Can a business legally refuse to take a payment of nothing but pennies?

Question

After watching those commercials where a guy tries paying in all pennies and the store clerk/restaurant waiter get mad over it. Can they legally refuse it as a payment? Like...if that's all you had, and you TRIED to pay...they cant say you refuse to pay your bill or something, right?

Answer 1

If a business refused to except legal tender currency of any kind, I would think this could legally be construed as the company is implying that you are not obligated to make the payment-their behavior indicates that they don't want it.  

Answer 2

not leagally bucus its a legal way of payment however some companies do it bucus they just dont like it

Answer 3

Yes, they don't have to take any form of payment they don't want. Of course, it would be fair to note to the customer they only take certain forms of payment. The forced value only applies to the government and treasury, not private businesses. They can take their payment in rice if they wanted.

It would be best for a business to take payment of coins than nothing at all, because even if the business sued you for non-payment of a bill, the fact that you offered currency in good faith and they refused would be enough to get the case dropped.

Answer 4

The normal policy that financial institutions go by is the coins must be rolled and identified with the presenters name, address and phone number. A bank that does not have a coin counter will not accept coins for deposit unless they are rolled and marked. I have owned and operated my own companies for 35 years and have come across this several times, each time we told the customer the coins must be rolled and marked. We have never had a problem.  

Answer 5

They can try, beacuse it is a bother... but legally, no, pennies are legal tender just as dollar bills.  

Answer 6

Pennies are legal tender and perfectly legal.  You see alot of old-timers using the change option, which is perfectly fine.  However, most companies require the coins be 'rolled'.  Hope this helps!

Answer 7

legally they can't refuse any US tender except checks or credits cards in some cases.  They can however have you count out each and every penny and refuse to accept them wrapped just to verify that those are actually pennies. Depends on how much you are paying, you will be counting for a long time. If anyone ever does it for real please post a video on youtube. LOL

Answer 8

I don't see how it's legal to refuse it. It's still U.S. currency. It's just a pain to count.

Many small convenient stores say that they won't accept large bills, but I'm not sure if that's legal either..

Answer 9

A privately owned buisness can refuse any type of payment they want.  They can also refuse to do business with anyone they want just as long as does not violate  civil rights.

Answer 10

Yes, any trader may refuse to accept payments offered in unreasonably small or large denominations. It is unreasonable to offer 1000 pennies as payment, rather than a £10 note, or two £5s, or even 10x£1 coins.

It is also unreasonable to offer a £20 or £50 for something priced in pennies.

They are quite within their rights to ask you to go and exchange it for something sensible and come back.

Stop being awkward.

In English civil law, the concept is known as "invitation to treat" - that is to say that where goods or services are for sale, eg goods in a shop window, the shop is not deemed to be offering them for sale, but is rather inviting consumers to offer to buy them, leaving the trader free to accept or reject the offer. The reason for this is the legal rights differ for each party, depending who was the offeror (the one making the offer) and who was the offeree (the one accepting the offer).

Thus you may offer to give a bus driver or taxi driver a £50 note for a £2 fare, and he may reject that method of payment. You may offer a sweetshop £50 for £0.20 worth of sweets, but they may refuse the transaction. You can offer 1000 pennies rather than a £10, but they may refuse it, because the customer is the one legally making the offer, and offers are there to be accepted or rejected.

It is also for this reason that things such as vending machines don't have to accept bank notes, even though a legal contract exists where you purchase from a machine.