4 ms·

>I am always amazed at how often people in the US mention cheques. Banking in the US is like going back in time 20 years. Even when I flew through Dallas and L

by grecy 4y ago

>I am always amazed at how often people in the US mention cheques. Banking in the US is like going back in time 20 years. Even when I flew through Dallas and LAX during the height of COVID I had to hand my credit card over for someone to swipe, then pickup a pen that thousands of others had touched to sign a piece of paper. I've been tapping to pay exclusively for years and forgot about all that ancient stuff.

kurthr 4y ago
Wow, that's pretty rare. TTP and chip are basically required now. Unless your card fails, I don't know many places that would have desire or even equipment to swipe. Even square doesn't do it now.
csomar 4y ago
Most places in the US accept Apple Pay now. I think it's harsh to judge the whole country based on a few exceptions. The US is also huge which means some people are going to stick to the old way of doing things.
- collegeburner 4y ago
  Uhh no that is not true in lots of places. Probably highly region and demographic dependent tho. Also apple pay alone is not a solution, no way am i paying for some overpriced iphone bc "oh were cashless now and only take apple pay".
jltsiren 4y ago
I think that backwardness is now a thing of the past. Most developed countries I'm familiar with made cheap/free wire transfers the most fundamental banking product decades ago. The change was driven by the banks, because handling checks was expensive and there was too much fraud involved. The US never made the change, probably because there were too many banks that could not agree on anything. That doesn't matter much anymore, because online card payments and ACH transfers (which are technically not wire transfers) are prevalent. Another thing that contributes to the perception of backwardness is that American credit card issuers never adopted chip and PIN like the rest of the developed world. Elsewhere, banks wanted to reduce fraud and accepted the need to remember PINs as a small price for that. In the US, banks could afford more fraud due to higher fees, and they chose convenience instead. But today, cards have chips without a PIN anyway, and swiping is used mostly as a rare fallback mechanism. And apps such as Apple Pay and Google Pay (or whatever it's called this week) are quickly removing the need for physical cards.
- danaris 4y ago
  > I think that backwardness is now a thing of the past. It's really not. Just the other day, I had to pay for gas at a station that still used swipe rather than chip, and then ate at an outdoor café where I had to give my card to the server, who took it away and brought back a sheet to sign and a pen. A lot of places are updating to handle chip and tap-to-pay, which is great, but until swipe entry is completely obsoleted and non-portable terminals for restaurants are banned by the payment processors, there will still be some who hold on because that's what they have and what they know.
mdp2021 4y ago
> then pickup a pen that thousands of others had touched Bring your own pen. It is presumed that you bring around a few essentials. Edit: on the other hand (pun unintended), some operations of electronic money transfer here require people signing on tablets through pens that are of common use and will more hardly be replaced by an owned item.
- phist_mcgee 4y ago
  "Essentials" Much of the western world is near-digital at this point. I handwrite things so rarely these days that my handwriting has reverted back to year 6 level.
  - mdp2021 4y ago
    > Much of the western world [...] // I ... so rarely these days that ... reverted back to year 6 level Don't blame it on the "West". I have rights to blame my rage on the "west". There are no rights to blame what you are not forced to (in this case, e.g. that you abandoned doing math and solving through state-of-the-art "wits hand stick and surface"). Nonetheless, we were talking about signatures. > «Essentials» With «essentials» of course I meant something that you carry around because you know you may need it owing to the environment - not a absolute personal need (as in "I will take notes"), but a relative contextual need (as in "either I bring mine or I will have to share").
MomoXenosaga 4y ago
Yes COVID for me was the final push to go completely cashless.
refurb 4y ago
I assume you're using a foreign credit card? I haven't signed for a credit card transaction in close to decade.
- twobitshifter 4y ago
  Even at restaurants? You don’t have them bring you the bill, you put your card in and then they bring you back the paper to fill out for the tip and sign? there are some places where they stand at your table and wait for you to punch in a tip, but that’s rare.

by grecy 4y ago

kurthr 4y ago

Wow, that's pretty rare. TTP and chip are basically required now. Unless your card fails, I don't know many places that would have desire or even equipment to swipe. Even square doesn't do it now.

csomar 4y ago

Most places in the US accept Apple Pay now. I think it's harsh to judge the whole country based on a few exceptions. The US is also huge which means some people are going to stick to the old way of doing things.

collegeburner 4y ago
Uhh no that is not true in lots of places. Probably highly region and demographic dependent tho. Also apple pay alone is not a solution, no way am i paying for some overpriced iphone bc "oh were cashless now and only take apple pay".

jltsiren 4y ago

I think that backwardness is now a thing of the past. Most developed countries I'm familiar with made cheap/free wire transfers the most fundamental banking product decades ago. The change was driven by the banks, because handling checks was expensive and there was too much fraud involved. The US never made the change, probably because there were too many banks that could not agree on anything. That doesn't matter much anymore, because online card payments and ACH transfers (which are technically not wire transfers) are prevalent. Another thing that contributes to the perception of backwardness is that American credit card issuers never adopted chip and PIN like the rest of the developed world. Elsewhere, banks wanted to reduce fraud and accepted the need to remember PINs as a small price for that. In the US, banks could afford more fraud due to higher fees, and they chose convenience instead. But today, cards have chips without a PIN anyway, and swiping is used mostly as a rare fallback mechanism. And apps such as Apple Pay and Google Pay (or whatever it's called this week) are quickly removing the need for physical cards.

danaris 4y ago
> I think that backwardness is now a thing of the past. It's really not. Just the other day, I had to pay for gas at a station that still used swipe rather than chip, and then ate at an outdoor café where I had to give my card to the server, who took it away and brought back a sheet to sign and a pen. A lot of places are updating to handle chip and tap-to-pay, which is great, but until swipe entry is completely obsoleted and non-portable terminals for restaurants are banned by the payment processors, there will still be some who hold on because that's what they have and what they know.

mdp2021 4y ago

> then pickup a pen that thousands of others had touched Bring your own pen. It is presumed that you bring around a few essentials. Edit: on the other hand (pun unintended), some operations of electronic money transfer here require people signing on tablets through pens that are of common use and will more hardly be replaced by an owned item.

phist_mcgee 4y ago
"Essentials" Much of the western world is near-digital at this point. I handwrite things so rarely these days that my handwriting has reverted back to year 6 level.
- mdp2021 4y ago
  > Much of the western world [...] // I ... so rarely these days that ... reverted back to year 6 level Don't blame it on the "West". I have rights to blame my rage on the "west". There are no rights to blame what you are not forced to (in this case, e.g. that you abandoned doing math and solving through state-of-the-art "wits hand stick and surface"). Nonetheless, we were talking about signatures. > «Essentials» With «essentials» of course I meant something that you carry around because you know you may need it owing to the environment - not a absolute personal need (as in "I will take notes"), but a relative contextual need (as in "either I bring mine or I will have to share").

MomoXenosaga 4y ago

Yes COVID for me was the final push to go completely cashless.

refurb 4y ago

I assume you're using a foreign credit card? I haven't signed for a credit card transaction in close to decade.

twobitshifter 4y ago
Even at restaurants? You don’t have them bring you the bill, you put your card in and then they bring you back the paper to fill out for the tip and sign? there are some places where they stand at your table and wait for you to punch in a tip, but that’s rare.