On Splitting The Bill (Part 3)

When it comes to splitting the bill, the issues are numerous. In previous posts I have discussed most of the issues that can arise. In a great many situations the bill will be shortchanged by one or more parties and the person that calculates what each person owes is usually the one with the lowest mathematical abilities. I will now conclude this topic by mentioning one final issue.

Let us assume that a group goes out to dinner. The bill arrives, the calculation is performed correctly, and each individual is ready to put in the proper amount (the chances of this are extremely slim, but we shall use this hypothetical example to illustrate that we still have not cleared all of the obstacles). Although it may seem like we have come to the end and nothing can go wrong at this point, this is not the case. We must always keep in mind that common sense has not been granted to everyone, and this creates problems.

A bill is given, each person is to pay a certain amount, and people begin taking out money. This is what should happen. But if you are with a large enough group, there is a great chance that this will not happen. It may be common sense to me that when going out to dinner with a large group, I should have money in order to pay. But not everyone has that mindset. Unfortunately, cash is not used as often nowadays. I have even witnessed individuals use a debit card for a purchase of less than a dollar. And people that fall into that trend often fail to bring actual tangible money.

Now we have a group of individuals handing over credit cards to be used in conjunction with the cash that was collected. Now the server is given insane instructions to take some cash, $50 on this card, $100 on this card, $40 on this card, et cetera. It is absolute mayhem! This confuses the servers, is a real hassle for those that have to run all of the cards, and delays everyone at the table.

And then in this scenario the tip becomes another problem. With everyone handing in different credit cards, no one had the foresight to go into the cash pile to remove the tip before handing it all to the server. Consequently, all of the cash was applied to the bill and a few credit cards were rung up for the amount indicated. Now someone has to place the tip on their credit card which was not charged the full amount (if we stick with our assumption that all parties paid what was expected).

Simply put, it is a hassle for everyone when someone pulls out a credit card when people are splitting the bill. It is always the same story with these people. They say "I just assumed that I would take the money and put the whole thing on my card." Well unfortunately for everyone, there happen to be more people with this mentality than there should be. So we have three or four credit cards now, with each person thinking they would be the only one to pull that stunt. Think again!

So the next time you go out to dinner with a group, follow these simple steps:

1.) Pay what you owe

2.) Let the person that actually can calculate be the one to calculate

3.)For the sake of convenience and simplicity, bring cash