Cashless

[Debra Gorgos]

Poll: We are completely cashless at our car wash.

 

[cooll903]

i take it all, cash, quarters, tokens, and credit. working on adding either touch 4 wash or coinless for the whole app and online presence too.

 

[mjwalsh]

Debra & others,

I answered "no" on your poll.

Since we are just self service we would need 50-75 "merchant fee" receptacles needed to be consistent (thereby IMHO less confusing) on all of our "customer use" pieces of equipment ... we have chosen (+ 7 years) to have a "readily available & reliable $5 bill dispensing ATM located almost on top of two 100% reliable Standard bill changers that will both before too long will be dispensing almost 100% dollar coins.

Not trying to belittle or offend fellow forum members ... but we are not in the same boat as the self service car wash owners who also have an automatic car wash. They clearly are operators on the forum who are competing against pretty much every "credit rewards to customer" automatic car wash in town ... especially gas-convenience station automatic car washes.

Yes ... we do lose a % of customers because we only accept credit cards etc through our ATM but so far it appears to be the best fit for us & possibly some others on this forum! Hopefully, we make up any lost % of net revenue by gaining customers in other ways.

I can also respectfully see why going 100% cashless & just seeing 100% of all transactions going directly to the business bank account could be the better fit for some on the forum ... like a recent previous post on another thread that I made about how lightning fast I personally get in & out of the nearby Sam's Club 100% credit card Gas & diesel fuel Pumps not to mention $1.70 + 5% cashback per gallon vs other locals what I saw on the various price signs as I was driving to do errands today $1.99 per gallon!

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Nope

 

[Greg Pack]

No, but it's coming. My IBA income is almost 90% card.

 

[slash007]

No, but installed Coinless at both locations to help. Adoption has been slow, but somewhat steady. Nothing like the adoption of in-bay cc readers. That adoption curve was way higher.

 

[Randy]

I'm seriously considering going all all cashless. Picking up the coins from the vaults and vacuums, counting the coins and the cash and going to the bank is a PITA! I think it might be a long process to get the public used to not having coins or cash. It's just a matter of time before cash will be a thing of the past.

 

[coinless]

Anybody interested in looking at Coinless as a solution for moving toward a cashless site, or adopting a mobile app that speaks to all your equipment, provides a great payment experience, and gives you the ability to create monthly subscription plans and much more, please reach out. I'm happy to answer questions you might have.

Also, here's a whitepaper we recently did on industry trends toward cashless solutions and subscription-based business:

Technology Innovations in the Self-Serve Car Wash Industry

Good luck!

 

[Dan-Ark]

We operate 2 small SS car washes, one of which also has an IBA. We sell tokens at both. The smaller one takes bills on all the equipment. the larger one requires our custgomers with bills to use the token machine. All machines also take quarters. Even though we don't sell quarters at either wash. still about 50% of our incoming revenue is in quarters....people bring them from home or I guess buy them at our competitors. I don't think self serve will ever be totally cashless.... Our IBAs are over 50% credit, most of rest is bills but the coin hopper for change seems to be getting more quarters than it dispenses too.... hard to imagine someone stuffing 5 or 6 dollars in quarters in,.. but they do.

 

[Gilmore Wash]

My wash does about 70% cash. I have the Cryptopay system on my self serves and automatic, and its cheap and convenient. I'm in a blue collar area and not everyone has access to credit and a lot live paycheck to paycheck. CC fees suck funds out of everyone's pockets. Why make them richer?

 

[OurTown]

If you accept cash and credit and some customers still prefer to use cash then they may go to your competitor if you go all CC. If we ever get above 90% CC then we would probably consider it. Can you imagine the time savings if you did not have to deal with collecting, counting and going to the bank? No more fixing and stocking spare coin hoppers, bill acceptors, coin acceptors. Probably a lot fewer locks and keys plus maybe never have a break in again.

 

[jsoriano]

Also, when customers swipe their cards, assuming count up, they will use more time/money and if you are doing count down, the same, they dont realize the times the button is press to add more time. After Covid we opened just CC and we are doing great. Vacuums is another story, still with coins, bills and CC.

 

[soonermajic]

How would you swing by & grab a $100 in cash & run to the lake, or watch your kids game , etc...

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

How would you swing by & grab a $100 in cash & run to the lake, or watch your kids game , etc...

that's part of the governments agenda. no more beer or going out to eat money

 

[MEP001]

As far as the government and my bank knows, my changer doesn't take $20's.

 

[Greg_T]

Australians love credit cards, and generally cash use is on the decline. But our wash still only has 30-40% credit cards payments, growing slowly but steadily. I expect that over time the credit card % will get higher and higher.

 

[mjwalsh]

Australians love credit cards, and generally cash use is on the decline. But our wash still only has 30-40% credit cards payments, growing slowly but steadily. I expect that over time the credit card % will get higher and higher.

Greg_T,

I can't help but think that the fact that because Australian operators ... especially for self service bay only operators ... are able to optionally use your $1 & $2 coins that it provides a healthy incentive tension for the credit card processing executives to keep their "current norm merchant fee" rates from creeping upwards.

Pertinent to showing those Aussie specific coins being a bit more Covid-19 pandemic protection friendly ... I notice your 2 higher denomination coins are both 92% Copper. Scientifically proven to allow the virus to have a much shorter surface life because of the high content of copper!

Because of "low hanging fruit" of proven Seigniorage Savings for your government ... Australia also possibly has a bit less pressure for its leaders to raise public infrastructure & other needed taxes.

BTW ... kudos ... your Australian made MicroCoin QLs have been a lifesaver in terms of quality & reliability for our six (SS only) bays.

 

[Greg_T]

Greg_T,

I can't help but think that the fact that because Australian operators ... especially for self service bay only operators ... are able to optionally use your $1 & $2 coins that it provides a healthy incentive tension for the credit card processing executives to keep their "current norm merchant fee" rates from creeping upwards.

Pertinent to showing those Aussie specific coins being a bit more Covid-19 pandemic protection friendly ... I notice your 2 higher denomination coins are both 92% Copper. Scientifically proven to allow the virus to have a much shorter surface life because of the high content of copper!

Because of "low hanging fruit" of proven Seigniorage Savings for your government ... Australia also possibly has a bit less pressure for its leaders to raise public infrastructure & other needed taxes.

BTW ... kudos ... your Australian made MicroCoin QLs have been a lifesaver in terms of quality & reliability for our six (SS only) bays.

We are lucky to have $1 and $2 coins. Most of our take is from $2 coins, so this improves the situation further. It would certainly make cash handling a lot more of a headache with 10 x 20c piece (closest to the US quarter) rather than a $2 coin.

As far as I'm aware there has been no discussion in Australia regarding the Covid-19 protection offered by coins rather than notes. I can certainly say that it's not something on the minds of Australian consumers.

** Tangent to original thread - the Senior Age Savings, referred to as Superannuation, is IMHO a pretty amazing system. I appreciate that there will be a variety of opinions about compulsory saving systems, but to have every working Australian saving for retirement from the very start of their working life, with regular contributions every month, is vastly different to simply expecting a government pension once you retire. Also, because the superannuation funds are sitting on very large piles of money, they have become huge investors in large infrastructure projects. So, indirectly, all working Australians are helping to get large infrastructure projects happening, which is pretty neat.

 

[MEP001]

As far as I'm aware there has been no discussion in Australia regarding the Covid-19 protection offered by coins rather than notes. I can certainly say that it's not something on the minds of Australian consumers.

Nor anyone else's, with one unpopular exception.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

As far as the government and my bank knows, my changer doesn't take $20's.

They might now