IN July, when I was in the Bahamas with my 15 year old daughter and one of her best friends, we stayed at a resort that was so expensive and commercial that every day brought a teaching moment. I am going to see if I can remember all of the lessons we learned each day.
Day one-After a long night and day of red-eye flights, stopovers and changes of planes, we arrived at the Atlantis resort to check in. I had decided that I didn't want to leave my credit cared 'open' with them and called ahead to make sure that they would let me pay cash. They said I could. When we checked in, they acted like they had never seen cash before and didn't want to take it. When the 'authorized my credit card for our complete stay plus $150 per day per person over and above the amount of our bill, a total of almost $6,000...even after I paid cash for the room, of course my credit card declined. I didn't take a credit card with that much open on it! I had already bought flights, withdrawn cash for the hotel and had enough cash and travelers checks to eat for a few days.
The lady behind the counter looked distressed and said "Your card declined" .
I asked how much she ran on it and almost fell over when she told me.
"Why do you need that much when I just gave you cash for the room?" I said
" We will hold the cash on account, but we still need to run your card for incidentals" she replied.
"We will not have any incidentals" I retorted.
"What about the restaurants?" she asked
"What about them?" I said "I plan to use cash!"
Although she was staring as if I were completely out-of-the-galaxy insane, she said she would only run $100 per day for incidentals and the cost of the room without taxes and the other 5 or 6 additional charges they smack you with. She then handed me the room keys with our names printed on them and told me that the key is our credit card while at the resort.
"Whoa...hold on a minute!" I said "You mean to tell me that my 15 year old daughter and her 15 year old friend now have Ca rte Blanche with my credit card?"
"I guess if you look at it that way...yes." She said patiently.
"They are really good, trustworthy girls, but why would I do that? No way do I want the girls to be able to charge on the room key!" I said getting a little impatient with this ridiculous process.
"What about the incidentals?" She asked again.
"They have their own cash and they will use that." I said as she took the key-cards back from me to reprogram them."
Later on, we were settled in our rooms and taking a look around the resort and decided that we were hungry and should get some lunch. After finding a place that looked promising, we ordered our lunch (very expensive I might add) and when we tried to give them our cash, they said that they were a no-cash establishment.
As it turned out, none of the restaurants at the resort accept cash. We had to leave the resort and go to the attached Marina to eat and even at that, there were only three places that we could use cash; a pizza place, Johnny Rocket's and a diner that had $17 grilled cheese sandwiches!
The girls were trying to figure out what the motivation for refusing cash could be and as I thought the answer came to me. This is what I told the girls:
When you have cash in your hot little hand and you are about to spend some, you look at your cash-flow, look at the price and plan accordingly. When you get your change, you know exactly what you have left and splurge or rein yourself in accordingly. HOWEVER...When you use credit, you round off numbers in your mind, forget what you have spent and overbuy, overspend and overindulge. This is what the want you do to!
Lesson number one: It is always better to use cash if you can!
Day one-After a long night and day of red-eye flights, stopovers and changes of planes, we arrived at the Atlantis resort to check in. I had decided that I didn't want to leave my credit cared 'open' with them and called ahead to make sure that they would let me pay cash. They said I could. When we checked in, they acted like they had never seen cash before and didn't want to take it. When the 'authorized my credit card for our complete stay plus $150 per day per person over and above the amount of our bill, a total of almost $6,000...even after I paid cash for the room, of course my credit card declined. I didn't take a credit card with that much open on it! I had already bought flights, withdrawn cash for the hotel and had enough cash and travelers checks to eat for a few days.
The lady behind the counter looked distressed and said "Your card declined" .
I asked how much she ran on it and almost fell over when she told me.
"Why do you need that much when I just gave you cash for the room?" I said
" We will hold the cash on account, but we still need to run your card for incidentals" she replied.
"We will not have any incidentals" I retorted.
"What about the restaurants?" she asked
"What about them?" I said "I plan to use cash!"
Although she was staring as if I were completely out-of-the-galaxy insane, she said she would only run $100 per day for incidentals and the cost of the room without taxes and the other 5 or 6 additional charges they smack you with. She then handed me the room keys with our names printed on them and told me that the key is our credit card while at the resort.
"Whoa...hold on a minute!" I said "You mean to tell me that my 15 year old daughter and her 15 year old friend now have Ca rte Blanche with my credit card?"
"I guess if you look at it that way...yes." She said patiently.
"They are really good, trustworthy girls, but why would I do that? No way do I want the girls to be able to charge on the room key!" I said getting a little impatient with this ridiculous process.
"What about the incidentals?" She asked again.
"They have their own cash and they will use that." I said as she took the key-cards back from me to reprogram them."
Later on, we were settled in our rooms and taking a look around the resort and decided that we were hungry and should get some lunch. After finding a place that looked promising, we ordered our lunch (very expensive I might add) and when we tried to give them our cash, they said that they were a no-cash establishment.
As it turned out, none of the restaurants at the resort accept cash. We had to leave the resort and go to the attached Marina to eat and even at that, there were only three places that we could use cash; a pizza place, Johnny Rocket's and a diner that had $17 grilled cheese sandwiches!
The girls were trying to figure out what the motivation for refusing cash could be and as I thought the answer came to me. This is what I told the girls:
When you have cash in your hot little hand and you are about to spend some, you look at your cash-flow, look at the price and plan accordingly. When you get your change, you know exactly what you have left and splurge or rein yourself in accordingly. HOWEVER...When you use credit, you round off numbers in your mind, forget what you have spent and overbuy, overspend and overindulge. This is what the want you do to!
Lesson number one: It is always better to use cash if you can!
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