
I know, we’ve talked about this, haha! I really just don’t like carrying cash. I think it’s because it’s too easy for me to spend it. Like, “oooh, I can get the expensive breakfast sammich at the cash-only place because I have cash!” rather than just going with my normal.
That’s a “I have crappy discipline problem,” more than anything.
Since you were talking about change, if your penny jar ever gets full again, take it to your bank. If you bank has a Coin-Star like machine in the bank, you get everything in the jar, not minus 6 cents on the dollar or something like Coin-Star machines in grocery stores do. Then you could take that money and refill your Metro SmartTrip card in full
My credit union is awesome! They have their own coin counter and it prints out a receipt you take to the counter. Just deposit that into your account, no fees!
I have gone on two cruises and two vacations with the coins I have saved up. Mind you, that is over the course of a 10 year period.
When I heard about the problem on Metro this morning I wondered if anybody I knew was going to get stuck. I also never carry cash and would have been screwed if I was still Metroing on a regular basis.