Money, The Root of Inconvenience

Interesting scene in the supermarket Friday: A guy buys a pack of gum for 31 cents and pays for it with a paycheck for $347. The cashier gives him the amount of the paycheck less 31 cents. He tries to hand her a $5, which she refuses, but then she accepts $2.

Kind of a neat trick if your only alternative is a check-cashing facility, which might charge 3 percent, or $10.41 for a $347 paycheck, plus maybe a fee. I mentioned this transaction to a police officer I knew who was on duty in the store, and he thought the man might have been an employee who got his check cashed as a courtesy.

Whatever the situation, I was a bit jealous, because unlike many other stores, this one does not have a "cash-back" option for those who use debit cards. All my pension and Social Security money goes into the bank via direct deposit and I never see cash unless I go to the bank or go shopping where I can use my nice orange PNC bank card and get some extra dollars back.

There used to be a PNC ATM right in this store. In fact, there used to be a small bank branch on the same block. Alas, both are gone and now a foreign ATM will cough up some dough in the store, for a fee that works out to 2 percent for $100 or 10 percent for a quick $20.

It doesn't take very long to walk downtown to the big PNC bank to use its ATM free, but depending on the weather and my degree of energy at any given time, it can be a nuisance. And that paltry pile of $20s will disappear all too soon.

A while back, the federal government tried to require all Social Security recipients to use direct deposit. The idea was to do away with the cost of mailing checks and the danger of check theft from a senior's mailbox. But a hard core of seniors rejected the idea, to the extent that the feds dropped the plan. I can imagine that the safety of direct deposit meant little if you were miles from a bank and had no car. The main reason, though, was that many seniors wanted to have cash only and would even patronize the check-cashing joints for the privilege of having cash in hand, despite confiscatory fees.

Starting in March 2013, all new Social Security recipients were required to have electronic deposit and older ones were strongly urged to convert. It turns out that many employers nowadays require electronic deposit as well, so the scenario I witnessed at the supermarket is less likely. I wish the young man well with his pocket full of cash, a danger in itself for those targeted by predators or greedy roommates.

Meanwhile, I must get to the bank. My cash reserves have dwindled and I forgot to get cash back at either the Stop and Shop or Trader Joe's in Westfield, where I went on the bus to get stuff you can't buy in Plainfield. Maybe when that developer who promised a Trader Joe's in downtown Plainfield comes across, I can get goodies and cash back right here in the city ...

--Bernice