How often are $100 bills actually received or used?

32 comments

1. It’s been about a decade since my last cashiering job but, anecdotally, at my busy grocery store the most common bills in order were 20s, 1s, 5s, and then probably 100s and 10s were about equal. By far 50s were the least common, except for 2s.

2. the most out of all of them especially as we become a more cashless society. bills are printed based on usage not how much money there is in existence. So they keep track of how popular each bill and coin is, so they know how much to print next year. For example the $2 bill briefly stopped being printed in the 60’s but they brought it back as people started claiming they were lucky

   https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/coin_currcircvolume.htm

3. In Vegas? Constantly.

   Everywhere else? Who uses cash anymore?

4. I can get them from my bank’s ATM any time I wish, although I prefer fifties.

5. I wouldn’t say Americans use them that often, unless they’re making a big cash purchase, but they’re very widely accepted. If you’re visiting the US and trying to use ones from a currency exchange or whatever, you’ll have no issue.

   It’s not at all like £50 notes here in the UK which a lot of businesses don’t want to accept.

6. In everyday life at businesses? Almost never.

   My bank ATM allows 5s, 20s, and 100s to be withdrawn, and sometimes my dad (who uses the same bank) will withdraw 100s for ease to pay the mortgage.

   Personally I use cash mostly for gas and sometimes for small purchases when I don’t want to use my credit card.

7. You see them but not often.

   It’s not like a thing that nobody has ever seen, but you might go weeks/months without seeing one unless you work in a bank or cash heavy business.

8. I haven’t used cash in years. I only carry a $20 bill in my wallet.

9. If I’m traveling, I’ll go to an atm that dispenses them so that I can have a decent amount of cash on hand without making my wallet too thick.
   Otherwise, only for buying large amounts of pot.

10. When I worked at a gas station I would get a $100 about once a week. Mostly $20s, $10s, and $5s though.

11. I’ve gotten them as gifts. Usually spend them somewhere like a grocery store because not everywhere has enough change.

12. Once every year or so.

13. My parents usually give me a few $100 bills as a gift. I like them because I tend to spend them slower than $20s.

    I also give $100 bills as gifts for wedding and my housekeeper’s Christmas gift

14. I only see them when they’re fresh from an ATM and someone’s paying me for a Craigslist something, and not too often ($20s are preferred)

    $50 is a rarer breed as they aren’t generally ATM issued.

15. I would say that they are pretty common.

    I frequently will take cash out after a paycheck, and select bills, choosing one $100 bill. It’s my usual for paying for a large grocery trip, or a tank of gas, both of which are going to be about $60-70, giving another $30-40 in change.

16. All my friends in retail say the boomers love 100s.

17. I’m a cashier, people pay with $100s every day to the point that it gets pretty annoying since our drawers only start with $100 every day.

18. Some businesses won’t accept $50s and $100s due to concerns about fraud. You get burned once and some business owners just don’t want the risk.

19. I am a bank teller and give out a lot of 100s every day

20. So I work in armored cash transport, while I don’t get a close look at what’s inside deposit bags that I pick up, I do frequently see them from cash machines that I service. Bitcoin machines especially, I always see a ton of 50s and 100 bills in bitcoin machines. I also do regularly see them inside the cash machines at large truck stops. Also some restaurants use G4S cash machines and every once in awhile I’ll spot a $100 bill somewhere inside the stack of cash I’m pulling out.

21. Well, it’s not like… *shocking* for someone to pay with a $100 bill, but a lot of places will refuse them because they don’t have enough on hand/in the register to give change.

22. Pretty common to receive $100’s in a casino if you win over that unless you specify $20’s to the cashier. I rarely ever spend $100’s unless I plan on buying something over $100 and happen to have one on me at the time, instead I just take them to the bank (or my parent’s) and trade them for some $20’s.

23. I work for an urgent care that has a location in a neighborhood where a lot of cops live. I would usually get a few a week working there.

24. People loved to use Starbucks as a bank to break their $100 bills

    Then would get pissed when they got all 5’s and 1’s back because we didn’t have enough in the register

25. They’re common enough, but most of America has shifted heavily towards plastic.
    Any bank will happily give you 100s if you are withdrawing large sums of cash, but generally speaking few of us carry that much cash (lost cash is gone & you’re just screwed, lost card is cancelled and an inconvenience)

26. Received?

    Birthdays and holidays. Right now I get a holiday bonus from work and that comes in $100s, but other than that, I seldom have them.

27. I worked at a credit union less than 10 years ago and you’d be surprised how many people came in on a weekly basis and took out anywhere from $500 to $2000 in cash. Or people who would cash checks for similar amounts. Presumably they were using this cash to pay bills. So $100s are more common than you’d think, although I’m sure their use has declined steadily.

28. Not very often. My dad used to give me a $100 bill every year for Christmas. I used to use it for groceries, but as the years went on it felt like the cashiers got more and more annoyed by it lol. So I started depositing it in my bank account.

29. When I worked at CVS and AMC I’d see $50 and $100 bills at least a few times a week.

    As for how often I’ve received those, it’s most often for special occasions *eg* birthdays or extenuating circumstances *eg* registering a gifted vehicle.

30. It depends on the price of the item(s) being bought.

    I work at an auto parts store and we get paid with 100s pretty often. Some customers don’t seem to carry smaller bills. I think some of them think it’s some kind of flex.

31. Not too often. Personally, a lot of contractors around here will give a discount for paying in cash. When I had some landscaping done last spring, I handed the guy a white envelope with about 20 $100 bills in it.

32. My credit union ATM wants me to take them all the time. I use them if I’m going to Target or the grocery store and I know I’m going to spend a couple hundred dollars.