Stores Without Cardreaders

[Vermachtnis]

So I don't carry cash on me. At most, I have just a few dollars, everything else is in the bank. I went and got my ears lowered and when I went to pay, they said they didn't have a card reader and I had no idea what to do. I had to go next door and buy something to get money out.

So, do you carry cash on you? What do you think of stores with out card readers?

[Pant Leg Eater from the Bad World]

You got your ears lowered? What is this?

But yeah, some stores just need to get with the times already. Jeesh.

[Jess]

Ears lowered? What on earth? Please explain.

I don't really carry cash on me, so it's a real pain if I'm going somewhere without a card machine.

[Vermachtnis]

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k273/AKA_Gluttony/earslowered_zps4fedcf1f.jpeg (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/AKA_Gluttony/media/earslowered_zps4fedcf1f.jpeg.html)

Didn't ya'll watch that episode of Doug where he got a haircut?

[Pant Leg Eater from the Bad World]

xD

I get it. I suppose I just haven't heard that expression before.

[Mirage]

I didn't even know stores without card terminals existed anymore. Well, I knew they do in other countries, but in Norway, many street vendor booths even have them, using the cell network for verifications. If it's a store in an actual building, you'd practically be losing every other potential customer by not having one.

Unless I have a very special reason to, I never carry more than 10 bucks in my wallet. I'm not charged for using my card anyway, so I use it for absolutely everything, even as little as a single pack of chewing gum. I can withdraw like 100 bucks at any normal store anyway without them getting pissy about it, and ATMs are usually not very far apart if I need more. I really enjoy not having to worry about losing more than the cost of my wallet if I lose it.

Whenever I hear stories about people losing or finding sums of money in the 100-1000 dollar range, all I can think is "why on earth would you carry that in your wallet?" If it's a really large sum, I don't wonder though, because then it's usually for shady purposes, to do things under the radar, or straight up stolen money. Not that staying under the radar or doing sensitive things is something I consider bad by default, but for normal use, I don't get why people wouldn't just use a card. It's a bit too tinfoilhat to worry that your bank can see which store you bought food at. They can't see what you bought anyway. I know it might seem a bit naive to "trust" that the banks aren't sharing this info with anyone but the police (and whatever other police-like governmental instances), but I do believe they don't think it's worth the risk, considering how much trouble they could get in if they were busted.

[Dat Matt]

I hate carrying small change on me. Bills? Great, i'll carry £100 on me no problem. £0.98 in change in my wallet. Hate it.

I tend to not pay things by card where possible though.

[blackmage_nuke]

I try to pay with cash as much as possible to keep the feds off my back but sometimes Im just lazy

[Mirage]

TINFOIL TINFOIL

[Denmark]

i generally don't carry that much cash but if i know i'm gonna need cash then i go to get cash from the cash producing machine

[noxious.sunshine]

The store we get beer at doesn't have a credit card machine, but they do have an ATM.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

I generally use a card. It's efficient. Instead of digging around for bills and change just swipe it and you're good to go.

I will occasionally go to the atm if i'm going to visit small locally owned shops just because I don't know if they've got all that set up. Most of the time it's not necessary. I'll take money out for things I'm paying a person directly for, such as a haircut.

[Mirage]

hairdressers have card terminals too here
like all of them

[Pike]

they do here too Mirage, I like to leave a couple bucks tip though.

I haven't seen a place without a card reader in forever. I guess when I went to get my car fixed earlier this year it was a mom & pop outfit so I had to write a check, but other than that... nope, I just use my card.

As for carrying cash... I'll usually carry about ~$20 but beyond that, nope.

[Mirage]

oh yeah the tipping business
we don't do that thing over here anyway and when we do we just put in a few bucks extra when paying with cards

[Jessweeee♪]

man even the guy selling strawberry preserves at the park yesterday had a card reader on his iphone

[LocoColt04]

Yeah, SQUARE and other such pay-by-phone things are super awesome.

There's an awesome dive bar here in town that I love, but it's been cash only since the day it opened. I only get cash now when I plan on going to Tanstaafl or bar-hopping in general, because it's easier to budget rather than open a tab and accidentally spend $400 at a bar.

[Raistlin]

I use my credit card for almost everything, but I do like to keep $50-60 cash in my wallet. Sometimes my colleagues and I will go out for a happy hour somewhere and share appetizers, and then it's nice to have some cash to help split a bill or leave a tip. And I'll make some smaller purchases with cash.

Stores without card readers are still very annoying, even if continuously less common.

[starlet]

I get tips so I usually always have some cash on me, which is nice because most gas stations around here charge 10 cents less a gallon when paying with cash. Also I worked at a shop a couple years ago that didn't have a card reader, or a computer for record keeping for that matter. It was kind of embarrassing to tell clients "I'm sorry, we live in the stone age here".... I don't think that shop owner will ever get with the times, technology scares her :lol:

[Pant Leg Eater from the Bad World]

Oh. I just remembered. My barber doesn't have a card reader. And that is really annoying because their ATM doesn't work either.

Also. I need to go get my hair cut.

[Shauna]

I continually misread this thread title as "Stories without Caretakers".

I don't even.

[Old Manus]

It's a real problem for caretakers working on the story above who have to pick up the slack.

[Mirage]

Oh. I just remembered. My barber doesn't have a card reader. And that is really annoying because their ATM doesn't work either.

Also. I need to go get my hair cut.
Your barber doesn't have a card reader but they have their own ATM? I don't even...

[Yellow_Magic]

NFC 4 lyfe suckas

[escobert]

I don't even know what a card reader is... I use cash most the time. Debit card for online purchasing and bills. Checks for rent. I don't want any of this Newfangled crap. I hole punched that stupid little microchip out of m debit card.

[Mirage]

Why. Do you think the government can track you less if you use your card the old fashioned way?

[Loony BoB]

In New Zealand, even door to door salespeople had their EFTPOS terminals attached to their belts. If somewhere didn't take card then it was basically an easy way to lose customers.

Coming to the UK was like walking back in time for me. Only about half of the corner shops accept card. Good luck finding an ice cream van that will accept card, too. I dunno if it's just the places I've been, but yeah, cash is still very much in use on this end of the world. Most decent organisations will still have cards, though, and one of the two corner shops just outside our block of flats takes card now too. Shames it's the grumpy one... the other people are way friendlier, and they get our service because of that.

I tend to carry a few coins on me but not much. I don't like small change, only a couple of £1 coins will meet my general needs (mostly for the sake of getting a shopping trolley).

[escobert]

Why. Do you think the government can track you less if you use your card the old fashioned way?

A) I don't have a credit card
B) I only have a debit card and have run across people who's card have been wrongly picked up by the readers and charged for things they didn't buy. I don't want that to happen to me
C) yes, its a RFID chip so it can be tracked and picked up.

[Mirage]

I never said you had a credit card. I said "card". You never said it was an RFID chip either :p. Cards over here usually only have a chip that you need to insert into a machine and then input a code. It's functionally the exact same as swiping a card with a magnetic stripe, except that in my experience, the chips last longer than the magnetic stripes do before card readers start getting problems reading them.

I also wonder how people would manage to pay for things they didn't intend to pay for though. Don't you need to input your PIN when you use NFC cards? I would never want to have something that didn't require me to prove who I was before paying, and I find it hard to believe that you actually have cards over there where this is possible. The NFC cards I do have (public transit card, work access card) also have a really short range. I need to be within 5-10 cm of the reader and keep it stationary for a second or two for them to register it, so I doubt it would be a more reliable way for people to keep track of where you are (compared to how you'd normally use a debit/credit card), unless you are the kind of person who brushes your wallet up against every detector-like thing you see.


In New Zealand, even door to door salespeople had their EFTPOS terminals attached to their belts. If somewhere didn't take card then it was basically an easy way to lose customers.
I haven't had a door to door salesman at my door in... almost forever, but everyone who delivers food or such on your door have wireless card readers with them. I doubt I'd order pizzas anywhere near as often as I do if I couldn't pay with my card.

A place that doesn't accept my card digitally is likely to not get a purchase by me. It's as simple as that. Coins are heavy, notes are bothersome. When I want to travel really light, I just put my card into phone's protective case and that's it.

[Formalhaut]

It's really annoying on my University campus as there's only two cash machines and they're right next to each other, and the building they're in closes at like 8:00 or 9:00 in the evening.

This is usually fine, as the vending machines take card. But for some reason, both food places on campus do not take card. There's a fantastic pizza internet cafe place, and a learning cafe, and both don't have card readers. I don't understand it. At least make it a '£5 or more' rule or something.

It is annoying. It's why I try to have around £20 or so on me. Just in case.

[escobert]

I also live in a place where people were still using dial up until this year, more dirt roads than paved, less than 1 million people in the entire state. 60% forest.. you get the idea, we aren't in the leading edge of technology here. Most towns don't have more than 2 stores anyways so you're not very likely to find one with much more than a card swiper and that's only because we get so many flatlanders up here on vacation that don't carry cash. Hell people still use barter and trade here, everyone's a dickerer! :p

[Mirage]

the "town" (if you can even call it that) where i grew up has a population of 300 people and one single store, and they've had a card reader for at least 18 years :p. The same goes for the neighbouring towns who were just slightly bigger, so idk ;p

[escobert]

you crazy Europeans don't count ;)