>>I don't think they're getting any float on the money. With credit card transaction fees around 3% and interest rates under 3% annually, I don't see how they could.
There's an issue with credit availability: small companies can fail if the lender pulls the plug, so businesses are desperate to reduce credit at almost any cost. Reducing AR is a good smart- maybe not as significant for small traders, but reducing AR by a few days is worth millions of $ for a healthcare provider.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
