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How would you pay a plumber who came at short notice to unblock a drain? Or, say, the fees paid for your child's karate class? Or a 'cash' gift for a teenage

How would you pay a plumber who came at short notice to unblock a drain? Or, say, the fees paid for your child's karate class? Or a 'cash' gift for a teenage nephew? Those are/were cases where cheques were used in Britain, but the first and second are now often a portable chip debit/credit card reader, or else an electronic transfer. The third could still be a cheque, or could be an electronic bank transfer. (No-one has paid by cheque in a shop since about 2011, when the system to protect against fraud in this case was removed.)

humanistbot 4y ago
> How would you pay a plumber who came at short notice to unblock a drain? > Or, say, the fees paid for your child's karate class? I forgot a third development, which is thanks to Stripe and other mobile-friendly payment processors. All you need is a smartphone, and they send you a mini card reader that plugs into your phone. I see them all the time at farmers markets and even paid for a tow truck using one once. > Or a 'cash' gift for a teenage nephew? Kids these days use Venmo or rarely paypal. I don't like them and my family uses Zelle to send money to each other from our different banks. Same when we do collections at work for an employee's retirement gift, the organizer just sent their mobile and asked everyone to send money through Zelle. People even pay their landlords with Zelle now.
- sidpatil 4y ago
  > I forgot a third development, which is thanks to Stripe and other mobile-friendly payment processors. All you need is a smartphone, and they send you a mini card reader that plugs into your phone. Did you mean Square? They were one of the first (if not the first) payment processors, iirc, to make it easy for merchants to offer card-swipe to customers, via the mobile phone attachment you mentioned.
pacifika 4y ago
Wait for the bill in the post
kube-system 4y ago
Here in the US, when you hire a plumber/electrician/etc the large polished companies will all take a card payment (or offer financing), and the small independent one-man operations will sometime take card, but often offer a discount for paying check or cash.

humanistbot 4y ago

> How would you pay a plumber who came at short notice to unblock a drain? > Or, say, the fees paid for your child's karate class? I forgot a third development, which is thanks to Stripe and other mobile-friendly payment processors. All you need is a smartphone, and they send you a mini card reader that plugs into your phone. I see them all the time at farmers markets and even paid for a tow truck using one once. > Or a 'cash' gift for a teenage nephew? Kids these days use Venmo or rarely paypal. I don't like them and my family uses Zelle to send money to each other from our different banks. Same when we do collections at work for an employee's retirement gift, the organizer just sent their mobile and asked everyone to send money through Zelle. People even pay their landlords with Zelle now.

sidpatil 4y ago
> I forgot a third development, which is thanks to Stripe and other mobile-friendly payment processors. All you need is a smartphone, and they send you a mini card reader that plugs into your phone. Did you mean Square? They were one of the first (if not the first) payment processors, iirc, to make it easy for merchants to offer card-swipe to customers, via the mobile phone attachment you mentioned.

pacifika 4y ago

Wait for the bill in the post

kube-system 4y ago

Here in the US, when you hire a plumber/electrician/etc the large polished companies will all take a card payment (or offer financing), and the small independent one-man operations will sometime take card, but often offer a discount for paying check or cash.