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You'd be surprised. I visited South America and all I saw was phone payments... They basically skipped the credit card age, as cards were never popular among th
by glimshe 3y ago
You'd be surprised. I visited South America and all I saw was phone payments... They basically skipped the credit card age, as cards were never popular among the poor.
- ajmurmann 3y agoAren't the phone payments backed by credit cards or do they by preloaded vouchers?
- baq 3y agoBank accounts directly I’d assume. Why add another layer of indirection?
- xadhominemx 3y agoIt varies by country but a lot of them are just virtual debit and credit cards because the payments run over the card network rails.
- fundad 3y agoIt’s not surprising that a lot Murica is decades behind most places in the world. Especially places where foreigners visit.
- EasyMark 3y agoHow is it behind? I've not been at a store in a while that I couldn't use apple pay or a card? I know it's popular to bag on America, but I figure most of HN is better than that.
- canucker2016 3y agoUntil Apple Pay and other smartphone-related payment methods became common, the USA credit card was technologically behind much of Europe, Canada, and other developed countries. Chip-and-PIN (EMV, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV) is the standard in Europe and Canada for relaying credit card info & authentication. Many USA retailers were stuck using the credit card's magnetic stripe for entering card info. Evidently the USA still hasn't moved to Chip-and-PIN, with Chip and Signature being more common. Updating the point-of-sale terminals has been the chokepoint supposedly, https://lauraclery.com/chip-and-pin-united-states/ https://lauraclery.com/chip-and-pin-united-states/.