Cash or Card?

We talk credit card fees, plus cash-only and cashless policies, with local businesses

By Art Bukowski | Oct. 18, 2025

Cash was once king, but credit cards have pulled a coup. According to U.S. Federal Reserve data, cash accounted for about 16 percent of all in-person transactions in 2023, down from 31 percent only six years prior. According to some reports, cash was used for up to 50 percent of transactions as recently as 2010.

A surge in contactless payments tied to cards (think: QR codes, tap to pay, etc.) has hastened this process, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The restaurant industry has had an increasingly strained relationship with credit cards as more and more consumers go cashless. This means difficult decisions when it comes to the fees that credit card companies charge vendors to accept payment in this manner. Absorb them, or pass them on?

Northern Express connected with local restaurants and other businesses to see how they’ve walked the line in this tedious balancing act.

Passing It On: The Surcharge

Consumers have been increasingly accustomed to, if unenthused by, seeing a small surcharge for using their credit cards (or more broadly, any non-cash transaction) as businesses have decided to pass those fees on to the consumer.

It’s something that management at Francisco’s Market and Deli in Traverse City decided to implement way back in 2018, which was considerably ahead of the curve. Co-owner Adam Inman was mostly fine with absorbing the credit card fees when cash still made up at least half of his transactions, but he just couldn’t keep taking the hit as credit card usage continued to climb.

“The amount of money that it added up to for us, it was something that we could no longer not pass on to the customers,” Inman says. “We’re trying to do the best we can with the margins that we have.”

Inman toyed with the idea of just raising prices across the board to offset these fees, but he figured that wouldn’t be fair to his cash customers.

Back when Francisco’s implemented a non-cash transaction surcharge, it was much less common. This meant Inman had a lot of opportunities to educate customers who complained about it.

“We had one regular customer who said, ‘You’re going to charge me to use my card here?’ And I said, ‘We’re not charging you; we’re offsetting the cost that the credit card companies and the banks are charging me for you to shop,’” Inman says. “Customers are getting the benefit of all those five- or three-percent back incentives to shop, but the business is taking the financial hit.”

Holding the Line: Cash Only

There are some businesses that have a pretty bold way of avoiding those credit card fees: Just don’t accept them at all. If you want to eat, you’d better have cash (or your checkbook).

Art’s Tavern in Glen Arbor is locally famous for holding firm on this practice. Former owner Tim Barr kept it going for his quarter century of ownership, and new owners Paul and Barbara Olson don’t plan to change.

Barr says customer feedback on this matter wasn’t rare. Most people were more than fine with it, but those who weren’t made their thoughts known.

“We definitely heard about it,” he says. “I was called out, cussed at, whatever you want to call it, two or three times a summer.”

But Barr was glad to hold his ground for a variety of reasons. There’s honoring tradition, of course, but he also wanted his servers to be able to take cash tips home every day. He also very much loved avoiding those pesky credit card fees. The card companies themselves called Art’s to make their case every so often, but Barr couldn’t be convinced.

“It got to the point that when they’d call me up, I’d say, “Well, if you pay me to take the credit cards, I’ll consider it,” he says with a laugh.

As for people who find themselves without cash, there’s an ATM a short distance away. It wasn’t always there, though.

“Before that, if they didn’t have money with them, we’d just tell them to send it to us. Well, it got to the point where only about 50 percent of the people sent the money,” Barr says. “So we had to [stop that practice].”

Others in the business were always envious of what Art’s is able to pull off, Barr says. “I had a lot of restaurateurs say ‘Man, I wish I could do this,” he says. “Once you open the floodgates and start taking cards, you can’t turn back.”

New owner Paul Olson feels it’s part of what makes Art’s special. You have to make sure customers are aware up front, he says, but most already are.

“It’s a part of the brand, and some people really embrace it,” he says. “People are like ‘Cash only, that’s so cool.’”

Both Barr and Olson acknowledge that Art’s is fortunate to be popular enough that it can stick to its guns regarding credit cards. Other places with less demand likely can’t pull it off.

Quick and Easy: Cashless

Though it’s not common, some places in northern Michigan are at the other end of the spectrum and have moved away from cash entirely. One such operation is Boyne Mountain Resort, which went cashless in December 2022. Cindy Johnson-Minkwic, the resort’s controller, says it just makes things easier.

“This shift has streamlined the experience for both guests and our team—transactions are faster and simpler across the property,” she says. “From a security standpoint, eliminating cash handling has been a benefit.”

Ultimately, Boyne saw going cashless as a way to keep up with consumer trends.

“Going cashless has been an adjustment, but overall, smooth,” Johnson-Minkwic says. “Like many aspects of hospitality, this transition was about staying attuned to how our guests prefer to interact with us and increasingly, that means digital convenience at every touchpoint.”

For convenience, the resort does have “reverse ATMs” that allow people to put cash onto debit cards for use throughout the resort. Boyne leadership declined to answer questions about how the fees tied to credit cards impact their business or if they found a way to offset these fees when the resort went cashless.