Why Using Your Debit Card or Credit Card Makes Sense

Today I received the following message. One of the countless forward messages which do rounds across various messaging apps but definitely worth taking note of.

The message is as follows

Suppose 500 people visit bigbazaar daily. No one collects change.
500×1= rs500.
For 365 days, 500×365 = rs 1,82,500
This is from ONE bigbazaar MARKET.

There are 1500 bigbazaar markets in the country.
rs 1,82,500×1500 = rs 273,750,000

27 crore per year.
& the worst part about this is, IT'S NOT EVEN TAXABLE because the bill doesn't count the one rupee, remember?
Now you know why they always put price tags like 49/- 99/- 999/- only?

Anyone who has ever been to any supermarket (or even shops for that matter) will easily relate to the scenario illustrated. It's a very common thing. At times the shopkeeper or the person at counter hands over a sweet supposedly worth the value of the balance exchange amount. Surprisingly though you as the customer cannot reverse the favour i.e. pay in kind if you don't have exact change. That's not acceptable. But if the shopkeeper does the same because he genuinely does not have the change so you have to cooperate or take the trouble of getting the change. Many to avoid inconvenience of running around requesting for change agree to let go off the change in favour kind.

The following clip from a Nana Patekar moive explains it all

This money is over and above the bill since it does not get accounted for. That is where Credit and Debit cards come in handy. For the shopkeeper or the executive at the counter is then required to charge you the precise amount. For e.g. if your bill amount happens to be Rs. 258.25 paise, that's what you pay.

Now let's look at the same bill amount with cash.

First in all probability the 0.25 paise gets rounded off to next rupee since exact change is not available. That's 0.75 paise extra. which makes it Rs. 259.

Now for the balance Re. 1 for which the supermarket executive or the shopkeeper does not have the change so he hands over a sweet supposedly of Re. 1 worth.

Just because you paid cash you happened to pay Rs. 1.75 extra which is not going to get accounted for.

One might be tempted to argue that while paying taxes the the amount gets rounded off nearest multiple of Rs. 5/- or Rs. 10/-.

Let's consider this scenario too. While paying the taxes to get rounded off to the next immediate it will still not be more than a minimum of Rs. 1 to a maximum Rs. 9. That's peanuts compared to the shopkeeper or supermarket has pocketed since all of it is cash.

Hence paying through card is worth every bit. For not only you pay the precise amount, but the transaction is transparent, it gets recorded leaving a trail and limits creation of black money. With the level of safety measures going up it would be great if people started using the plastic money more.

There are other benefits too

1) Tallying of cash would be reduced..since it has to be done for multiple denominations

2) Carrying of cash would be reduced since the transactions would be paperless

3) This in turn would reduce wear and tear of currency notes thereby reducing the need to print notes.

To me it makes perfect sense. So the next time you are at supermarket or shop which does accept cards to prefer to pay by the card rather then in cash.

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