Credit Cards Come to Vending Machines: Students and All Consumers Beware
by
Nancy Castleman |
|
| Nancy Castleman,
CardRatings.com
consumer reporter, has spent 20+ years helping people get out of debt, save
money, and live better on less. But what she'd most like you to do is read about
her book, Invest in Yourself (Wiley, 1998, 2001), which she wrote with Marc
Eisenson and Gerri Detweiler. Nancy considers this book, which discusses how to
invest your time, energy, and money to create the life you want, to be her
life's work. Nancy's books have received rave reviews in leading national
publications, including USA Today and Money Magazine. |
According to industry experts, cashless vending
machines are coming our way quickly. In fact, folks in Philadelphia will
soon be able to use a credit card at 1,000 Coke machines. And it’s expected that
by 2009, over half the vending machines in the U.S. will take credit cards.
That’s good news...if you are a careful budgeter,
spender, and bill payer. It can only make life more convenient for you--whether
you’re indulging in a quick sweet treat or making do while you’re pacing around
a hospital emergency room. Just think...quotations like this may soon be a thing
of the past:
"Change is inevitable, except from vending
machines." ~ Source Unknown
But if you already spend more than you should
supporting this industry, which pulled in over $21 billion in 2004, beware!
We’re expected to spend a whopping 50% more when we can use a piece of plastic
to buy snacks, soft drinks, and what-have-you from vending machines.
As Elliot Maras, who is the Editor of Automatic
Merchandiser Magazine, explains, "The 50 percent increase in average ticket is
similar to the increase seen at quick serve restaurants when card transactions
were introduced two years ago, driving an almost overnight acceptance of
cashless transactions by the fast food industry."
New Ways to Encourage Impulse Purchases
Also coming our way soon, thanks to cashless
vending, will be the sale of more valuable items...in snazzy new machines...in
new places. For example, starting this fall, Macy’s will be selling iPods and
other electronics that way. We’ll be able to use our credit and store cards to
get the latest "must-have" gadgets quickly from nifty-looking, "cool" machines.
Oh joy!
From Elliot Maras’s point of view, "The fact that
a prestigious department store such as Macy's is willing to have a vending
machine on its premises reflects the progress that the vending industry has made
on the public relations front. Just a few years ago, no department store would
have considered having a vending machine on its premises. The old perception
that vending machines make for poor customer relations and are associated with
cheap merchandise is falling by the wayside."
Particularly Worrisome
Parents whose children have easy access to a
"Snack Center" at school might want to be most concerned about cashless vending
machines. According to Elliot Maras, "Our most recent survey, based on fiscal
2004, indicated 11 percent of all vending machines were at schools."
I "fess" up to frequently frequenting the vending
machines when I was in college. Yes, they had them, even then! (In fact, the
first vending machine is thought to date back to 215 B.C.)
But they weren’t in the public schools, where
they no doubt already lead many a child into temptation. Still, there is some
good news for parents concerned about vending machines: "better-for-you"
products aimed at kids have grown by 31 percent since 2002, compared to only 7
percent for more mainstream food and drinks, according to a recent article in
Automatic Merchandiser Magazine.
| Three Tips for Parents |
| 1) |
If you find yourself in
front of a vending machine this summer with your kids, you might want to
tell them a bit about "the olde days," when vending machines weren’t quite so ubiquitous. It’d be a good
time to talk about convenience versus cost -- and how high that cost might end
up being, if they use credit cards to buy soft drinks and then don’t pay off the
bill when it arrives. |
| 2) |
You can just say "NO!" to the
use of credit cards in vending machines. |
| 3) |
For young people going off
to college with their first credit cards, it’s a good idea to limit
their use to emergencies only. David Hunt, the former president of AT&T
Universal Card, put it this way when he gave his daughter her first
credit card, "If you can eat it, drink it, or wear it, it’s not an
emergency." |
We welcome your comments about credit card issues
in our popular
credit forum!
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