It costs merchants time and money to process cash, too

It is inexplicable that in an article about merchants bemoaning credit card interchange fees, the cost to businesses of processing cash and check purchases is never discussed ("Fee to pay with credit card could be in offing," Aug. 14).

I worked in retail for many years, and I know that accepting cash or checks costs merchants time and money. There's the issue of counterfeit bills, mistakes in making change, employee pilfering and bad checks that can require the merchant's appearance in court as a consequence.

And that's not even counting all the employee hours spent in reconciling the sales receipts with the money in the till, counting all the cash, tallying the checks and then making a trip to the bank to deposit same.

I would be willing to bet that the true cost to a business of its cash or check transactions is at least equal to, if not greater, than paying the credit card fee.

Kathleen A. Roso, Catonsville