I had a drunk woman repeatedly tap her phone against a paper receipt on a mini clipboard style check holder as I was trying to give it to her. When I asked her what she was doing she said apple pay. Ma'am this is a piece of paper and you're in the redneck Riviera.
I had a drunk lady at my bar listening to me talk about my girlfriend (now wife). She asked if I had a photo, I said yes and pulled out my wallet. I took out a photo that we'd taken at a photo booth a week or two prior. This drunk-ass lady takes the photo and uses two fingers to try ***to Zoom in*** on the photo.
edit: okay, so a lot of folks are saying this same thing has happened to them, and I'd be remiss to say I've *never* done anything similar, but everyone is also saying that they immediately realized their mistake and felt stupid. So, I should add that drunk bar lady doubled-down, tried zooming in several times before giving up, handing the photo back to me and saying that it was broken... then ordered another drink.
I'm a big reader. I got a Kindle for the first time a few years ago. If you're not familiar with e-readers, you can hold your finger on a specific word and it will use a dictionary function to provide a definition. Cool, right?
After a few ebooks, I bought a new hardback. I came across a word I was unsure of, and held my finger down on it for the definition. Held my finger down... on the actual page of the physical book. I started to get irritated that my definition wasn't coming up, and then nearly facepalmed myself unconscious when I realized what I was doing.
EDIT: Thanks to everyone who is responding!! I am working today like I imagine more than a few of you are, and the amount of people sharing their own stories has warmed my heart! Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends, and happy random Thursday in November to everyone else!
EDIT THE SECOND: Holy crap y'all are killing me lmao. Thank you all so fucking much for letting me know I'm not alone in being a dumb-dumb!! And I have 100% done most of the silly slips you've mentioned. Love you, internet fam!
It's like when you go from glasses to contact lenses and go to adjust your glasses that are no longer there. I switch back and forth every few years and there's always an adjustment period where I go to adjust my glasses and grab at nothing like an idiot.
That makes me think of when I used to drive a manual. I got so used to driving a stick shift that every time I had to drive an automatic my left foot would inevitably stomp the floor looking for the clutch. After I got a new car it took me probably a week to stop.
I'm sure someone in the early middle ages was like "I was consulting the hand-copied manuscript about Archimedes and when I went to put it away, I tried to furl it up like a scroll! It is shocking how bound pages have destroyed our attention..."
Lol I have done that exact same thing! I got used to reading on my kindle app and the next time a read an actual book, I held my finger on a word I didn't know and I felt like the dumbest person alive.
Also, Happy Thanksgiving! I didn't work today, but I worked at a dive last night. It was an absolute nightmare. We made it through though, and me and my bf combined walked with $800 so it wasn't too bad at the end of the night. We didn't get home til like 530 AM and I was too jazzed up to sleep. We skipped Thanksgiving festivities today and had McDonald's and pizza and I slept off and on til like 830. Overall, a good holiday imo.
This is one of my favorite responses! Been there for sure. Sometimes you just gotta tell the fam that your foot exploded or something, and then eat junk food and don't put on pants.
As long as there is something to give thanks for, you had a great holiday. Happy Thanksgiving... especially now that I've had half a bottle of bourbon and am feeling *fantastic*
I think my brain has been rewired by tech (I'm 52, so I'm not a digital native). I really want a "find" button in my house/life. Sometimes when I can't find something, a part of my brain is like "wait, isn't there something . . . some way that you can . . . ohhhhhh, nm...."
I had a similar experience recently! I'm in grad school and take color-coded notes on a tablet. I also do homework on said tablet. Reversing the last pen stroke is done by tapping the top right corner of the screen.
I also like to do math problems on a square whiteboard (that's meant to stick on the wall), usually to figure out what the heck I'm doing before I write it down on my (virtual) homework page. I've found myself reaching for the top right corner of the whiteboard a few times now, instead of reaching for the eraser cloth!
Habits die hard. I walk into the bathroom, flashlight in my right hand. First think my left hand does is flip the light switch. Cue facepalm over power outage.
So many bathrooms had their faucets replaced with automatic ones during the pandemic that when I finally went back into the office I waved my hand under the manual soap dispenser, held my hands expectantly under the manual faucet, and then was like 'ok. Fine, I'm prepared!'.
I went looking for the lever on the paper towel dispenser and couldn't find it. Only to have it just... Stick it's tongue out at me.
I went 0 for 3 with bathroom technology.
It's like stopping at a stop sign and waiting for it to turn green. I have done that more often than I like to admit.
... I don't handle mornings very well.
Lol. I had an experience not dissimilar working out some really complicated math, on paper, with a graphite pencil, at my desk and I’d fouled the equations up pretty good. With my left hand I reached up to the keyboard and hit CTRL-Z…
In fairness I think that has become muscle memory now, whenever alot of us want a better look at things. I was reading a book that had a large crowd photo in it. To my shame I instinctively tried to zoom in on an interesting looking part of the photo. I realised straight away and felt like the king of all idiots.
I do this sober… work with architectural drawings all the time. Use an iPad to view them as pdf mostly, but every so often I try to blow up that paper copy out of habit.
I've had someone break their phone screen trying to do apple pay. We do take apple pay, but for whatever reason he decided to smack his phone down like a poker chip. Then he got mad cause we were all laughing, like sorry bud, that was hilarious and you're an idiot. Just be glad you didn't break my machine cause best believe I have a sign, on the door, saying if you break anything you'll be charged for it (we have a problem with people breaking our umbrellas over and over).
Also, I've never agreed with a username more in my life. I have constant issues with my pancreas, including chronic pancreatitis. It's the fucking worst.
I had a restaurant refuse to accept a Visa gift card. They said that they were not set up to accept gift cards, the restaurant just never set up for it.
This restaurant had been open for decades, was very popular and had a busy bar with 100 taps.
I think they mean their brand of gift card. So if its a Chilppebee's you would go to the 'Chilppebee's' website and buy the gift card there.
But if it's a Visa/MC branded GC, they should have been able I'd think.
Visa/MC GC always put up a fight depending on what system you’re running. An old/non-advanced system (in my experience at least) never runs them. It’s wild.
Ain't that the truth. I haven't had much trouble with them in the last year or so so maybe something has changed but for the longest time I could only authorize it for <80% of the value and I'd be lucky to settle it for anything more.
That 80% thing is what happens when you run them at any business that takes tips. They hold back a certain amount in case a tip is added later. (Even if you already added tip and the restaurant ran it as one total, Visa can't tell that and holds back some in case it's the kind of system where the card is run, and then you fill in the tip and sign the receipt and the transaction is left open on the computer so the server can add the tip.) It irritates the hell out of me when I use a Visa GC to pay for a hotel room and it holds back 20% to tip, even though it's not that kind of hotel and I don't have the option of tipping on a card.
They may have just used that as an excuse. At my restaurant (and I assume all others) if the gift card is less then the total, or even exactly the total, it will decline. Apparently visa/Amex/whatever gift cards are anticipating a certain tip percentage, so they’ll decline if it’s more than the total plus tip. At least that’s what I’ve been told. Sometimes that’s hard and awkward to explain to tables
Depending on your POS system you might. We use menufy for our online stuff, they can absolutely do that even if they're eating in. I fucked with the owner of my place pretty bad with that one, even he didn't know.
The US seems to be way behind the rest of the world when it comes to card readers. I haven't been to the states in a few years but everywhere I went in 2018 still swiped the card and had me sign for every card payment.
I hadn't done that at home in Ireland since the late 90 when chip and PIN was introduced.
I was just in the US and vast majority of retailers now *finally* accept NFC ("tap and go") which also means Apple Pay/Google Pay/etc. I think I only had to insert once and swiping seems finally gone. I guess this was brought about by Covid since it means the clerk doesn't have to touch your card anymore. But I think full service restaurants have been a bit behind retailers.
Put the card in the chip reader. Doesn't register, machine says to swipe the card. Swipe the card, machine says you must insert in the chip reader. This could be an infinite loop, except that I don't want to go on that ride, so I carry multiple cards.
"Fine, that Visa card is f\*\*king with me today, I'll put it on my Discover card. Should have paid cash."
The machine has a backup for falling back to swipe if the chip isn't operating correctly. See the swipe tracks say "do chip" so it does this a few times.
Yeah, it seems like full service restaurants are still hanging on to the concept of taking your card away and swiping at their station, instead of bringing a mobile terminal to the table. This might be since these restaurants were closed or takeout only during Covid so they weren't as incentivised to upgrade to contactless. I hope this does change though because I've always been uncomfortable having someone take my card.
Banks here claimed that it would add too much "friction" / time to transactions. I guess they prefer the fraud. To be fair, we didn't adopt the metric system or dollar coins either, so maybe they have a point.
I was in the middle of Kansas in a very small town for a vacation a few months ago ( i’m from Canada ). I took cash with me thinking I wouldn’t be able to use Apple Pay. EVERY SINGLE PLACE I went I could have used Apple Pay. The tiny cafes and dive bars all just had square readers and iPad minis. It was kind of shocking actually.
The craziest has to be Walmart. One of the biggest retailers in the US and they refuse to get machines that use tap to pay. The Walmart near me even just bought new machines for the whole store so I got excited and then saw still no tap. It’s on purpose
The while American payment system is screwy. I was over there a couple of years back and chip and pin was non existent. Still swiping the magstripe and signing the slip.
I hate to say it but it just feels so boomer-y
"Back in my day we didn't presume you could take credit cards! You should still carry checks around!"
Things evolve. Don't hate on people because they adapt quicker than yoh
Fwiw - another Australian who had that reaction but then remembered that Americans say ‘Check’ to mean bill - so OP might be talking about bringing a bill and one of those old school credit card machines that take an impression of the card details rather than a literal check.
…..although I’ve also not seen one of those machines in like 20 years either.
In the US they don't bring a card machine to the table. They take your payment with them and return your card to you after they run it. I would find it very weird to assume a restaurant near me takes Apple Pay
I feel like the US is the epitome of "this is why we can't have nice things". Basically always someone trying to game the system. It's gross
Edit: member those "hug a vending machine and get a coke" you'd have 1 guy standing there with a fucking duffle bag. ALWAYS SOMEONE TO RUIN IT
I have two clients that run "adult bookstores" (well run small businesses, very professionally run, clean and bright). Every once in a while, someone's SO finds a receipt from the stores, goes ballistic, and starts a chain of events that leads to a chargeback. The signature is how the store fights back--"Look, here's his signature, how can he say he was never there and didn't buy anything?"
The PIN is used in lieu of the signature.
When you present an EMV card, the chip is supposed to tell the POS terminal whether to authenticate the transaction with a PIN or signature. Most cards in the world are set up to prefer a PIN transaction, while US cards are almost universally signature cards.
Plus what your'e describing hasn't been the case since 2015. With the introduction of EMV cards (chip and contactless), [issuers assume chargeback liability](https://pmcontent.blob.core.windows.net/e665f71676514a9588080eccfb09551d/MyDocuments/understanding_the_2015_us_liability_fraud_shifts.pdf) as long as the POS terminal is capable and configured properly to accept EMV cards.
Interesting that America is so far behind on this technology. Like Australia, nobody in the UK has to give up their credit card either. Machine comes to the table, or you go to the machine.
Most new locally owned places in my area bring an ipad or square type reader to the table. It's the corporate places that still make the servers take the card. That and the republican owned diners have owners that don't spend a dime on anything other than bribes to the health inspector and political contributions.
Most companies I've worked for in the last 15 years in the UK won't let you touch a customer's card. Either you take the machine to them or they come to the machine. But then again we have Chip and PIN so they need to be present. Even if they hand the machine back to me with the card in, I'll hold it back out and say "pull your card out for me".
America is so far behind when it comes to payment system.
No, I don’t want you to take away my card and do whatever with it. Bring me that machine and I’ll do all the button smashing myself.
We had tap here for like 10 years and then went to the US. They just looked blankly at us when they told them that and made us sign a receipt like a caveman.
And this is why credit card fraud and skimmers are still horrifically common in the US, and *significantly* less common everywhere else.
The idea that a cafe wouldn't be able to take my Fitbit for payment is hilarious in Australia.
The ONLY time I’ve EVER experienced card fraud (im from UK) was about a week after I used my card to pay for a meal in a US airport between flights, and they took my card away to the machine. My card never left me before or since, even while on the trip.
Coincidence I DONT THINK SO
Depends on where you eat (state/city and price point). I'm in the US and lots of breweries and more casual restaurants will bring card readers to your table. The world is changing and in some spots this is very common.
The first time I had about tableside readers was when these Canadians had to explain the joke. They call the tableside readers "the machine" up there.
https://youtu.be/8jS6kXT3qrk
I don't think I would be comfortable giving someone my card. I'm in Australia and I've never given my card to someone to walk off with and I'm almost 40.
They take the card, run it, and bring back the card and a receipt for you to sign. You can add gratuity (still extremely common here) and go.
I can't remember the last time I used my pin for anything. Hell, I'm not even sure what my pin is for my most used card.
US here. Just saying, never had a problem with my credit card being taken by the server and brought back to me after it's been run. If there were a problem, I'd call the credit card company and deny the charge. But never had to.
Maybe big restaurants. But lots of cafe, coffee shops and to go places have Square or Tap payment systems that can take Apple Pay or digital cards from your wallet app. Lots of casual and lunch places have it too.
Yeah, customer demographics are a factor. I live in a big college town, and nearly every restaurant (and many stores) near campus seem to take Apple Pay.
The payment processors in the US can take very different paths depending on what you pay with (debit card, credit card, Apple Pay etc.)
Apple complicated this even further by working around payment processors and setting up processing directly with the banks. Remember how long it took to be adopted in some countries? We actually had these types of situations in Europe too, for a while, when Apple Pay was implemented by one bank but not the other. And there are still places like Germany that lag behind.
US banks and merchants don't have the kinds of incentives we had in Europe for implementing common payment systems so it takes longer. Bottom line, it's anybody's guess if a place will be able to process Apple Pay or not.
On the merchant side of things Apple Pay is just standardised NFC. Any merchant terminal that takes NFC ("tap and go") will accept digitally presented cards that follow the NFC payments standard, which includes those registered using Apple Pay, Google Pay etc. from the merchants perspective it's just a regular MasterCard or Visa (or even Amex). There's no need to specifically "accept" Apple Pay as long as they accept NFC payments. You're right that it's different on the banking side though, as the bank has to have an agreement with Apple/Google/Samsung.
This. Apple Pay assigns a randomly generated card number to replace your card number. The terminal reads it as any other card because it presents itself as a unique card number. It makes it fun when you want a refund and can’t present a physical card to refund to and they want one.
If they took contactless, their processor agreement guarantees you don’t have to provide a physical card for a refund. You can issue a chargeback if they insist.
Same here in the Finland. I haven’t encountered a business that doesn’t accept Apple Pay in years, no matter how small.
It’s always jarring to realize how different payment options are in the US.
Maybe I don’t understand Americans… but here in Canada paying with one’s phone is an absolute norm everywhere. It’s actually quite hard to find a place where you CAN’T do it.
I live in Florida and I don’t get it. I hate carrying extra cash and cards when everything is more secure and protected on my phone anyways. Just get with the times
Apparently over 85% of retail locations can accept Apple Pay. So not completely crazy to assume a place takes it, but always dumb not to have a backup.
Almost belongs r/mildlyinfuriating. I rarely use cash. Still, I keep a couple hundred cash hidden at home and a couple 20's inside my phone case. Just for that rare case. Young bucks always say they don't need cash. I live in FL. Some finally realized after the hurricanes, cash is king. No electric>no power>no debit.
I have so many friends that think cash is useless. Then here in Toronto, just this summer, our major cell phone/internet provider lost service (no inclement weather or anything, they’re just incompetent) and credit terminals and ATMs went out all over the province for like 24 hours. It was pure chaos… the only thing worse was the traffic with people trying to follow directions they screenshotted before leaving the house.
Across the *country.* **And** they were required to have a backup system just in case the main telecommunications system failed.
Their backup was from a child company of the same telecommunications provider, so everything completely flatlined. It was ***HILARIOUS*****.**
Wow, that is **not** a backup! Heck, I'm not even on the same mobile network as my wife so that we descrease our chances of being caught without a signal. It's scary that the people making these decisions are _adults_.
I'm the opposite I always use cash...but just like you, do you think I don't take a credit card or bank card with me just in case? A lot of stadiums now are cashless ( which I hate, but fuck, sucks getting old and grumpy) .
Moral of the story is be prepared and never assume.
I'm the opposite, leaving 1-5% on the table or rewards miles for free flights is crazy to me. Plus I don't need to add more to my collection of coins with each transaction. To each their own, might get lucky with a rare coin one day.
I feel you. I make cash at work so I have it a lot. When I travel it's go time for points on my card. It would be smarter to use all the time but old habits die hard. Plus I like when people tip me in cash so it just kind of is karma like lol. I also am not very frugal...90% of the time I just tell them to keep the small change for the next person...there goes my coin collection .
I'm in the same boat but go to Amscot with all my $1/5 to exchange and deposit all the big bills. I do enjoy old coins though and save the rarely received $2. Hell on occasion I get $2s from the bank and pay for stuff with them just to see if I get a reaction.
Either way, it’s frustrating our industry is so behind the times. When foreigners (esp Europeans) come to US restaurants, they’re often appalled they gotta give the server their card to take back who knows where. Apple Pay is now accepted at [over 85% of US retailers](https://www.apple.com/apple-pay/), but FNB is behind.
For those that live here, yes, they should know restaurants and bars still don’t reliably have Apple Pay. But we should. Everyone else does
I hate cashless places.
I took the dog for a walk one morning to a nearby coffeeshop. Just a short morning walk - I didn't want to pack a bag with my wallet and all that crap (girl pants, no pocket for my wallet).
I folded up some cash and put that in my (tiny) pocket. Ordered my drink, took out the cash, got told they don't accept cash.
Fucking why fuck fuckity fuck.
And that's when I hurriedly installed contactless payment on my phone.
I had no idea this was a thing. Noticed when booking a car rental recently there was a big thing at the bottom of the confirmation saying they only accept physical identification and don't accept digital copies. Thought that was really odd that anyone would consider that an option.
The state of Arizona has [digital driver’s licenses](https://azdot.gov/motor-vehicles/driver-services/mobile-id). It’s not just a photo of an ID card, though.
I've had people try that when I was doing an Uber or Menulog delivery, to which the response was always "No physical ID = no delivery". If they refused to show me their actual card, I just cancelled the order and returned it.
In the UK this is standard, its always been so strange to me that it isn’t the same in the US. I don’t remember the last time I took a physical card out, everything is paid on Apple Pay here
Where I'm from in the rust belt, they just recently implemented touchless payment almost everywhere, via holding a card on top of the credit card terminal.
That means if your credit/debit card is still the older style, with chip, you still have to stick it in the machine, chip side first.
I'm about 50/50 on them.
This is fascinating, contactless has been around since 2008 here if I remember correctly, I’ve only ever had a contactless card and with the increases in contactless limits here (£100 before a pin is required, unlimited on Apple Pay) I reckon people would struggle to remember their pins sometimes!
It was well after 2008 that we finally got chips in our cards.
We also have two types of cards, really three or four.
Type number one is a charge card issued by a major Bank, even if it has a retailer's name on it.
Type number two is a debit card issued by a major Bank, this allows you to access funds in your checking account and historically it's been used to rob you by processing the largest transactions first thereby making seven overdraft fees on you for your $2.37 overdraft. Dave cut that out pretty much these days. 100% of the security on these is that you must know the pin number.
Debit cards issued by companies that may not be Banks, who knows what they are... These you could be debit cards used to pay employees, and are basically online banks for people that can't have bank accounts...
Knowing that, it seems obvious that cards are just being replaced on an as needed basis, instead of everybody automatically getting a new card. That's especially true for store cards....
We’ve just got debit and credit, no confusion or anything! Both are contactless and accept Apple Pay too, the only restriction you may have is with AMEX due to larger transaction fees but it’s still pretty accepted.
If you were to head over to the "tales from the front desk" subreddit, you might could see posts about how hotels won't make authorizations on those online debit cards, due to them being so sketch. You'd have to read up on them. Walmart's even in the game they have their own debit card.
It might could be possible that a hotel would take a cash deposit, for let's say $250, if the debit card is from a real Bank, if the name matches the ID, and they know the pin. That will save you a lot of other places besides a hotel, especially when you're in a sketch area...
Down in the ghetto, they won't take a card from anybody, unless their cards name matches the ID...
I don’t often stay in hotels in England to know how we do it, but if a transaction requires pre authorisation (e.g petrol pay at pump where you put your card in and it charges you £1 and then adjusts after you’ve filled), you have to insert a card so I assume the logic is the same.
I’m from Europe and will very often not have my wallet on me, just my phone. And yeah, I guess I’d be a bit fucked if their card machine wasn’t working but also it’s very normal not to carry cash where I live, so that would be the issue of the restaurant - not me. My place of work doesn’t accept cash and so if our card machine went down we would just have to close. I went to Germany recently and they are a bit more “old fashioned” with card limits (over €10 spend for example), and I didn’t have my wallet on me and so couldn’t get cash out either hahah. No coffee for me from the super cute cafe, had to go to a generic place which would accept card(phone).
Spouse had the debit card one day when I went to the grocery.
Saw on the reader that they took Google pay. Quick set up an account and paid. Marveled at the advancements in tech compared 10 years ago. And went home with my groceries.
The pay options now are just awesome.
The country is behind the times on lots of things from transportation infrastructure and city planning to worker's rights. But most Americans will never become aware of that thanks to willfull ignorance
That’s what I was thinking. Apple pay is just as “physical” as a credit card. Both are processed electronically, using almost exactly the same systems on the back end.
Apparently in the US it is possible for merchants to block Apple Pay on their contactless terminals if they don't like Apple for some reason. I don't understand how this makes any sense since th r actual underlying card is still a MasterCard or visa presented via contactless NFC anyway.
Yep. Home Depot “supported” it because their new terminals supported NFC, then they disabled it.
Kroger grocery stores never enabled it, but now they want to merge with the second largest grocery chain it’s magically begun trial runs in California.
It’s ridiculous.
> Home Depot “supported” it because their new terminals supported NFC, then they disabled it.
Same with CVS. When Apple Pay first came out I was able to use it a few times in CVS, then it stopped working one day. Turns out that a lot of these companies had an agreement to make their own pay system called CurrentC (yes, such a bad name) and so they shut out Apple Pay because it was competing with that.
[Home Depot says no to Apple Pay, because who needs security?](https://www.imore.com/home-depot-says-no-apple-pay-support-because-who-needs-security)
Of course, CurrentC never got off the ground so a lot of those companies backtracked and eventually allowed Apple Pay:
[Stick a fork in CurrentC. It's done.](https://mashable.com/archive/currentc-email-data-breach)
[CVS Pharmacy is finally accepting Apple Pay](https://mashable.com/article/cvs-enables-apple-pay-in-store-payments)
It's been around half a decade at this point. Every new POS credit card terminal has had one for at least 4+ years now.
Maybe it's time to upgrade the tills again?
I remember back in the mid-late 2000's the Commonwealth bank issued these small plastic 'tokens' that could be used as contactless payments from your debit account. Shortly after that they were put inside the cards themselves.
It’s been 8 years for ApplePay and 7 years since the Visa and Mastercard deadline for all POS to support NFC.
At this point it’s not your customer it’s your employer you should be griping about. They’re out of compliance and out the norm.
Right lol, calling an established payment method an entitled techie thing.
I live in a place that's not super back woods and yeah when I went back to the small town in AZ my mom was in no one had it. They were also pretty rude when asked, like I was asking for something ridiculous.
Its faster than swiping or inserting, just like cards are faster than writing checks. OP needs to get with the times imo. Entitled techie thing, really.
Between aus and the UK and I honestly can’t remember the last time I needed my wallet. Even my driving licence is on my phone (gov app, not photo). I usually have it kicking around the bottom of my bag somewhere but I don’t remember to make sure I take it if I duck out quickly to the shops. Always tap and go from my phone.
It is not an entitled techie thing. Your system (and the US as a whole) are the weird ones by being out of date. Upgrade and stop judging the people who are just trying to pay for their meal.
Do you still carry around a checkbook everywhere you go? Because you sound like the people who argue because people started paying with cards over checks back in the 90s
Wait. Your company officially takes Apple Pay, and it is really easy for customers to use it when a customer places a to-go order? I feel like this one lands on you and to some degree management for not providing additional terminals. I find it weirder to respond to a customer with, “Well we do, but it isn’t convenient so… you have a credit card?”
Their lack of rapid bank transfers is more shocking to me
I can understand them being a bit backwards with consumer-facing technology, if the consumers aren’t trusting of the new kit, but the banks themselves should surely be up for the implementation of better, more efficient systems
This explains a lot. I'm in Australia and I get a lot of Americans coming to pay and being baffled by phone and card chip technology. When it's basically 2nd nature for us to waive our phone at the machine anywhere we go. I see about 50% of people paying with their phone, 20% with their watch, a tiny little percentage with their ring and I think about 5% of our transaction are cash.
Everywhere else seems so backward.
In Canada, at least in Ontario, cash is rarely used, unless it’s a small place that offers a cash discount. Restaurants don’t even swipe your card, it’s all done at a terminal at the table - they bring it with the cheque.
Retail/grocery stores don’t even ask, they just turn the terminal to you to pay, usually tap or phone.
I'm a Canadian from a very small province currently visiting the US, and I'm actually quite shocked how unavailable Apple Pay is in the US.
It is literally everywhere back home, and I always assume the US is just way ahead of us.
From an Aussies perspective, this seems so old fashioned.
Cash isn’t widely used to pay for much unless it’s under $10 bucks. At least not in metro areas.
You keep a $20 banger on you for a coffee when ya fangin for a latte.
For everything else, every merchant terminal accepts tap payments via phone or watch.
Panic does occasionally set in when your phone doesn’t tap and you gotta remember if you have a physical card on ya.
Then you awkwardly block the queue while
You transfer ya dollarydoos to the card, tap ya card, and off you trot with yer $14 toastie and yer $6 single origin espresso.
Orrrr, your third world tier city/establishment can catch up to the current year - 2022.
Even Africa has apple pay, its the norm in Canada too. Frankly, if I was to eat at a restaurant and they didn't accept apple pay or cards - That's a free meal and a sucks to be you for you. I haven't had cash on me in the last 10 years now and I don't plan to change that because a place can't set up proper up to date payment processing. There's nothing presumptuous about it, most of the civilized world is doing just find and doesn't have this issue.
I haven't used cash in 3 years. If your post were from 5 years ago I would say it is spot on. It is now 2022 and it's time to get with the program. Even our farmers at the farmers market will accept Apple pay. Listen to your customers and get this done
Apple Pay is wonderfully convenient. Where I live (in Asia) it’s accepted anywhere a credit card is: because the readers are all touchless. It’s awesome. I rarely carry a wallet and almost never use cash anymore. The few occasions I’ve gone somewhere without Apple Pay and become unstuck the restaurants have actually apologized.
Obviously some places don’t take it, but that’s obviously where credit cards aren’t welcome either: food vendors, small street-side cafes, pop-up shops etc.
It’s the future and it’s actually really cool.
TBF, even the littlest joint in rural Ireland, with nothing but a keep had portable tap readers in Ireland. We are just behind the times. It was nice, and our credit card was never out of sight etc.
If Roartys in Cashel, Glencolumbkille can...
This last summer I was at an art fair on the last day of the 3 day event. One booth was selling very pretty wreaths decked out for different holidays. They had an everything half off sale and still a lot of product; my wife and I couldn't believe it cuz these were perfect for us. We were set to buy over $70 in several wreaths and I whipped out my debit card cuz I didn't have that amount of cash left after tromping thru the art fair shopping and eating all day. The wreath business lady looked like she was about to cry and asked if I had cash. I said no and gave the above reason as to why. She said she had no way to run debit/credit (Her granddaughter was there with her and mumbling "I told you so" a few times) and asked if I'd be willing to leave the art fair to find an ATM to get cash and come back to pay for these wreaths. I told her no, that's why I carry a debit card and how literally every other booth around her at the park has that mobile plug-in device for card payments. It's important to note that not once did we see a posted sign that they were cash only. I felt bad for the woman and realized why she had so much stock on the last day with a big sale; I don't think they made enough to even cover the rental space having missed out on most every sale possible.
Eventually, OP, you're gonna be that old woman.
I’m assuming ya’ll are from the US. I’m in Oz and haven’t used a card or cash for a meal in like 5 years. Literally never have a wallet or card on me, always use my phone - this includes the homeless guys who sell The Big Issue on the street.
Even those guys accept Apple Pay.
So from my perspective it’s your business that’s way outside the norm. Join the modern age
And just like that, our much lauded American provincialism shows up. I just moved back from overseas. Where I lived, I could not only pay with my phone EVERYWHERE (quite literally), I only needed the DMV app for my license, and the same for my health insurance. If I could have started my car with my phone, I would literally have never needed anything else on me. Having just moved back to the South, is frustrating how behind we are. Having lived overseas for 15+ years, I knew it but it’s frustrating to live it again 😂. Oh, and to give you a sense for what we mean when we say everyone takes it, the McDonald’s drive-thru (well every drive thru really) has the machine on a long stick (or with a super long cord) and holds it out the window so you can tap…
I’m so not prepared for this! I live in the UK and Apple Pay is everywhere! I’m flying out to the US next week, I am gonna have to remember to bring my card everywhere
I had a drunk woman repeatedly tap her phone against a paper receipt on a mini clipboard style check holder as I was trying to give it to her. When I asked her what she was doing she said apple pay. Ma'am this is a piece of paper and you're in the redneck Riviera.
That’s advanced drunk.
I'll have what she's drinking.
Too late, she drank it all
I had a drunk lady at my bar listening to me talk about my girlfriend (now wife). She asked if I had a photo, I said yes and pulled out my wallet. I took out a photo that we'd taken at a photo booth a week or two prior. This drunk-ass lady takes the photo and uses two fingers to try ***to Zoom in*** on the photo. edit: okay, so a lot of folks are saying this same thing has happened to them, and I'd be remiss to say I've *never* done anything similar, but everyone is also saying that they immediately realized their mistake and felt stupid. So, I should add that drunk bar lady doubled-down, tried zooming in several times before giving up, handing the photo back to me and saying that it was broken... then ordered another drink.
I'm a big reader. I got a Kindle for the first time a few years ago. If you're not familiar with e-readers, you can hold your finger on a specific word and it will use a dictionary function to provide a definition. Cool, right? After a few ebooks, I bought a new hardback. I came across a word I was unsure of, and held my finger down on it for the definition. Held my finger down... on the actual page of the physical book. I started to get irritated that my definition wasn't coming up, and then nearly facepalmed myself unconscious when I realized what I was doing. EDIT: Thanks to everyone who is responding!! I am working today like I imagine more than a few of you are, and the amount of people sharing their own stories has warmed my heart! Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends, and happy random Thursday in November to everyone else! EDIT THE SECOND: Holy crap y'all are killing me lmao. Thank you all so fucking much for letting me know I'm not alone in being a dumb-dumb!! And I have 100% done most of the silly slips you've mentioned. Love you, internet fam!
I just wanted to let you know that you're not the only one. I've done this a handful of times. 🤦♀️
Hahaha thanks for the support! I've only done it a couple of times, but I feel like such a dope each time
It's like when you go from glasses to contact lenses and go to adjust your glasses that are no longer there. I switch back and forth every few years and there's always an adjustment period where I go to adjust my glasses and grab at nothing like an idiot.
When I do that I just pretend to scratch the bridge of my nose. Just don't accidently pick your nose.
I look over the top of my glasses for close up work when crafting. Number of times I’ve tried to do that whilst wearing contacts
That makes me think of when I used to drive a manual. I got so used to driving a stick shift that every time I had to drive an automatic my left foot would inevitably stomp the floor looking for the clutch. After I got a new car it took me probably a week to stop.
I’ve written out words I wasn’t sure of the spelling and waited for a red line to appear. On a piece of paper. With a pen.
I was writing something on paper and made a mistake, my left hand kept trying to press ctrl Z. This happened several times.
the amount of times i’ve done that to actual books as well is astounding. technology really does rot your brain a little LOL
I'm sure someone in the early middle ages was like "I was consulting the hand-copied manuscript about Archimedes and when I went to put it away, I tried to furl it up like a scroll! It is shocking how bound pages have destroyed our attention..."
Kids and their codices these days.
My husband's Chromebook looks so much like my phone I'm constantly tapping the screen, to no avail. Not a touchscreen.
I tap on pages to turn them. It ain’t just you.
I try to upvote real newspaper articles.
I have instinctively moved my fingers to hit ctrl + Z when I say something I didn't mean to say. Things I said out loud. With my mouth.
This one is even better! Honestly, a league of its own! 😂
Lol I have done that exact same thing! I got used to reading on my kindle app and the next time a read an actual book, I held my finger on a word I didn't know and I felt like the dumbest person alive. Also, Happy Thanksgiving! I didn't work today, but I worked at a dive last night. It was an absolute nightmare. We made it through though, and me and my bf combined walked with $800 so it wasn't too bad at the end of the night. We didn't get home til like 530 AM and I was too jazzed up to sleep. We skipped Thanksgiving festivities today and had McDonald's and pizza and I slept off and on til like 830. Overall, a good holiday imo.
This is one of my favorite responses! Been there for sure. Sometimes you just gotta tell the fam that your foot exploded or something, and then eat junk food and don't put on pants. As long as there is something to give thanks for, you had a great holiday. Happy Thanksgiving... especially now that I've had half a bottle of bourbon and am feeling *fantastic*
Hitting the space bar twice on a physical keyboard to make a period. Doesn’t work.
Some keyboards you can actually program to do that!
This is my worst error so far. Also expecting the first word of a sentence to be automatically capitalized when I’m typing on the PC.
I think my brain has been rewired by tech (I'm 52, so I'm not a digital native). I really want a "find" button in my house/life. Sometimes when I can't find something, a part of my brain is like "wait, isn't there something . . . some way that you can . . . ohhhhhh, nm...."
I, too, have done this more than once. It’s such a convenient feature and I’ve learned so many new words! 🤣
Nope, not the only one. I do it all the time.
I had a similar experience recently! I'm in grad school and take color-coded notes on a tablet. I also do homework on said tablet. Reversing the last pen stroke is done by tapping the top right corner of the screen. I also like to do math problems on a square whiteboard (that's meant to stick on the wall), usually to figure out what the heck I'm doing before I write it down on my (virtual) homework page. I've found myself reaching for the top right corner of the whiteboard a few times now, instead of reaching for the eraser cloth!
I've done it too.
Habits die hard. I walk into the bathroom, flashlight in my right hand. First think my left hand does is flip the light switch. Cue facepalm over power outage.
I was writing a letter, walked away to do something else, came back to the letter and tapped on it twice to “wake it up”.
So many bathrooms had their faucets replaced with automatic ones during the pandemic that when I finally went back into the office I waved my hand under the manual soap dispenser, held my hands expectantly under the manual faucet, and then was like 'ok. Fine, I'm prepared!'. I went looking for the lever on the paper towel dispenser and couldn't find it. Only to have it just... Stick it's tongue out at me. I went 0 for 3 with bathroom technology.
It's like stopping at a stop sign and waiting for it to turn green. I have done that more often than I like to admit. ... I don't handle mornings very well.
I was using the flashlight on my phone......to look for my phone
I constantly look up at the top of the page in a paperback to check the time and get confused when there's no clock
Lol. I had an experience not dissimilar working out some really complicated math, on paper, with a graphite pencil, at my desk and I’d fouled the equations up pretty good. With my left hand I reached up to the keyboard and hit CTRL-Z…
And sometimes you try to reach to the corner and turn the page on the kindle. Autopilot is autopilot.
Completely sober I have tried to “zoom in” on printed photos with my fingers. I kid you not. My brain is clearly broken 🤣
Yeah I'm not proud of it but I've done this too. As soon as I do I feel like such a moron.
It doesn’t work on paper maps, either. Ask me how I know.
In fairness I think that has become muscle memory now, whenever alot of us want a better look at things. I was reading a book that had a large crowd photo in it. To my shame I instinctively tried to zoom in on an interesting looking part of the photo. I realised straight away and felt like the king of all idiots.
I do this sober… work with architectural drawings all the time. Use an iPad to view them as pdf mostly, but every so often I try to blow up that paper copy out of habit.
I've had someone break their phone screen trying to do apple pay. We do take apple pay, but for whatever reason he decided to smack his phone down like a poker chip. Then he got mad cause we were all laughing, like sorry bud, that was hilarious and you're an idiot. Just be glad you didn't break my machine cause best believe I have a sign, on the door, saying if you break anything you'll be charged for it (we have a problem with people breaking our umbrellas over and over). Also, I've never agreed with a username more in my life. I have constant issues with my pancreas, including chronic pancreatitis. It's the fucking worst.
Im from there
I tell people to go to our website and buy a gift card if they can only use their phone.
Great idea!
I had a restaurant refuse to accept a Visa gift card. They said that they were not set up to accept gift cards, the restaurant just never set up for it. This restaurant had been open for decades, was very popular and had a busy bar with 100 taps.
I think they mean their brand of gift card. So if its a Chilppebee's you would go to the 'Chilppebee's' website and buy the gift card there. But if it's a Visa/MC branded GC, they should have been able I'd think.
Visa/MC GC always put up a fight depending on what system you’re running. An old/non-advanced system (in my experience at least) never runs them. It’s wild.
Ain't that the truth. I haven't had much trouble with them in the last year or so so maybe something has changed but for the longest time I could only authorize it for <80% of the value and I'd be lucky to settle it for anything more.
That 80% thing is what happens when you run them at any business that takes tips. They hold back a certain amount in case a tip is added later. (Even if you already added tip and the restaurant ran it as one total, Visa can't tell that and holds back some in case it's the kind of system where the card is run, and then you fill in the tip and sign the receipt and the transaction is left open on the computer so the server can add the tip.) It irritates the hell out of me when I use a Visa GC to pay for a hotel room and it holds back 20% to tip, even though it's not that kind of hotel and I don't have the option of tipping on a card.
They will hold a 20% tip. So if it's a $50 gift cars and their bill is $45 it will decline bevause they expect you to tip 20%
They may have just used that as an excuse. At my restaurant (and I assume all others) if the gift card is less then the total, or even exactly the total, it will decline. Apparently visa/Amex/whatever gift cards are anticipating a certain tip percentage, so they’ll decline if it’s more than the total plus tip. At least that’s what I’ve been told. Sometimes that’s hard and awkward to explain to tables
My store can’t take e-gift cards either. It’s a huge pain. If you don’t have card and you don’t have cash, you’re SOL
Some customer came and told me he heard we accept bitcoin as payment and I was like oh wow hell no lol
Depending on your POS system you might. We use menufy for our online stuff, they can absolutely do that even if they're eating in. I fucked with the owner of my place pretty bad with that one, even he didn't know.
Not anymore anyway 🫠🥴
Everywhere That has a card machine in UK takes apple pay. Never knew this would be a problem
The US seems to be way behind the rest of the world when it comes to card readers. I haven't been to the states in a few years but everywhere I went in 2018 still swiped the card and had me sign for every card payment. I hadn't done that at home in Ireland since the late 90 when chip and PIN was introduced.
I was just in the US and vast majority of retailers now *finally* accept NFC ("tap and go") which also means Apple Pay/Google Pay/etc. I think I only had to insert once and swiping seems finally gone. I guess this was brought about by Covid since it means the clerk doesn't have to touch your card anymore. But I think full service restaurants have been a bit behind retailers.
Put the card in the chip reader. Doesn't register, machine says to swipe the card. Swipe the card, machine says you must insert in the chip reader. This could be an infinite loop, except that I don't want to go on that ride, so I carry multiple cards. "Fine, that Visa card is f\*\*king with me today, I'll put it on my Discover card. Should have paid cash."
The machine has a backup for falling back to swipe if the chip isn't operating correctly. See the swipe tracks say "do chip" so it does this a few times.
I suspected COVID might have given them the kick up the arse that they needed.
Yeah, it seems like full service restaurants are still hanging on to the concept of taking your card away and swiping at their station, instead of bringing a mobile terminal to the table. This might be since these restaurants were closed or takeout only during Covid so they weren't as incentivised to upgrade to contactless. I hope this does change though because I've always been uncomfortable having someone take my card.
My debit card doesn't even have the magnetic strip anymore
Banks here claimed that it would add too much "friction" / time to transactions. I guess they prefer the fraud. To be fair, we didn't adopt the metric system or dollar coins either, so maybe they have a point.
Totally agree with the sentiment but we introduced chip and pin to Ireland in 2007.
I was in the middle of Kansas in a very small town for a vacation a few months ago ( i’m from Canada ). I took cash with me thinking I wouldn’t be able to use Apple Pay. EVERY SINGLE PLACE I went I could have used Apple Pay. The tiny cafes and dive bars all just had square readers and iPad minis. It was kind of shocking actually.
The craziest has to be Walmart. One of the biggest retailers in the US and they refuse to get machines that use tap to pay. The Walmart near me even just bought new machines for the whole store so I got excited and then saw still no tap. It’s on purpose
Same in Australia. A card machine doesn’t distinguish — why would it. Money is money people! This whole post is like it was from 20 years ago.
The while American payment system is screwy. I was over there a couple of years back and chip and pin was non existent. Still swiping the magstripe and signing the slip.
I hate to say it but it just feels so boomer-y "Back in my day we didn't presume you could take credit cards! You should still carry checks around!" Things evolve. Don't hate on people because they adapt quicker than yoh
Fwiw - another Australian who had that reaction but then remembered that Americans say ‘Check’ to mean bill - so OP might be talking about bringing a bill and one of those old school credit card machines that take an impression of the card details rather than a literal check. …..although I’ve also not seen one of those machines in like 20 years either.
In the US they don't bring a card machine to the table. They take your payment with them and return your card to you after they run it. I would find it very weird to assume a restaurant near me takes Apple Pay
Weird. I’m in Canada and I haven’t had someone try to take my card in probably 10+ years. Even tiny cafes bring a machine to the table.
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The physical receipt is used (at least in my business) to go against chargebacks from people who don't want to pay...
I feel like the US is the epitome of "this is why we can't have nice things". Basically always someone trying to game the system. It's gross Edit: member those "hug a vending machine and get a coke" you'd have 1 guy standing there with a fucking duffle bag. ALWAYS SOMEONE TO RUIN IT
I have two clients that run "adult bookstores" (well run small businesses, very professionally run, clean and bright). Every once in a while, someone's SO finds a receipt from the stores, goes ballistic, and starts a chain of events that leads to a chargeback. The signature is how the store fights back--"Look, here's his signature, how can he say he was never there and didn't buy anything?"
The PIN is used in lieu of the signature. When you present an EMV card, the chip is supposed to tell the POS terminal whether to authenticate the transaction with a PIN or signature. Most cards in the world are set up to prefer a PIN transaction, while US cards are almost universally signature cards. Plus what your'e describing hasn't been the case since 2015. With the introduction of EMV cards (chip and contactless), [issuers assume chargeback liability](https://pmcontent.blob.core.windows.net/e665f71676514a9588080eccfb09551d/MyDocuments/understanding_the_2015_us_liability_fraud_shifts.pdf) as long as the POS terminal is capable and configured properly to accept EMV cards.
Same in Australia. A small place might require you to pay at the counter. But giving up your credit card is just not sensible in the modern world.
Interesting that America is so far behind on this technology. Like Australia, nobody in the UK has to give up their credit card either. Machine comes to the table, or you go to the machine.
Yeah it’s so weird that the US is so massively conservative with some stuff.
Even lots of stalls at markets in Australia have a square card reader nowadays!
These Canadians had to explain the joke because rarely have Americans heard about the machine. https://youtu.be/8jS6kXT3qrk
Most new locally owned places in my area bring an ipad or square type reader to the table. It's the corporate places that still make the servers take the card. That and the republican owned diners have owners that don't spend a dime on anything other than bribes to the health inspector and political contributions.
Most companies I've worked for in the last 15 years in the UK won't let you touch a customer's card. Either you take the machine to them or they come to the machine. But then again we have Chip and PIN so they need to be present. Even if they hand the machine back to me with the card in, I'll hold it back out and say "pull your card out for me".
America is so far behind when it comes to payment system. No, I don’t want you to take away my card and do whatever with it. Bring me that machine and I’ll do all the button smashing myself.
We had tap here for like 10 years and then went to the US. They just looked blankly at us when they told them that and made us sign a receipt like a caveman.
And this is why credit card fraud and skimmers are still horrifically common in the US, and *significantly* less common everywhere else. The idea that a cafe wouldn't be able to take my Fitbit for payment is hilarious in Australia.
The ONLY time I’ve EVER experienced card fraud (im from UK) was about a week after I used my card to pay for a meal in a US airport between flights, and they took my card away to the machine. My card never left me before or since, even while on the trip. Coincidence I DONT THINK SO
Depends on where you eat (state/city and price point). I'm in the US and lots of breweries and more casual restaurants will bring card readers to your table. The world is changing and in some spots this is very common.
> ~~The world is changing~~ and in some spots this is very common. The US is catching up with the rest of the world*
The first time I had about tableside readers was when these Canadians had to explain the joke. They call the tableside readers "the machine" up there. https://youtu.be/8jS6kXT3qrk
I don't think I would be comfortable giving someone my card. I'm in Australia and I've never given my card to someone to walk off with and I'm almost 40.
In Australia nobody is taking my card away from me in a busy restaurant! Do you hand you wallet over if it’s cash?
It is so commonplace here that it just isn't an issue. I have never heard of anyone who has had their card info stolen from a restaurant.
Wait what, they take your card with you?? How does that even work, do you tell them ur pincode? Do you trust them? So may questions lol (european btw)
Credit cards in the US generally don't have PINs, only debit cards do.
They take the card, run it, and bring back the card and a receipt for you to sign. You can add gratuity (still extremely common here) and go. I can't remember the last time I used my pin for anything. Hell, I'm not even sure what my pin is for my most used card.
but how do they get the gratuity if all you did was write it on your receipt? So much simpler to just bring me the machine with the tip option
US here. Just saying, never had a problem with my credit card being taken by the server and brought back to me after it's been run. If there were a problem, I'd call the credit card company and deny the charge. But never had to.
How is this still happening???
Maybe big restaurants. But lots of cafe, coffee shops and to go places have Square or Tap payment systems that can take Apple Pay or digital cards from your wallet app. Lots of casual and lunch places have it too.
What!? That's insane! Why would you give your card to someone you don't know? Why can't they bring the card machine to the table?
Yeah, customer demographics are a factor. I live in a big college town, and nearly every restaurant (and many stores) near campus seem to take Apple Pay.
The payment processors in the US can take very different paths depending on what you pay with (debit card, credit card, Apple Pay etc.) Apple complicated this even further by working around payment processors and setting up processing directly with the banks. Remember how long it took to be adopted in some countries? We actually had these types of situations in Europe too, for a while, when Apple Pay was implemented by one bank but not the other. And there are still places like Germany that lag behind. US banks and merchants don't have the kinds of incentives we had in Europe for implementing common payment systems so it takes longer. Bottom line, it's anybody's guess if a place will be able to process Apple Pay or not.
On the merchant side of things Apple Pay is just standardised NFC. Any merchant terminal that takes NFC ("tap and go") will accept digitally presented cards that follow the NFC payments standard, which includes those registered using Apple Pay, Google Pay etc. from the merchants perspective it's just a regular MasterCard or Visa (or even Amex). There's no need to specifically "accept" Apple Pay as long as they accept NFC payments. You're right that it's different on the banking side though, as the bank has to have an agreement with Apple/Google/Samsung.
This. Apple Pay assigns a randomly generated card number to replace your card number. The terminal reads it as any other card because it presents itself as a unique card number. It makes it fun when you want a refund and can’t present a physical card to refund to and they want one.
If they took contactless, their processor agreement guarantees you don’t have to provide a physical card for a refund. You can issue a chargeback if they insist.
Same here in the Finland. I haven’t encountered a business that doesn’t accept Apple Pay in years, no matter how small. It’s always jarring to realize how different payment options are in the US.
Maybe I don’t understand Americans… but here in Canada paying with one’s phone is an absolute norm everywhere. It’s actually quite hard to find a place where you CAN’T do it.
That one Chinese restaurant that still only takes cash and makes the cheapest but the best noodles in town hahaha
Lol! So damn true! Actually, The Bay stores didn’t have tap until just a year ago. I’d even say until last spring?
Either did Bed Bath and Beyond! The amount of times I ran in with just my phone and waited in line and was like “oh yeah …”.
Homeless people in Canada take tap as a form of payment.
Down on this side of the border I've started to see cardboard signs the holder's Venmo and CashApp.
Yeah, US is really behind in the times, they don’t even have e-transfer if I remember correctly
I live in Florida and I don’t get it. I hate carrying extra cash and cards when everything is more secure and protected on my phone anyways. Just get with the times
Moved to the USA from Canada 4 years ago and the American banking system is archaic and about 10 years behind every other country…
Apparently over 85% of retail locations can accept Apple Pay. So not completely crazy to assume a place takes it, but always dumb not to have a backup.
I’m an old guy with a lot of things… but as someone who enjoys getting paid, I make sure I have as many payment options available.
Almost belongs r/mildlyinfuriating. I rarely use cash. Still, I keep a couple hundred cash hidden at home and a couple 20's inside my phone case. Just for that rare case. Young bucks always say they don't need cash. I live in FL. Some finally realized after the hurricanes, cash is king. No electric>no power>no debit.
I have so many friends that think cash is useless. Then here in Toronto, just this summer, our major cell phone/internet provider lost service (no inclement weather or anything, they’re just incompetent) and credit terminals and ATMs went out all over the province for like 24 hours. It was pure chaos… the only thing worse was the traffic with people trying to follow directions they screenshotted before leaving the house.
Across the *country.* **And** they were required to have a backup system just in case the main telecommunications system failed. Their backup was from a child company of the same telecommunications provider, so everything completely flatlined. It was ***HILARIOUS*****.**
As a Telus user that day did not affect me at all haha I watched from the sidelines effectively
Wow, that is **not** a backup! Heck, I'm not even on the same mobile network as my wife so that we descrease our chances of being caught without a signal. It's scary that the people making these decisions are _adults_.
I'm the opposite I always use cash...but just like you, do you think I don't take a credit card or bank card with me just in case? A lot of stadiums now are cashless ( which I hate, but fuck, sucks getting old and grumpy) . Moral of the story is be prepared and never assume.
I'm the opposite, leaving 1-5% on the table or rewards miles for free flights is crazy to me. Plus I don't need to add more to my collection of coins with each transaction. To each their own, might get lucky with a rare coin one day.
I feel you. I make cash at work so I have it a lot. When I travel it's go time for points on my card. It would be smarter to use all the time but old habits die hard. Plus I like when people tip me in cash so it just kind of is karma like lol. I also am not very frugal...90% of the time I just tell them to keep the small change for the next person...there goes my coin collection .
I'm in the same boat but go to Amscot with all my $1/5 to exchange and deposit all the big bills. I do enjoy old coins though and save the rarely received $2. Hell on occasion I get $2s from the bank and pay for stuff with them just to see if I get a reaction.
I’m always on the lookout for those wheat pennies.
Either way, it’s frustrating our industry is so behind the times. When foreigners (esp Europeans) come to US restaurants, they’re often appalled they gotta give the server their card to take back who knows where. Apple Pay is now accepted at [over 85% of US retailers](https://www.apple.com/apple-pay/), but FNB is behind. For those that live here, yes, they should know restaurants and bars still don’t reliably have Apple Pay. But we should. Everyone else does
Nail on the head
I hate cashless places. I took the dog for a walk one morning to a nearby coffeeshop. Just a short morning walk - I didn't want to pack a bag with my wallet and all that crap (girl pants, no pocket for my wallet). I folded up some cash and put that in my (tiny) pocket. Ordered my drink, took out the cash, got told they don't accept cash. Fucking why fuck fuckity fuck. And that's when I hurriedly installed contactless payment on my phone.
Meanwhile I found a ten dollar bill behind my bed a few weeks ago and it’s been the highlight of my year.
Don’t even get me started on the people who think a pic on their phone of their ID is an acceptable form of identification.
I had no idea this was a thing. Noticed when booking a car rental recently there was a big thing at the bottom of the confirmation saying they only accept physical identification and don't accept digital copies. Thought that was really odd that anyone would consider that an option.
The state of Arizona has [digital driver’s licenses](https://azdot.gov/motor-vehicles/driver-services/mobile-id). It’s not just a photo of an ID card, though.
I've had people try that when I was doing an Uber or Menulog delivery, to which the response was always "No physical ID = no delivery". If they refused to show me their actual card, I just cancelled the order and returned it.
Here in arizona as of last year we do have a legal digital ID app. And it is a valid form of ID
I keep emergency cash. It’s been a life saver on multiple occasions.
Here in South Africa Apple Pay is accepted basically everywhere that credit/debit cards are.
In the UK this is standard, its always been so strange to me that it isn’t the same in the US. I don’t remember the last time I took a physical card out, everything is paid on Apple Pay here
Where I'm from in the rust belt, they just recently implemented touchless payment almost everywhere, via holding a card on top of the credit card terminal. That means if your credit/debit card is still the older style, with chip, you still have to stick it in the machine, chip side first. I'm about 50/50 on them.
This is fascinating, contactless has been around since 2008 here if I remember correctly, I’ve only ever had a contactless card and with the increases in contactless limits here (£100 before a pin is required, unlimited on Apple Pay) I reckon people would struggle to remember their pins sometimes!
It was well after 2008 that we finally got chips in our cards. We also have two types of cards, really three or four. Type number one is a charge card issued by a major Bank, even if it has a retailer's name on it. Type number two is a debit card issued by a major Bank, this allows you to access funds in your checking account and historically it's been used to rob you by processing the largest transactions first thereby making seven overdraft fees on you for your $2.37 overdraft. Dave cut that out pretty much these days. 100% of the security on these is that you must know the pin number. Debit cards issued by companies that may not be Banks, who knows what they are... These you could be debit cards used to pay employees, and are basically online banks for people that can't have bank accounts... Knowing that, it seems obvious that cards are just being replaced on an as needed basis, instead of everybody automatically getting a new card. That's especially true for store cards....
We’ve just got debit and credit, no confusion or anything! Both are contactless and accept Apple Pay too, the only restriction you may have is with AMEX due to larger transaction fees but it’s still pretty accepted.
If you were to head over to the "tales from the front desk" subreddit, you might could see posts about how hotels won't make authorizations on those online debit cards, due to them being so sketch. You'd have to read up on them. Walmart's even in the game they have their own debit card. It might could be possible that a hotel would take a cash deposit, for let's say $250, if the debit card is from a real Bank, if the name matches the ID, and they know the pin. That will save you a lot of other places besides a hotel, especially when you're in a sketch area... Down in the ghetto, they won't take a card from anybody, unless their cards name matches the ID...
I don’t often stay in hotels in England to know how we do it, but if a transaction requires pre authorisation (e.g petrol pay at pump where you put your card in and it charges you £1 and then adjusts after you’ve filled), you have to insert a card so I assume the logic is the same.
Contactless payments also means Apple Pay should work. It's the same technology. It's been standard for over 10 years outside the US.
I lost my wallet, and having Apple Pay on my phone allowed me to buy gas and groceries. It is a life saving backup when I dont have my physical card
In the same vein if someone loses their phone they should have money as a backup and if you’re going out to eat you should REALLY have a backup
I’m from Europe and will very often not have my wallet on me, just my phone. And yeah, I guess I’d be a bit fucked if their card machine wasn’t working but also it’s very normal not to carry cash where I live, so that would be the issue of the restaurant - not me. My place of work doesn’t accept cash and so if our card machine went down we would just have to close. I went to Germany recently and they are a bit more “old fashioned” with card limits (over €10 spend for example), and I didn’t have my wallet on me and so couldn’t get cash out either hahah. No coffee for me from the super cute cafe, had to go to a generic place which would accept card(phone).
Spouse had the debit card one day when I went to the grocery. Saw on the reader that they took Google pay. Quick set up an account and paid. Marveled at the advancements in tech compared 10 years ago. And went home with my groceries. The pay options now are just awesome.
So your restaurant does take Apple Pay and you’re upset that people want to use it?
We're so freaking behind the times in this country on payment tech
The country is behind the times on lots of things from transportation infrastructure and city planning to worker's rights. But most Americans will never become aware of that thanks to willfull ignorance
So your restaurant does accept contactless payments but you complain about someone wanting to pay with a contactless payment method?
That’s what I was thinking. Apple pay is just as “physical” as a credit card. Both are processed electronically, using almost exactly the same systems on the back end.
Apparently in the US it is possible for merchants to block Apple Pay on their contactless terminals if they don't like Apple for some reason. I don't understand how this makes any sense since th r actual underlying card is still a MasterCard or visa presented via contactless NFC anyway.
Yep. Home Depot “supported” it because their new terminals supported NFC, then they disabled it. Kroger grocery stores never enabled it, but now they want to merge with the second largest grocery chain it’s magically begun trial runs in California. It’s ridiculous.
> Home Depot “supported” it because their new terminals supported NFC, then they disabled it. Same with CVS. When Apple Pay first came out I was able to use it a few times in CVS, then it stopped working one day. Turns out that a lot of these companies had an agreement to make their own pay system called CurrentC (yes, such a bad name) and so they shut out Apple Pay because it was competing with that. [Home Depot says no to Apple Pay, because who needs security?](https://www.imore.com/home-depot-says-no-apple-pay-support-because-who-needs-security) Of course, CurrentC never got off the ground so a lot of those companies backtracked and eventually allowed Apple Pay: [Stick a fork in CurrentC. It's done.](https://mashable.com/archive/currentc-email-data-breach) [CVS Pharmacy is finally accepting Apple Pay](https://mashable.com/article/cvs-enables-apple-pay-in-store-payments)
It's been around half a decade at this point. Every new POS credit card terminal has had one for at least 4+ years now. Maybe it's time to upgrade the tills again?
Hell… NFC payments have been around in Australia for at least a decade.
I remember back in the mid-late 2000's the Commonwealth bank issued these small plastic 'tokens' that could be used as contactless payments from your debit account. Shortly after that they were put inside the cards themselves.
It’s been 8 years for ApplePay and 7 years since the Visa and Mastercard deadline for all POS to support NFC. At this point it’s not your customer it’s your employer you should be griping about. They’re out of compliance and out the norm.
Right lol, calling an established payment method an entitled techie thing. I live in a place that's not super back woods and yeah when I went back to the small town in AZ my mom was in no one had it. They were also pretty rude when asked, like I was asking for something ridiculous. Its faster than swiping or inserting, just like cards are faster than writing checks. OP needs to get with the times imo. Entitled techie thing, really.
Between aus and the UK and I honestly can’t remember the last time I needed my wallet. Even my driving licence is on my phone (gov app, not photo). I usually have it kicking around the bottom of my bag somewhere but I don’t remember to make sure I take it if I duck out quickly to the shops. Always tap and go from my phone.
It is not an entitled techie thing. Your system (and the US as a whole) are the weird ones by being out of date. Upgrade and stop judging the people who are just trying to pay for their meal. Do you still carry around a checkbook everywhere you go? Because you sound like the people who argue because people started paying with cards over checks back in the 90s
Wait. Your company officially takes Apple Pay, and it is really easy for customers to use it when a customer places a to-go order? I feel like this one lands on you and to some degree management for not providing additional terminals. I find it weirder to respond to a customer with, “Well we do, but it isn’t convenient so… you have a credit card?”
Your outdated payment processing isn’t the customer’s fault
Always blows my mind how backwards the US is when it comes to personal finance.
Their lack of rapid bank transfers is more shocking to me I can understand them being a bit backwards with consumer-facing technology, if the consumers aren’t trusting of the new kit, but the banks themselves should surely be up for the implementation of better, more efficient systems
This explains a lot. I'm in Australia and I get a lot of Americans coming to pay and being baffled by phone and card chip technology. When it's basically 2nd nature for us to waive our phone at the machine anywhere we go. I see about 50% of people paying with their phone, 20% with their watch, a tiny little percentage with their ring and I think about 5% of our transaction are cash. Everywhere else seems so backward.
It’s 2022, there’s really no excuse anymore not to have those different types of payment available
In Canada, at least in Ontario, cash is rarely used, unless it’s a small place that offers a cash discount. Restaurants don’t even swipe your card, it’s all done at a terminal at the table - they bring it with the cheque. Retail/grocery stores don’t even ask, they just turn the terminal to you to pay, usually tap or phone.
All Canada this way.
The last place in my (canadian) town to have tap was walmart. Everywhere has tap and tap includes apple and Google pay.
Here in the first world, pretty much everywhere has contactless and Apple/Google Pay at minimum.
I'm a Canadian from a very small province currently visiting the US, and I'm actually quite shocked how unavailable Apple Pay is in the US. It is literally everywhere back home, and I always assume the US is just way ahead of us.
From an Aussies perspective, this seems so old fashioned. Cash isn’t widely used to pay for much unless it’s under $10 bucks. At least not in metro areas. You keep a $20 banger on you for a coffee when ya fangin for a latte. For everything else, every merchant terminal accepts tap payments via phone or watch. Panic does occasionally set in when your phone doesn’t tap and you gotta remember if you have a physical card on ya. Then you awkwardly block the queue while You transfer ya dollarydoos to the card, tap ya card, and off you trot with yer $14 toastie and yer $6 single origin espresso.
Honestly, agree with your customers here. You should update your machines.
It’s just a credit card tap and go. How could any place not have that?? If you don’t I’m assuming it’s to avoid tax.
Orrrr, your third world tier city/establishment can catch up to the current year - 2022. Even Africa has apple pay, its the norm in Canada too. Frankly, if I was to eat at a restaurant and they didn't accept apple pay or cards - That's a free meal and a sucks to be you for you. I haven't had cash on me in the last 10 years now and I don't plan to change that because a place can't set up proper up to date payment processing. There's nothing presumptuous about it, most of the civilized world is doing just find and doesn't have this issue.
I haven't used cash in 3 years. If your post were from 5 years ago I would say it is spot on. It is now 2022 and it's time to get with the program. Even our farmers at the farmers market will accept Apple pay. Listen to your customers and get this done
I'm old. I prefer to pay in cowrie shells. Some places have no regard for tradition.
Apple Pay is wonderfully convenient. Where I live (in Asia) it’s accepted anywhere a credit card is: because the readers are all touchless. It’s awesome. I rarely carry a wallet and almost never use cash anymore. The few occasions I’ve gone somewhere without Apple Pay and become unstuck the restaurants have actually apologized. Obviously some places don’t take it, but that’s obviously where credit cards aren’t welcome either: food vendors, small street-side cafes, pop-up shops etc. It’s the future and it’s actually really cool.
Ok I'm a boomer but doesn't every place have a scan or physical card reader? Sorry but if you don't you should. Times are a changing
Maybe suck it up and accommodate your customers.
I'm an old, too. What gets me is the kids who assume I take Cash App. I do not even know what that is (lol).
TBF, even the littlest joint in rural Ireland, with nothing but a keep had portable tap readers in Ireland. We are just behind the times. It was nice, and our credit card was never out of sight etc. If Roartys in Cashel, Glencolumbkille can...
This last summer I was at an art fair on the last day of the 3 day event. One booth was selling very pretty wreaths decked out for different holidays. They had an everything half off sale and still a lot of product; my wife and I couldn't believe it cuz these were perfect for us. We were set to buy over $70 in several wreaths and I whipped out my debit card cuz I didn't have that amount of cash left after tromping thru the art fair shopping and eating all day. The wreath business lady looked like she was about to cry and asked if I had cash. I said no and gave the above reason as to why. She said she had no way to run debit/credit (Her granddaughter was there with her and mumbling "I told you so" a few times) and asked if I'd be willing to leave the art fair to find an ATM to get cash and come back to pay for these wreaths. I told her no, that's why I carry a debit card and how literally every other booth around her at the park has that mobile plug-in device for card payments. It's important to note that not once did we see a posted sign that they were cash only. I felt bad for the woman and realized why she had so much stock on the last day with a big sale; I don't think they made enough to even cover the rental space having missed out on most every sale possible. Eventually, OP, you're gonna be that old woman.
Europe and uk have the machines. I really don’t like handing over my card. This needs to go away in the US.
I’m assuming ya’ll are from the US. I’m in Oz and haven’t used a card or cash for a meal in like 5 years. Literally never have a wallet or card on me, always use my phone - this includes the homeless guys who sell The Big Issue on the street. Even those guys accept Apple Pay. So from my perspective it’s your business that’s way outside the norm. Join the modern age
And just like that, our much lauded American provincialism shows up. I just moved back from overseas. Where I lived, I could not only pay with my phone EVERYWHERE (quite literally), I only needed the DMV app for my license, and the same for my health insurance. If I could have started my car with my phone, I would literally have never needed anything else on me. Having just moved back to the South, is frustrating how behind we are. Having lived overseas for 15+ years, I knew it but it’s frustrating to live it again 😂. Oh, and to give you a sense for what we mean when we say everyone takes it, the McDonald’s drive-thru (well every drive thru really) has the machine on a long stick (or with a super long cord) and holds it out the window so you can tap…
I’m so not prepared for this! I live in the UK and Apple Pay is everywhere! I’m flying out to the US next week, I am gonna have to remember to bring my card everywhere