I don't have anything against a business taking credit/debit cards or not taking them. I just see it wrong to force a company to take credit & debit cards. Unless the city is willing to pay for all the cost associated with taking credit & debit cards.

I just don't get it. As Greg states, the government should keep their noses out of private enterprise as much as possible, and not force anyone's hand. Also, this seems to be a 180 degree turn to what Lame Duck Duffy's thoughts were when all those rich suburbanites had their cars towed during the Jazz Fest. This will just make it easier for the towing companies to extract "rent" from those who had their cars towed.

I thought the point of Duffy's campaign on this point was to do something about the predatory and "devious" practices of the towing companies, not make it easier for them to get paid!

Also, not to be too nit-picky, but the title of this article had me scratching my head for a few seconds - it might be clearer if it were titled "Towing companies to accept payment by credit, debit cards". Ok, I'm stepping off my soap box now, thanks for listening.

I also did several double takes over the "towers". I searched in vain for a dictionary that approved of this usage to refer to tow trucks....

As someone who's been stuck in the middle of some pretty "iffy" neighborhoods in the dead of night with a dead car, I wholeheartedly endorse this. It's about public safety, and the government has a perfect right to legislate conditions that impact public safety.

I rarely carry more than $10-$20 cash on me both for safety and for money-management reasons. (Debit cards are great for keeping track of your expenses if you use the right software.) I have insurance coverage for the tow, but I have to submit the receipt (at about $2/mo it's a heck of a lot less than AAA).

Very few people carry much cash for the very same reasons.

Any tow these days will be a minimum of $65.

As for the cost: the percentage charged by the credit/debit company isn't anywhere near so much as what is lost when someone picks a tow company that takes credit cards over one that doesn't.

And about predatory "towers" - There are a couple of ways this could work in favor of the car owner. If anything it could give the car owners more power - they can pay by credit card (not debit) and then file a dispute with their credit card company over the charge. Also, if a company has towed your car over illegal parking and they only accept cash - if you don't have the cash, they can charge you for storage costs until you can come up with the paper money. So come again on that "rent" thing?