For those that accept cash - whats your counterfiet prevention methods?

if counterfeiting wasn't a problem the Fed wouldn't invest so much money in anti-counterfeit measures. The $100 bill is one of the most counterfeited bank notes in the world and is also one of the most expensive to make. better to be safe than sorry if handling large amounts of cash as a small business. the likes of Walmart can afford to write off the odd phoney $100 bill but a small business person can't.

Owain Glyndwr wrote in post #15465953
if counterfeiting wasn't a problem the Fed wouldn't invest so much money in anti-counterfeit measures. The $100 bill is one of the most counterfeited bank notes in the world and is also one of the most expensive to make. better to be safe than sorry if handling large amounts of cash as a small business. the likes of Walmart can afford to write off the odd phoney $100 bill but a small business person can't.

http://skeptics.stacke​xchange.com …ll-the-most-counterfeited

I don't think any client has ever handed me a $100 bill. I have one particular market niche that generally does cash business with me--I get $50s from them. But those are on my "layaway" payment plan, so if my bank ever returned a note to me, the client would have to make good on it to continue the plan. As I mentioned before, though, I've never had a bank return a note to me as counterfeit. For that matter, I've never even had a cashier return a note to me as counterfeit.

But my point is...who here is getting a whole lot of $100 bills? With the exception noted before, all the rest of my clients are either credit card or check. That's why even though I accept cash, this just really isn't something that keeps me up at night.

I've also never come accros fake money. Where do you live where its normal?

mac7001 wrote in post #15467922
I've also never come accros fake money. Where do you live where its normal?

i don't think anyone has suggested it is "normal". But It can happen since funny money *is* in circulation. For large businesses it's just part of the cost of doing business, like losses from shoplifting. If you are a small business it might be harder to absorb the loss if someone passes you a dodgy bill so I'd advise caution when handling cash but if you feel comfortable with the clients (ie you know them and can be sure they'll accept your claim that the money they passed you was fake and will make it up) then there isn't much to worry about.

I don't put myself out to cater for the rare and never encountered exceptions.

glumpy wrote in post #15469586
I don't put myself out to cater for the rare and never encountered exceptions.

I've never had a fire in my house. it is rare here for houses to burn but it happens. which is why I have insurance to cover the damage of a fire.

Having insurance doesn't effect what I do or impede on the way I do things.

Loosing my home would seriously impact my life, Loosing $100 would probably be no more than an annoyance during the day.

One other thing, There is mention of banks calling people about fake notes. Do they isolate and put a name on every deposit they receive?

Here all the money just goes into the tellers draw. There would be no way to tell where a fake note came from if they didn't pick it up as they were counting it.

Owain Glyndwr wrote in post #15469608
I've never had a fire in my house. it is rare here for houses to burn but it happens. which is why I have insurance to cover the damage of a fire.

If it frets you, don't take cash.

RDKirk wrote in post #15469946
If it frets you, don't take cash.

it doesn't fret me in the slightest. Taking simple measures to ensure you aren't duped is easy enough.

glumpy wrote in post #15469622
One other thing, There is mention of banks calling people about fake notes. Do they isolate and put a name on every deposit they receive?

Here all the money just goes into the tellers draw. There would be no way to tell where a fake note came from if they didn't pick it up as they were counting it.

They do at the bank I use. They put the cash in a clear white bag along with the deposit slip and its put in the deposit's pile. The ATM is pretty smart and you put the cash in 40 bills at a time and it counts it and tells you the amount on the spot. It probably does a UV test at the same time but that is just a guess.

tjb5099 wrote in post #15454421
Your best bet would be to get a program for the iPhone like Square that way you can accept credit cards

There are legitimate reasons to accept credit cards and pay the exorbitant cost associated with them. But to favor that over cash to guard against counterfeiting is foolish. You'll pay more in fees than you would ever lose to fake money.

I'm a county treasurer. Every year I collect millions of dollars in property tax payments from homeowners. A surprising amount comes in cash, mostly $100 bills. Not a single counterfeit issue in five years.

Regarding the previous comparison to homeowner's insurance: The purpose of insurance is to protect you against catastrophic loss. A single customer payment rarely amounts to a potentially catastrophic loss to a business owner. It is a cost of doing business.

Deposits of small amounts of cash go straight to the drawer. Those containing a significant stack of bills will get counted with a machine that checks for counterfeits in the process.

what's cash? people still use that stuff? thought it was only for drug dealers and strippers... I mean dancers. all kidding aside I think it would be strange to be offered cash for a job. Not saying I would refuse it, but I would prefer plastic. Either debit card or credit card.

Might be the demographic here, but high school seniors seem to like to pay with cash. Over the last couple of years I'm no longer surprised when they pay with a couple $100 bills, although I do ask before hand now that they don't pay with anything larger than a $20.

GerryDavid wrote in post #15490093
Might be the demographic here, but high school seniors seem to like to pay with cash. Over the last couple of years I'm no longer surprised when they pay with a couple $100 bills, although I do ask before hand now that they don't pay with anything larger than a $20.

Mothers spend more.