Is that true? From my understanding as long as the restaurant is up front about what types of payment are accepted prior to the transaction they do not need to accept all forms of legal tender. But I am not a lawyer.
From Investopedia: "Creditors are required to accept them as payment offered to discharge a debt; however, except where prohibited by state law, private businesses may refuse to accept some or all forms of cash tender provided that a transaction has not already occurred and debt has not been incurred by the customer."
If you order at the counter and pay before eating, a restaurant can deny cash. If you sit down and eat all the food, then they bring you the check, they must accept cash (because now you owe a "debt").
Comments
Is that true? From my understanding as long as the restaurant is up front about what types of payment are accepted prior to the transaction they do not need to accept all forms of legal tender. But I am not a lawyer.
From Investopedia: "Creditors are required to accept them as payment offered to discharge a debt; however, except where prohibited by state law, private businesses may refuse to accept some or all forms of cash tender provided that a transaction has not already occurred and debt has not been incurred by the customer."
[1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/legal-tender.asp
If you order at the counter and pay before eating, a restaurant can deny cash. If you sit down and eat all the food, then they bring you the check, they must accept cash (because now you owe a "debt").
But if the restaurant states that they don't accept cash, then you agreed to those terms.
The whole point of legal tender is that it overrides any terms you may have agreed to beforehand.
That's not accurate. It's merely establishing the default behavior.
It depends somewhat on the jurisdiction. Some courts honor contracts which specify payment in a specific form rather than legal tender. Most do not.