Why small retail stores ask for ID with a credit card while big don't
Because large stores do not pay their cashiers enough that the companies can dock the employees' pay if they allow a bad credit card to go through.  So most cashiers at large stores won't take the extra effort to check the card properly.  As a result, large stores come up with other ways to handle potential credit card fraud.  For example, they calculate a certain amount of fraud as expected and include it in their price calculations.  Or they can use cameras to catch fraudsters.   At small stores, there is a much higher chance that the cashier is either the owner or a relative of the owner.  And even those who are unrelated tend to be hired by the owner directly.  The owners do have their pay docked if a bad credit card is accepted, as their pay is the profit from the business.  So they tend to create protocols that, at least in their mind, reduce the chance of taking a bad credit card.  The cashier is often the only employee in the store to check anything.   Another issue is that small stores have a harder time getting approved to accept credit cards.  The companies that process the credit cards can take back their machine if there is a lot of fraud.  So the companies can require more from small stores than they can from big stores.  Those companies can't stop processing cards for Safeway, because they need Safeway as much if not more than Safeway needs them.  So the processors have more leverage to make small stores do what they want.  And small stores can feasibly fire (non-owner) cashiers who do not comply.   Owners of course can't be fired.  But they are far more vulnerable to business losses.  So it is really important to an owner to keep the credit card machine.  And it is pretty important to avoid losses, as it is their money directly.   Relatives of owners may be safe from firing, but they are not safe from family retaliation like taking away television privileges.  And they may also think of the effect of business losses on the family.   Large stores can fire cashiers, but they are chronically understaffed and almost none of their cashiers will consistently follow a strict protocol.  Since fraudsters only need to succeed once, an inconsistent application is almost as bad as no application.  They might charge the cashiers for fraud, but then they would have to pay the cashiers more than minimum wage specifically for that reason (e.g. a $50 a month bonus for no fraud).  For many of them, it's cheaper to risk the fraud.   And large stores can't mix owners and relatives of owners into the mix.  It's hard to say who owns Safeway.  And even if you could, the relationship between one fraud transaction and the dividend paid on one share of stock is tiny.  It would take thousands of shares to get up to a penny. Probably because large chains can absorb the loss from fraud better than small stores do.  Thus, small stores want to ensure that the person holding the card is the same as the name on the card.
The amount you are earning in the savings account is insignificant, since you would only have the money in the account for 1 month after purchasing the car.  The instant 1.5% cashback (or travel mile reward), on the other hand, can be significant. However, it is not normal for a car dealership to allow you to put $16k on a credit card.  The reason is that the fees that the dealer has to pay to process your credit card would be too burdensome.  Car dealers have a much smaller profit margin on their sales than a typical retail store, so if the dealer has to pay 3 or 4% of the sales price in credit card fees, it just eats up too much of their profit. If the dealer does allow you to put the entire purchase price on a credit card, be aware that they have already factored in their processing fees into the price.  You might be able to get a better than 1.5% discount by offering to pay with cash instead. If i look to the future ,i see the general retail revenue growing pretty slowly, but the online retailers growing fast. Why ?   First, they grew historically around 20% per year for the last few years.  Second there's a lot of big important innovation. Amazon prime, Tablets and phones as great sales tools and comparison tools(and they're becoming common), Ebay investing heavily in logistics to enable small non u.s. companies to sell onshore without big shipping costs, Online apparel shopping improving rapidly and maybe becoming competitive with offline shopping,using social networks for shopping, interesting new models to sell merchandise online like etsy, subscription shopping and the the general rate of internet innovations.   Third, people are improving in their e-commerce capability and trust.  On the other hand , i don't see any big growth opportunity for brick and mortar retailers.So it means they'll shrink.  The problem is that retail is a low margin business. That means that losing 5-15% percent of revenue  is enough to close you , because you have a lot of fixed costs(rent, employees, financing the goods). I don't think it's fair to attribute Target's recent numbers to people preferring to shop online. The card information fiasco was still going on in the first quarter, and they had already been struggling from putting too many resources into Canada growth while seeing little results.   While I agree that the big-box store is probably a bit on the decline, until an online retailer can compete with price, convenience, and delivery time, there will still be a huge place in the market for the Wal-Marts of the world. "Here's another rational reason: Discount. This typically works only in smaller stores, where you're talking directly to the owners, but it is sometimes possible to negotiate a few percent off the price when paying by check, since otherwise they'd have to give a few percent to the credit card company. (Occasionally the sales reps at larger stores have the authority to cut this deal, but it's far less common.) Not worth worrying about on small items, but if you're making a large purchase (a bedroom suite, for example) it can pay for lunch. And sometimes the store's willing to give you more discount than that, simply because with checks they don't have to worry about chargebacks or some of the other weirdnesses that can occur in credit card processing. Another reason: Nobody's very likely to steal you check number and try to write themselves a second check or otherwise use it without authorization. It's just too easy to steal credit card info these days to make printing checks worth the effort. But, in the end, the real answer is that there's no rational reason not to use checks. So it takes you a few seconds more to complete the transaction. What were you going to do with those seconds that makes them valuable? Especially if they're seconds that the store is spending bagging your purchase, so there's no lost time... and the effort really isn't all that different from signing the credit card authorization. Quoting Dean Inge: ""There are two kinds of fool. One says 'this is old, and therefore good.' The other says 'this is new, and therefore better.'""" There are numerous reasons that go beyond the immediate requirement for access to credit.  Many people just plain don't like carrying cash. Before electronic debit cards became mainstream about the only way to pay for online services was with a credit card.  This has now changed just about everywhere except a large number of airlines which still only sell online tickets via a credit card payment. And then there are all those countries where governments (and some banks) have decided to charge merchants more when customers use debit cards.  If you don't like carrying cash then you may find that the only card you can use is a credit card. These concerns are gradually disappearing and at some stage someone is likely to offer a combined debit-credit card. At which point you'll probably get credit whether you like it or not. Generally, credit card networks (as opposed to debit/ATM cards that may or may not have Visa/MC logos) have a rule that a merchant must accept any credit card with their logo. Visa rules for merchants in the US say it explicitly: Accept all types of valid Visa cards. Although Visa card acceptance   rules may vary based on country specific requirements or local   regulations, to offer the broadest possible range of payment options   to cardholder customers, most merchants choose to accept all   categories of Visa debit, credit, and prepaid cards.* Unfortunately the Visa site for China is in Chinese, so I can't find similar reference there. You can complain against a merchant who you think had violated Visa rules here. That said, its not a law, its a contract between the merchant processor and the Visa International organization, and merchants are known to break these rules here and there (most commonly - refusing to accept foreign cards, including in the US). Also, local laws may affect these contracts (for example, in the US it is legal to set minimum amount requirements when accepting credit cards). This only affects credit card processing, and merchants that don't accept credit cards may still accept debit cards since those work in different networks, under a different set of rules. Those who accept credit cards, are also required to accept debit cards (at least if used as credit). &gt; Verify the signature against what?  How old are you I wonder? I am guessing that you're so young you don't know how it used to be done.  Every credit card has a space on the back for a signature. And for decades, retailers would check the signature on your ID if the signature on your card is not valid (blank, or says 'SEE I.D.').  This worked for a long time, until retailers started hiring incompetent children who were too lazy to do their jobs properly. I once worked for a retailer who would fire you if they caught you not verifying signatures. It depends on your bank and your terms of service, but using the card one way or the other may affect things such as how long it takes to process, what buyer protections you have, etc.  It also affects the store as I believe they are charged differently for debit vs credit transactions.