Although I know the staff often has to wait for the cardco to pay, I often put the tip on the charge and I usually round off so the bill is an even dollar amount or at least on a half dollar. For instance if the bill was $10.50, I'd put $1.50 tip and make it $12 or $2 and $12.50 (or there's the rare time when it was so outstanding it warranted more) and that way it makes it easier as I skim the charge statement. I knew I was there and the amount looks right. I don't like to carry a lot of cash plus I get a cashback bonus on my CCs. I've often left a cash tip and just put a cancelled zero in the tip line. I wouldn't put a note that it was cash or whatever. If the service was horrible, they don't get a tip, or they get the penny tip. It's seldom that happens, but has. Keeping coins or adding to an executed charge statement is a theft. Will the police like to prosecute a 22¢ theft? No, but they should be called anyway. I wouldn't be above embarrassing the daylights out of a petty thief and a manager who won't take action on it. Not going back, if you like the place and food is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Stand up for yourself. I remember years ago a pancake house chain would add a tip automatically to the bill. I never liked that but I knew about it. If the service wasn't good, we'd REALLY make noise about it and would be expecting everything to be perfect if they expect to set the tip. If it's a chain policy that you think is shady, contact your attorney general and make a complaint. They do prosecute places that scam. "Bullying the manager about a corporate wide policy? Good luck with that." I do have to agree with that. Our store policy was The customer is NOT always right! That said, if it's a legitimate dealing, that's one thing, but if it's a theft, that's different. You need to have your facts in order before making accusations, or go in and ask questions. But as a former manager and one who tended the customers and tills too, I can say that bullying only makes the bully look like an idiot. So just a word of caution.

I don't really have a suggestion for a cash rebate card, but I think my experience with Chase is important here. 4 years ago I lost my job. I had quite a balance on my Chase card. It had just been transferred using one of those promotional offers for 0% interest. I don't even think I had gotten the first statement when I lost my job. The day after I got canned I called all of my creditors and asked if they could help, lower the minimum payment, lower the interest rate, grant a diferral, something, anything! The person I talked to at Chase told me that as long as I was making the minimum monthly payment they would have to assume that I COULD make the monthly payment, and there wasn't anything they could do for me. However, if I missed a payment, I could call them when I got my next statement and at that point they could work out a payment plan that would be easier for me. So, I did exactly what he told me to do. Except that I made half of the payment, instead of not paying anything, when my statement came. I figured that would look better when I asked for help, I could say "Look, I can make half the payment, just not the whole thing." When my next statment came, showing that I hadn't payed my entire minimum payment, I called and told them what I had been told and asked for help. This is where it got really fun. They couldn't come up with a better payment plan for me because to do that they would have to base my payment on my income...and since I was unemployed I didn't have any income to base a payment plan on. They wouldn't use my unemployment check as a basis for a payment plan. So there was still nothing they could do for me. The kicker: Missing a minimum payment meant my 0% interest rate was gone. Now I was being charged something over 18%. Then there was more fun, about a year later. I had gotten a new job, moved back to the state I was from, and transferred my husband's car loan to a credit card because the interest rate was lower. Adding that to the amount that had been on the cards when I lost my job and the amount I had to charge while I was unemployed (including tuition for my husband to go to truck driving school) and my credit card debt was pretty damn substantial. Suddenly I noticed on my Chase bill that the interest being charged was only 36 cents less than my minimum payment, and I knew it hadn't been like that before. So I looked at the interest rate.....they were charging me 24%!!!! I called them, all kinds of pissed off, to find out why. Well, apparently they pull your credit report every once in a while. When they pulled mine they saw how much debt I had, and decided to change my status to a higher risk catergory. Because I was now a higher risk borrower, they raised my interest rate. Makes sense, right? Raise my interest rate so that this high risk borrower has an even harder time paying you back!!! As soon as I had an introductory rate offer from another credit card I transferred every penny off of that Chase card and I haven't used it since. We don't deal with Chase anymore. The only reason I currently have a Chase card is because Chase bought BankOne, and I had a really good interest rate with BankOne. So I'm keeping it until the introductory rate runs out and then I'm getting rid of it. As for rewards for cards, I've got a card that gives me points. It's from MyPoints. You sign up with them, they send you e-mails that you get 5 point for just clicking on the link. Some of them offer you hundreds of points for buying something at the link. For instance, they have a deal with (a webstore that the filter won't let me mention because they've been spammed about them before) where you get 10 points per dollar you spend there. Other's are like 50 points for filling out a survey, 20 points for signing up for a newsletter, 500 points for signing up for Columbia house, etc. I rarely take the offers, just click and get my 5 points. I can rack up like 30 points a day this way. And they have an associated Visa card through Providian where I get 1 point for every dollar I spend. Once you accumulate enough points you can trade them in for gift cards, either to stores or they have one called Webcertificates where you get basically a mastercard account number that you can use anywhere online. Or you can pay a small fee to Webcertificates and get a real card that you can use in stores. For instance, I just redeemed 3250 points for a $25 gift card to Linens N Things. That sounds like a lot of points, but if you are using the card and paying it off all the time you'll rack up points quick. Plus the e-mails take me all of 2 minutes a day to click and delete, giving me up to like 900 points a month. I don't use the card itself often, but if you were going to use it a lot it would definitely pay off. It doesn't come out to as good a rebate as like Discover (which I think is 2%) but if you also do the e-mails and use some of their deals (like the deal at that unmentionable web store, as well as other great deals just like it) you'll rack up points quick!

Well, Lucky, that is rather creative. I'm assuming Cynic's assumptions are correct. I don't think a money order costs very much, maybe a couple dollars, right? Plus if you have a credit card that pays cash back, you might earn part of the cost of your money order back that way. The only thing you have to consider is, will you have the money to pay the credit card in full when the bill comes? If you won't, then you'll have to pay interest and all that, and you can rapidly get your credit card maxed out. Not a good thing. If paying the credit card off each month is your plan, then you can rapidly get yourself in a situation where, after you have paid off your credit card, you have nothing to live on, and have to use the credit card for everything you buy till next payday. This will work OK, I guess, till something unplanned happens, like an unexpected expense or loss of income. And life being what it is, that's almost guaranteed to happen. But I guess you know that.

dedtired, with that 8K purchase, that you paid off after a few days, and accumulated a lot of points ... would there have been fewer points given if you'd let the amount owing run till after the billing date? If not, as Elmer suggested to several, why bother? Granted ... all the interest that 8K will accrue in 15 - 45 days or so won't buy many ice cream cones! But, as I've often suggested to young folks, general public, financial workers, etc., "Learning how money works is an interesting hobby ... and IT PAYS WELL!" Taxes, too! _________________________ Don't know whether this is current, or how many may follow it, but I've heard that it's part of the contract many credit card issuers require of the dealers is that they can't offer discounts for cash purchases. Which annoys me, paying for many of my purchases with cash. Maybe I should ask a store with the credit card sticker on the door whether there's a discount for cash, and if none, walk out, leaving the goods behind. But ... then ... there's my time ... and letting the annoyance get to me. Plus, with my "credit" (read "debt") card ... being old, and forgetful, don't help, when they want you to have a mess of capital and small letters, numbers, symbols, etc. for your PIN ... and change it frequently ... ... how was that, again, please? ole joyful