Can you still get cash-back when paying by debit card?

jimmij

Registered User
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Is this still a thing?
The checkout person would ask you if you wanted cash back when paying by debit card.
No one's asked me that in years. Yesterday I asked in Lidl if they did it and was told they they didn't.
 
You can get it if it suits the merchant to provide it. But that happens less and less.

Merchants, in principal, don't want to hold more cash than they need as a float for the days operations — anything more than that is a burden, since they have the cost of handling and processing cash that they don't require for business purposes. So if you pay by debit card and get cash back, that reduces the cost to the merchant of handling more cash than he requires.

But, as more and more transactions are paid by electronic means, the amount of cash that merchants handle falls anyway. There comes a point where the amount of transactions settled in cash is more or less sufficient to support the float required, and at that point you don't want to hand out cash in case you end up with an insufficient float. So you reduce or stop the provision of cashback.

The issue is affected by other considerations as well — the charging structure imposed by the banks for the use of debit cards (a flat fee per transaction encourages cashback; a percentage fee discourages it) and whether banks charge customers for the use of an ATM (the more likely it is you will pay a charge if you use an ATM, the more likely you are to prefer to get cash via cashback).
 
In January 2016 the Government brought in the 12 cent ATM withdrawal charge and at the time it was advised to use the 'cashback' facility to avoid the charge.
Personally it's year's ago since I asked for 'cashback'.
The 'cashback' facility goes back to the Laser card days and it's totally at the retailers discretion.
 
Definitely still a thing in Dunnes anyway, lady ahead of me at the till was asked when I was last in there few days ago, dithered before deciding sure she would take 20 thanks! Was in a hurry so noticed the interaction.
 
Yeah I see it every so often but less and less each year, I don't think Lidl ever did it
I keep about €500 cash in the house for emergences or tradesmen
I've keep €85 in my wallet but actually haven't spent it in 3 years as all my spending is done with a debit card
 
Definitely still a thing in Dunnes anyway, lady ahead of me at the till was asked when I was last in there few days ago, dithered before deciding sure she would take 20 thanks! Was in a hurry so noticed the interaction.
Can you get cash back with an Apple Pay/Google Pay transaction or does the physical card have to be present?

Over Christmas and new year the free ATMs near me were out of cash on two occasions so I had to use the private ATM which charged me €3.50.
 
Strictly speaking you need to use a physical card and input your PIN but my local pub did it wrong (good for me) and I used Google Pay. The Pub did it as one transaction. I bought a drink and got charged and was given my cashback.
 
I constantly get asked at the bigger multiples if I want cash back when paying at the till, whether by phone or physical card. I use the card less and less now with the outlets' loyalty cards on the phone as well. I can't remember when I said "yes" to the question.

Like @Cervelo I keep a few hundred around and the same €150 in the wallet since auld God's time. My daughter says it's my confirmation money.
 
Can you get cash back with an Apple Pay/Google Pay transaction or does the physical card have to be present?

Over Christmas and new year the free ATMs near me were out of cash on two occasions so I had to use the private ATM which charged me €3.50.
Haven't a clue, have never paid for my shopping by card not to mind with the phone! :D
 
You’ve found free ATMs outside bank premises?
As recent as December I was in the local Spar shop and I had to take out 2 lots of €100 as they wouldn't let me take more than 100 in one go. I was not charged anything for doing so. You weren't in the Hibernian Way or Poddy Collins in Bowlesbridge were you ?
 
I use ATMs every week, never in banks, in local small shops or in shopping centre, never been charged at any of them.

Actually somewhere in my memory I remember the shopping centre one telling me there would a charge and I cancelled the transaction but that was back when I had an UB card, it never mentions charges now so whether the card issuer makes a difference or the policy/ATM has changed I don't know but I'm definitely not charged anywhere.
 
I don't think that I've ever been charged a fee in a non-bank ATM in Ireland.
But my ATM cash withdrawals are few and far between these days.
(I'd actually completely forgotten about the cash back option at tills in shops it's so long since I've used it!).
I'm thinking this too. The reason I asked was because Revolut's Standard account only lets you withdraw €200 a month without Revolut charging a commission and I was looking to up the cash component of my spend above that.
I've been doing this for quite a while now and never seen any atm related deductions in my statement.
 
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