“Isnt It Illegal Not to Accept Cash?” — Woman With Cash Stuck in Garage That Only Takes Card

A woman who parked her vehicle in a pay-to-use garage was stuck when trying to leave: that's because the business didn't accept cash as a payment option.

Marina (@elvislover1973) recorded herself at her wit's end in a viral TikTok video where she documented her journey to eventually freeing herself from the cashless garage.

"I'm stuck in this parking garage because I don't have a card, I just have this $5 bill so I'm gonna have to ask this person behind me if I can use their card and give them $5," she says nervously into the camera.

The video then cuts to her getting out of her vehicle and looking in the distance with a disappointed expression on her face. "Oh my God they left," she says. Her clip then snaps back to her standing in front of a loudspeaker where she is conversing with an employee of the parking garage.

A voice on the other line tells her that the business doesn't accept cash. "OK so how do I get out?" she asks, since she doesn't have a card and only cash to pay to exit the area.

"Give me one second," a person on the other end of the helpline can be heard stating.

"Thank you," she says to the employee before another smash cut in the video shows her speaking to what is presumably another employee of the garage. "Yes my name is Marina Jones...do you need my license plate?" she asks the person on the other end of the call.

She goes on to spell out her last name to the employee on the other end of the line. After a bit more back-and-forth, the worker can be heard saying that he's going to allow Marina to pass through the barricade and out of the garage.

The look of relief on her face is apparent, she whispers "thank you" as she signs and gets back into her vehicle as the video comes to a close.

While it might seem kind of crazy that there are businesses out there that don't accept cash as a legal form of payment, according to the Federal Reserve, there are no laws that prevent them from doing so.

According to the Fed's website, "There is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that says otherwise."

However, there are some instances in which cash must be accepted as legal tender, and the Federal Reserve says that cash can be used in order to pay off "debts when tendered to a creditor."

And according to Stateline, there are indeed parts of the United States that must accept cash from customers. So if you walk into a car dealership with a briefcase full of cash that you want to use when purchasing a vehicle, then you'll be able to do so, even if they seem reluctant to let you do just that.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, tons of businesses that didn't want to touch cash as a matter of cleanliness rubbed Colorado State Representative Alex Valdez the wrong way. This influenced Valdez to introduce a bill that would necessitate companies take cash from customers as viable legal tender under any and all circumstances.

While Massachusetts has stipulated since 1978 that all companies needed to accept cash as a form of payment, four other states have recently joined the fold: New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

However, there is legislation in other parts of the country pushing lawmakers towards fully embracing no-cash-denial legislation.

While Marina was fortunate enough to have an employee of the garage let her out of there without issue, if she had parked in a state that adhered to these cash-acceptance laws, then she would've been able to pay with physical legal tender.

Either that or she could've possibly had a case on her hands. Of course, she'd have had to document how getting locked up in a parking garage for a bit resulted in damages.

One TikToker who responded to her video shared a handy-dandy hack folks can use if they ever find themselves stuck inside of a parking garage.

"Walk to the thing and get another ticket and use that one to leave," they said. Usually, if you're parked inside of a garage for only a short amount of time, putting in the ticket with a timestamp that's only from a few minutes prior will allow you to leave the garage without having to pay anything."

Others said that they, too, found themselves in similar situations but didn't have as good of a fortune as Marina did: "I did that at college and had to get a $40 ticket," one penned.

Another remarked: "As an Apple Pay girly I understand."

Someone else said that they had to pay up in boredom after forgetting their ticket: "Lost a ticket for a parking lot at the beach and got a lecture from the man working the booth," they penned.