Mount Rainier National Park plus others to go cashless on entry fee and camping

[cbabe]

https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/state/article273096890.html

Mount Rainier National Park to go cashless on entry fee and camping, but not concessions

BY JARED GENDRON
UPDATED MARCH 14, 2023 1:02 PM

Beginning May 26, Mount Rainier National Park will only accept digital payments for entry and campground fees, according to an announcement last week. Cash will still be accepted for concession-run businesses inside the park like bookstores and restaurants.

Other national parks have also started to move away from cash payments. Earlier this year, South Dakota Badlands National Park and Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park both switched to a cashless system. Devil’s Tower National Monument also stopped accepting cash in April 2022.

Those who can pay only with cash can purchase pre-paid passes with ticket sellers outside the park before visiting Mount Rainier, although the park service has yet to identify external partners who will sell them. More information will be shared once it’s available on the park’s fees and passes webpage.

…more…

(Need a credit card to visit our parks? I find this objectionable on several levels and a barrier to many: credit cards cost money so this shuts out poorer folk, credit cards are tracked so this shuts out privacy lovers, concession money makers still accept cash, etc. Did I miss the public hearings? Can this be appealed?)

[Akacia]

1. This is so irritating.

[jimfields33]

7. They have cards you can buy right there and use. Nobody is shut out.

[newdayneeded]

2. Well this is horrible news!

And especially on this day where I already walked out of 2 grocery stores because they had evil self checkouts. So I hopped into my 1983 sedan and left. I'm staying with the 1983 because I don't want any of that new fangled fuel injection crap!!1!1! And don't get me started on ATMs!!1!

[maxsolomon]

4. LOL, you tell em

Just because they HAVE self-checkout doesn't mean you have to use it.

[maxsolomon]

3. Cash or no cash, you can't get into Rainier on a weekend.

I've waited an hour at Paradise, and gave up at Sunrise last summer. God help you if you have reservations at a lodge.

Those are 2 of the 3 fee points.

[LisaM]

5. I hate this.

My last trip to a baseball game was ruined by the cashless experience. Download an app for this! Download an app for that!

I both pity and resent the generations who think this is fine. Pity because they have to drag a phone and card everywhere and are tied down by that. Resent them because they refuse to see any downside in how this mars experience and are forcing everyone into their ways.

And, what about when the card reader go down? I have seen that happen places. What if some right-wing assholes shoot out the power source?

[cbabe]

6. Kick up some dust: contact nps, Deb Haaland, senators, reps, etc. Thanks.

[tazkcmo]

8. Free debit cards.

Free checking accounts abound. They come with a debit card. Or you can buy a prepaid card before you go.

[cbabe]

10. Yes, if wanted badly enough one can usually find a squirmy

work around. But as my friendly neighborhood bank teller says: what’s wrong with cash? It says legal tender right on it.

Plus the unbanked:

https://www.npr.org › 2021 › 04 › 05 › 984475870 › unbanked-what-it-means-to-be-outside-of-the-banking-system

Unbanked: What It Means To Be Outside Of The Banking System

Apr 5, 2021Approximately 63 million Americans are either unbanked or underbanked, according to a report by the Federal Reserve. That means they don't use banks to make financial transactions like cashing ...

[tazkcmo]

13. Just learned something.

Checking accounts are squirmy work around. Whodda thunk? All this time I thought it to be very common place to have a checking account.

[cbabe]

14. Workaround reference to pay as you go cards. Checking accounts are

not perfectly common:

https://www.npr.org › 2021 › 04 › 05 › 984475870 › unbanked-what-it-means-to-be-outside-of-the-banking-system

Unbanked: What It Means To Be Outside Of The Banking System

Apr 5, 2021Approximately 63 million Americans are either unbanked or underbanked, according to a report by the Federal Reserve. That means they don't use banks to make financial transactions like cashing ...

(Feel free to disregard my poetic squirmy if it’s distressful.)

[Bayard]

9. I refuse to download most apps

Don't want unknown crap on my computer or phone. I also refuse to use self-checkout.

[Chakaconcarne]

11. Cash is a burden for the parks.... has to physically be transferred, can get stolen, etc....

Make sense... most people carry cards.

I hate needing to have exact cash to pay for campsites.... $17/night, but only have a $20.... Awesome.

Traveling through NA, I had to periodically go inside a bank to get small bills in addition to the stink eye I got from the tellers....

[cbabe]

12. And how much are credit cards making off this?