Posted on 03/08/2007 8:05:12 AM PST by Abathar
CARTERVILLE, Illinois -- A southern Illinois man who's fed up with higher electric rates has come up with a way to show his displeasure while paying his bill.
Robert Hancock said his monthly power bill jumped nearly 200 percent -- to $526.62.
So he's going to send Ameren 52,662 pennies.
Hancock said he's worked things out with a local bank to get the coins and with the post office to mail the money.
It will cost about $50 extra for postage. But Hancock said that if he can cause Ameren a little inconvenience, it's worth it to him.
I believe you can refuse coin, but not currency.
An individual or business can refuse coins and/or currency. Please see Post 70.
"I'd be without electricity because this guy sent them pennies. Wow, that power company is gonna HUNT ME DOWN!"
No they won't hunt you down. They will turn off your electricity and put a nasty note on your credit report.
This is asinine to start with. By doing something this stupid you're only causing your rates to go higher and demonstrating what a jerk you are. If someone really wanted to make a difference they would lobby the local and state govt.
That's one of the funniest episodes.
LOL! He was a paisano, too.
Good Info, Thanks
I politely disagree. Three scenarios come to mind.
You own the business, but don't work on the premises and hire somebody to collect payments. Limiting payments to cash or credit cards not only leaves a written record but makes it more difficult for the employee to divert payments. They can easily pocket cash; it's harder for them to pocket a credit card payment or to cash a check payable to "ABC Corporation."
Second, if you were collecting money from a lot of people (perhaps money for the coaches' gifts in your role as the "team mom" for a football team), you have an automatic written record of payment with checks. With cash, you have to maintain a log. With cash, you often have people claiming they paid when they did not. Announce "checks only" and your record keeping and liability are diminished.
Third, youth collecting from multiple payers (for example, Boy Scouts collecting popcorn money) are safer if they decline cash and accept checks. That way, they're not carrying cash after collecting from teachers at school, not walking around the neighborhood with cash (assuming they're old enough to collect on their own), etc.
Although there's an extra cost to accepting credit cards (charge-backs and the percentage charged by the card issuer) and checks (bad checks), there are legitimate business reasons why you would refuse to accept coins and currency.
Methinks.
Really. Because some guy in Illinois sent them pennies?
Dope.
>>Yes, they can. Bills are "legal tender" and must be accepted
>>in any denomination (if you accept cash at all), but coins,
>>while they have value, are not "legal tender".
Coins are legal tender according to the United States Coinage Act of 1965.
"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. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts."
If you have a different reference in federal code please provide it.
Some years ago, a guy tried to pay a lawyer in pennies and the lawyer sued the guy. In appeals, a Federal District Court ruled that the pennies were not Legal Tender.
send the check
as long as the account is legit and all the routing/banking info is correct,
you can write a check on a brick or a watermelon or an anvil... or....
The format of checks is controlled by the Uniform Commercial Code of each state. It's true that you can write a check on a brick or a watermelon, but the intended recipient is not obligated to accept it.
He lives in a FROG on the Gore estate, it's his share of the electric bill.
Is it against the law to pay a ticket in pennies?
There are. My daughter and her family live in Illinois. Their bill didn't go up 200%, but it did go up about 125%.
Businesses (and government, especially, for that matter) are obligated to take cash *for debts*. A business is perfectly free to define what they deem acceptable for *payment*, however. Wampum, sea-shells, old Reader's Digest, whatever.
This guy *owes* them $526 bucks, so he is free to pay cash. I'm NOT advocating what this guy is doing, just pointing out the difference.
I don't think it is against the law to pay a ticket with pennies.
>>>This guy *owes* them $526 bucks, so he is free to pay cash.
True, but, as has been plainly demonstrated elsewhere in this thread, the business is free to refuse to accept is cash payment in the form of pennies, or, if they do accept, they are within their rights to recoup the added costs of accepting and processing the payment in pennies.
Many companies also charge a non-standard check processing fee.
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