Should businesses in the US be required to accept US currency for payment? Are they required...?

The law says that any restriction on method of payment, like "No bills over $20" or "No cash" must be posted visibly.

Not being an attorney or a corporation, I can only provide my own opinion on this. I can certainly understand a person or company not wanting to get paid in pennies or have to break a $500 bill, so there are limits on what would be reasonable to require. On the other hand, I don't think every citizen should be required to have a bank account if they want to buy things. I suppose a person could get a money order or something, but that's a lot of extra work if you have the cash in hand. I can't actually think of a law that would satisfy everybody, in every situation.

Maybe the current law actually achieves some kind of minimum inconvenience across the board, or matches the way corporations supported Congress to vote. I don't know.

I found quite a few articles explaining the law; this seems to be a common question because of the "legal tender for all debts" text. But the best explanation I could find came from the Federal Reserve online.

Is U.S. currency legal tender for all debts?

According to the "Legal Tender Statute" (section 5103 of title 31 of the U.S. Code), "United States coins and currency (including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues." This means that all U.S. money, as identified above, when tendered to a creditor legally satisfies a debt to the extent of the amount (face value) tendered.

However, no federal law mandates that a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services not yet provided. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills.

Some movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations as a matter of policy may refuse to accept currency of a large denomination, such as notes above $20, and as long as notice is posted and a transaction giving rise to a debt has not already been completed, these organizations have not violated the legal tender law.

That would depend on the business! Some companies rent or lease highly mobile, expensive products. By requiring a credit or debit card at the time of rental, these companies are protected if their property is not returned on schedule. They have your license information ... but that could be outdated or faked. They have your credit card information, which their security department (or the local police) can track back to the bank. Now the cops and the rental company are about one court order from obtaining the renter's real address information. Information received pursuant to the court order can also be used to file a civil action against the renter. Now once the renter returns the car to the company, they will usually accept cash, a different credit card, checks, money orders, prepaid cards, travelers checks, etc. Now the company has the car back the final charges for the rental contract are known ... and if there was damage to the unit, or unpaid parking tickets or tolls .. the company still has your credit card information to apply the additional charges to!

The ease of stealing cash vs. copying check info should be very obvious to you. A business can set whatever rules they feel best suits their needs and if you are happy with the service they provide, you will need to comply. Using a check or credit card for your payment will also give you a paper trail should you be able to take anything regarding childcare off your taxes, etc.

NO, they are NOT required by law to accept CASH. Payment can be made in MANY different forms, so what is your problem? Along the borders, businesses even accept foreign currency, Canadian dollars and Mexican Pesos. That statement about all debts public and rpivate simply means the currency is VALID as a substitute for things like gold or silver. We USED to be on the "gold standard" where our money was backed by gold in Fort Knox. And then, we shifted to silver, which is where "silver certificates" came from. And now, we have NO precious metals behind out currency. All of our dollars NOW say it is simply a "Federal Reserve Note", which in real terms means NOTHING. In a legal sense, we have nothing to back our currency other than our WORD that it IS money. When we were using gold and silver, you could in theory at least, walk into a federal reserve bank and trade paper dollars for gold or silver. NOW, you can no longer trade for gold or silver as there is NOTHING backing the dollar other than our reputation that the dollar is solid as an investment. The exact SAME thing applies to ALL other currencies used by ALL other countries. The value of the money shifts from day to day and it has no BACKING in anything like it used to with gold and silver.