Taxi Charge Horror Stories. What happens when you don't use TaxiPass.

Cash if U Can.

We accept Credit Cards...But Appreciate Cash.

By Law all cabs in Dallas need to display this for manual charges....

"telling a taxi driver you just murdered their family wouldn't anger them as much as paying with a credit card"

"credit card swipe machine never seems to work"

free ride (instead of credit card ride)

Cash is still king for San Francisco cabbies who protest credit card fees

Some San Francisco taxi drivers prefer being paid in cash instead of accepting credit cards, which require drivers to pay a 5 percent surcharge on each transaction.

Taxi passengers in The City are complaining about being left out in the cold by drivers who won’t take credit cards, despite a city law mandating the acceptance of plastic.
Drivers have been up in arms about a new policy forcing them to pay 5 percent when they accept credit cards. To protest the policy, some tell passengers that they don’t accept credit cards, or that their card swiper is broken.

“About 40 percent of the time I take a taxi, drivers tell me that they don’t take cards,” said Nick Halsing, a city resident. “It’s the first thing I hear when I get in the car.”
Blake Manship said he frequently encounters the problem, which is particularly troublesome when he’s short on time and cash.

“I’ve had to swing by an ATM and take cash out to get a ride,” Manship said. “It was a huge pain, plus I got hit with a surcharge from my bank.”

As part of a 2010 city ordinance, accepting plastic is mandatory for all registered San Francisco cabdrivers, according to San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency spokesman Paul Rose. If a card swipe is broken, drivers should have a backup processing method, Rose said.
He said the agency is aware that drivers refuse credit card payments. Any time passengers experience this situation, they should call 311 and report the taxi number, time and date, he said. Drivers who don’t take cards could be forced to go through re-training or face fines, Rose said.
Michael Patrick, a doorman at the Westin St. Francis in Union Square, said he often gets complaints about this from hotel guests.
“The drivers will go a few blocks and then say they don’t take cards,” Patrick said. “They make the passengers stop by the ATM if they don’t have cash.”
However, cabdrivers queuing recently in front of the St. Francis behaved otherwise. Over two days, nine different drivers polled by The SF Examiner said they took credit cards, despite gripes about the fee.
“I’d rather take the 5 percent hit than lose the fare,” said Mike Singha, a Town Taxi driver.
A Royal Taxi driver readily accepted a reporter’s credit card for an $8 ride.
Although few drivers admit to refusing credit cards, cabbies said they understand why it happens.
Earlier this year, the SFMTA approved a measure that let cab companies charge drivers a 5 percent card fee per fare. The move was designed to help out companies paying high monthly fees for credit card usage. Drivers, however, said the fee unfairly targets working-class individuals who already struggle to make a living in San Francisco.
“Drivers are not refusing credit cards,” said John Han, a taxi driver. “They’re refusing the unfair cost that comes with taking credit cards.”
While that stance may be appreciated among drivers, it doesn’t go over too well with passengers.
“I got kicked out a cab just the other day on Market Street because I didn’t have cash,” said Elizabeth Baksi. “That was not fun.”

How Taxi Companies Rip Off Their Drivers

If you have been aggravated about what you perceive as high taxi fares, especially in New York or other major cities, and you think the drivers are making off like bandits, think again. I have been interviewing cabbies in major cities across the country about how they get paid and what they make, and the dollars can be pretty dismal except in rare cases, or where the Taxi Authority jacks up the rates for special events or major weather problems like the hurricane in New York on August 27^th that never came but the fares were doubled anyway.

I rode with Alvan Narine in Boston the other day. He is an immigrant from Trinidad and came to America thirty-five years ago, when he started driving cabs. Now he owns one at age 71 and drives three 12-hour shifts a week. The other days he rents his cab out to other drivers for $75 to $100 a day. He is responsible for all maintenance and insurance, while the drivers pay for gas.

I asked him what he can make if he has a really good day. His answer was maybe a hundred dollars.
He said a vast majority of drivers are immigrants and need the jobs, so they work like dogs for essentially minimum wage. They can get paid in two different ways: either by a percentage (usually about a third) of the gross fares, or by renting the cab by the day or week and paying all fuel costs.
If they rent, it is usually about $100 per day for their cabs plus fuel. So do the math. If they gross $200 in fares on a good day, they clear maybe $75 when you subtract gasoline costs. Would you like the hassle of driving through heavy traffic all day for eight or nine dollars an hour? Probably not.
The other problem with accepting credit cards, according to many drivers, is the delay in payment by the cab companies. They can take up to three weeks to remit the money back to the driver, according to a cabbie I spoke with in New York. So that means that when you pay by credit card, the driver is not getting the money at the end of the shift, has to pay a premium to get paid, and may have to wait until the cab company gets around to settling with him.

I have a suggestion for cab drivers: hire legal counsel and demand to know what the exact charges are for each kind of credit card that the taxi company must pay, and then tell the company owners that you expect to be paid for what you earned, less their actual costs. The cab companies should be in the business of supporting their employees, not extracting a penalty because their passengers elect to use a credit card rather than paying in cash. In my world, that is called fraud and if all cab drivers complain about it, maybe the companies will get the message.

still using Etch a Sketch to charge my credit card

@PTramutolo: Taxi driver says credit card machines don't work in the rain welll how the hell am I suppose to know that I have noo cash

@memcmp: @SafeNetInc I paid a taxi driver, he needs my credit card to swipe it on front. Now he can use it online, he has all data. #securechat

@blair10nelson: RT @kirstenstubbs: Seriously? In an age of space exploration & nanotechnology, taxi drivers are still using an Etch a Sketch to charge my credit card for fare?

"we appreciate cash"

"gives me sh** about paying with credit card"

My credit card machine doesn't work

"Safer to pay by credit card on internet vs. cabdriver"

Can I pay with credit or debit card in your cab?

September 27, 2011 Cabdrivers are hardworking people who put in long hours and deal with a lot of confused, impatient or drunken passengers. While many riders are polite, some are not (cough, Patrick Kane, cough), so I always make an extra effort to be courteous. I sit in the back seat, give clear directions, pay promptly and exit curbside. Every time I slide into a taxi's back seat, the city's passenger and driver bill of rights is on full display behind a layer of clear plastic. Yet my friends and I have found that many cabdrivers ignore one of those rights — the right to pay by credit or debit card. For me and many others, the debit card has become king. No longer do I have to worry about bills floating around or coins jangling around and taking up precious cargo space. And checks — well, checks are for rent and dinosaurs. Instead I use a thin piece of plastic — one thing to keep track of and one-stop access to my funds. But countless times my friends and I have been told that the cab is cash-only and the driver will not take our cards. The excuses vary — the machine is broken, there's no paper in the printer, your trip is too short to use a card, etc. I had one cabdriver ask if he could take me to an ATM to get him cash instead of paying with a card. Another time, even before I stepped into a cab, I announced that I planned to pay by card, and the cabbie drove off so fast he almost ran over my toes. Others who actually let us in the cab sometimes seem bitter and resentful — speeding, taking corners hard and trying to get us out as fast as possible. Why is it that some cabdrivers don't hold up their end of the bargain? Isn't it my right to use plastic? Efrat Stein, spokeswoman for Chicago's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, said yes. If the cab doesn't have a back-seat swipe machine, the driver should have a machine in front, she said. If the machine isn't working, the driver can use a manual imprint machine or call in the credit card number to the company. "If their equipment is not working, the driver should have a backup," Stein said. Of the 6,800-some cabs in the city, only about 230 are independent and owner-operated and are not required to take credit cards, she said. "We are looking at changing this exemption and requiring all drivers to accept credit cards in the near future," Stein said. "If the driver's not going to accept a credit card, we encourage riders to call 311 to file a complaint," Stein said. "Have the cab number, company, time and date available when you call. Not taking a credit card is breaking our rules." While it's not required to tell the driver you're planning to use a credit card upon entering a cab, it might be a good idea to do so, Stein said. "It gives the driver a sense of how you expect to pay, as credit cards often take a bit longer than a simple cash exchange," Stein said. "That way they can be sure to pull over to a safe location appropriate to wait for a longer transaction." Kousay Ahmad, a cabdriver for City Service Taxi Association, said he doesn't mind cash or credit but has heard from passengers that his stand on payment is a rarity. "I have a machine in the back, and if that's not working, I'll run the card manually," Ahmad said. One problem with card swipers in the back of cabs is customers who don't know how to use them, Ahmad said. "If I'm pulling over on Michigan Avenue to let out a customer and they're taking forever with the machine, I'm obstructing traffic and I'm going to get a ticket from the police," Ahmad said. "That's not helping us." Mike Levine, owner of Yellow Cab Co., said when he came to Chicago in 2005 from New York City to take over the company, the difficulty of using credit cards in city cabs was the biggest complaint he heard from riders. The reason many drivers prefer cash, Levine said, is that they pay a 5 percent fee on each credit card transaction. Ahmad also cited the fee, saying, "If the trip is only $4 or $5 and the customer is paying credit, it's almost not worth it because we pay out 5 percent." But Levine said company research shows that credit card users tip about 18 to 20 percent, while those who pay with cash generally tip about 15 percent. "Our drivers are making more on tips with credit cards but pay out 5 percent," Levine said. "Essentially, they're losing 2 percent. I tell my drivers that they will always accept credit cards. If we can get that reputation, maybe they'll get business they normally wouldn't have." Since he joined Yellow Cab, Levine said he's made it his mission to put more card swipers in the back of cabs so passengers can avoid confrontation with the driver. Until all cabs have back-seat card machines, I'm sure I'll be wrestling with drivers to accept my plastic at the end of a long night. But I will still tip well, regardless.

"it is safer to use your credit card on the internet than in a taxi"

Granny Cabbie calling in a Credit Card Transaction

Boston cabbies deny credit cards

Scores of stubborn Hub cabbies have brazenly flouted a two-year-old city rule and flat-out refused to let cash-short riders use credit cards this year — with some drivers accused of lying and coercing customers into forking over hard currency, a Herald review of consumer complaints found. “All the time. It happens all the time,” Boston businessman William Shaw, 47, told the Herald after paying cash for a cab ride to South Station this week. “The struggles of living in the city are hard enough. I don’t want to struggle with a cab driver.” Boston police have fielded nearly 100 complaints since Jan. 1 accusing taxi drivers of spurning customer requests to use plastic to pay for their rides, the review found — even though cabbies have had to accept credit cards since 2009 and the processing fees were factored into a 16-percent fare hike. First-time offenders are slapped with a three-day suspension. Mark Cohen, chief of the Boston Police Department’s Hackney Carriage Unit, said the offenders belong to a small but persistent group of drivers who long for the cab trade’s bygone cash-only era. “They’re moving from an underground economy to the traditional role of a businessperson. There’s a general sense of uneasiness about that,” Cohen acknowledged. “It is not a rarity for a passenger to get into a cab in Boston, ask to pay with a credit card and be . . . refused or given a long song and dance about why it’s not a good idea for the cab driver.” A Herald reporter took several cab rides this week, asking after each trip whether he could pay with a credit card. Some drivers welcomed the plastic gladly, with one even offering the option. Another accepted a credit card payment but had a piece of black electrical tape draped over his card reader’s display. A third cabbie complained he made no money on credit card payments. “Why, you don’t got cash?” the driver said when he was offered MasterCard. After a pause, he added, “Drivers don’t make any money when you use the card.” Any answer other than “yes” is inappropriate, Cohen said. “If you say to the cab driver, ‘Do you take credit cards?’ and the cab driver says anything but ‘Yes,’ I consider that to be a bit of coercion,” Cohen said. “In the end, I think passengers are to some degree intimidated . . . and I think that’s wrong.” Boston taxi drivers do, in fact, profit from credit card transactions, Cohen noted. Card-processing fees are capped at 6 percent, and Cohen said those fees were factored into a 16-percent fare hike in 2009 to cover the cost of card readers and other business expenses such as gas price increases. That means cash-paying customers — currently, about two-thirds of Hub cab riders, Cohen said — are actually giving their drivers a bonus — another possible incentive for cabbies to discourage plastic. “If one third of the fares use credit cards, there’s another two thirds out there that aren’t even being charged that 6 percent,” Cohen said. “(Cabbies) win two out of three times currently. They are way far ahead.” Driver Naoufel Titiahi, 47, said credit cards are convenient for customers yet insisted they hurt his bottom line. “That 6 percent (processing fee) hurts us because we have family, kids to feed,” he said.