The Folly of Using a Debit Card

[haulingthescoreup]

lol, it took me a month to get the powdered sugar out of my purse after Cafe du Monde!

If you have time in the morning, you might try Mother's on Poydras at Tchop Street. They open pretty early (6:30 or 7, I think), and it's like Acme and Cafe du Monde --a must-see. Or must-eat, I suppose. They're famous for their po' boys, but they do serve regular breakfast. Lots of locals, not just tourists like us. Know what you want before you get to the ordering area, lol.

Anyway, have a safe trip back home!

[Math_Rocks]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
lol, it took me a month to get the powdered sugar out of my purse after Cafe du Monde!

If you have time in the morning, you might try Mother's on Poydras at Tchop Street. They open pretty early (6:30 or 7, I think), and it's like Acme and Cafe du Monde --a must-see. Or must-eat, I suppose. They're famous for their po' boys, but they do serve regular breakfast. Lots of locals, not just tourists like us. Know what you want before you get to the ordering area, lol.

Anyway, have a safe trip back home!

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I was in New Orleans for a conference & interviews just two years ago. Despite not liking seafood, I thought I'd do fine because of my fondness for red beans & rice. However, I never found a good place and my buddy, who loves seafood, kept ordering things with unidentifiable crustacean parts hanging out! Sounds like you're the person to ask if I ever go back!

The highlight for me was Cafe du Monde and, yes, everything of mine had powdered sugar in it!

[llecs]

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haulingthescoreup wrote:
If you have time in the morning, you might try Mother's on Poydras at Tchop Street. They open pretty early (6:30 or 7, I think), and it's like Acme and Cafe du Monde --a must-see. Or must-eat, I suppose. They're famous for their po' boys, but they do serve regular breakfast. Lots of locals, not just tourists like us. Know what you want before you get to the ordering area, lol.

Anyway, have a safe trip back home!

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Thanks. We'll try that in the morning.....Looks like they open at 7am.

[cobaltnv]

I have to agree with HTSU. Mother's is great. I go to New Orleans every couple of years and I always make sure to hit Mother's once or twice.

Enjoy! 

[llecs]

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llecs wrote:

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haulingthescoreup wrote:
If you have time in the morning, you might try Mother's on Poydras at Tchop Street. They open pretty early (6:30 or 7, I think), and it's like Acme and Cafe du Monde --a must-see. Or must-eat, I suppose. They're famous for their po' boys, but they do serve regular breakfast. Lots of locals, not just tourists like us. Know what you want before you get to the ordering area, lol.

Anyway, have a safe trip back home!

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Thanks. We'll try that in the morning.....Looks like they open at 7am.

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Unfortunately we didn't make it to Mother's. We had planned to eat there, but got off to a later start and asked a couple folks who said there's always a long wait. We also planned to drive near there and take off from there, but the Saints game was that afternoon and there was over an hour wait to retreive our car. So, our fallback was Cafe du Monde again via a walk and we hit a restaurant along the way (crummy food . They served the wrong dish to DW. Not knowing, DW took a bite and then they took it away. After 10 minutes, they handed the exact same plate to the couple behind us for their order. We know this because they complained it was cold and DW told them that it could have been hers. She described in detail the bite and that customer left, the one next to them overheard and they left.....if this is any indication....)

[haulingthescoreup]

lol, consumers strike back!

We never managed to leave anywhere on time when our kids were little. Now that I think about it, we don't do very well now, either!

[llecs]

This past weekend we stayed at a Sheraton Four Seasons in Greensboro, NC. We stayed there dozens of times before but over the past few stays, we noticed that quality was dropping a little bit.

I go to check in and ask for an upgrade to a suite. We had the kids with us and a babysitter and needed more than the two beds. A bigger room was available and we snatched it. We paid with cash again but this time they insisted on a CC. Due to our past month's travel, a CC to secure the room was fine by us. However, they said there would be a $250 deposit on the CC which was more than half of our 2-night stay. I declined the charge and said I will pay cash only. They went onto explain that I would still have to fork over $250. So, I reluctantly gave them $250 in cash for the deposit.

Upon checking out I asked for a manager. I beleive the GM (or designate) showed up and I inquired as to why we had to pay a deposit. He explained that they recently changed their policy to require deposits of $100 per room and $250 per suite, regardless of length of stay, to cover any charges to the room. I told him that I used a CC to secure the room when I reserved it and asked why they'd need a deposit if they had my CC on file. He said that a good number of guests in recent months were reserving the room with a low limit or maxed out CC. After checking in these guest would then charge everything to the room (meals, food, drinks, personal items, etc.) and the hotel was unable to get $$$ from the guests to cover the charges as they checked out. In turn, they hired CAs to pursue these losses, but had little luck in collecting. So they felt that a deposit requirement was the only option.

Now the case for CA$H: had I given a CC or told them to charge the deposit to the CC on file, and using what they later said, they would hold the funds for 5 days via an authorization. However, cash was returned promptly on Sunday morning when we were checking out and there was no hold on any CC. BTW, this Sheraton initiated the deposit requirement independently from Sheraton Corp.

[Anonymous]

Another good thing about credit is the obvious and thats not having to carry so much cash on hand.

Have you ever tried using travleres cheques? People rarely use those anymore. I wonder if they would just take the cheques and give them back when you check out?