It’s considered a personal item other people who are not the owner may not use. And there is no reason for anyone to take it, because like you said, the device either comes to you or you walk to it yourself. It’s considered highly suspicious if anyone would take the card.
It’s not paranoia; it’s normal level of security. Cards require(d) PIN, so you don’t give the card and the number to people. That leaves you with the option of being at the same place with the POS terminal.
Even now, with some spending limits increased so you don’t have to use a PIN, the habit is already established.
In the Netherlands you get taught your debit/credit card is something private, something you shouldn’t give to other people. When you are in a country where people walk away with your card you get suspicious because it goes against your beliefs
In my experience (as a non American) it’s that I’m never worried about it because it’s a non-issue. It’s only in the US when a server walks away with my card that I get paranoid. Also for tipping in the US I need to trust the server not to add a zero to the end of whatever number I wrote. In other counties I can either type in the tip on the machine myself, or ask the server to enter the total with the tip on the machine before I pay.
What do you mean by " money is insured"?
Generally all tranactions made with PIN are considered as your willing actions, so its said you shouldn't give acces to your card to anyone.
Besides that there are payments without any pin- just touching the card to device , untill you block card or call the bank its considered valid.
And at last - do you hand the waiter cash when pay or give him wallet and wait untill he bring it back ?
I was on an Amtrak Train in 2018 and they still had those carbon copy credit card imprint machines. Felt so weird watching them take a copy of my card and then it took days for the charge to actually show up on my account.
Payment processors handle the transactions, the PoS terminal isn't talking to your bank directly. Even then, banks get along just fine as far as transactions are concerned.
What are you talking about? The waiter still runs all of the cards from the same system in America. The card type doesn't matter. Also, machines being brought to the table aren't super common but not unheard of in the states.
Associate membership of the EU has been proposed. Canada would be the first to get that membership if it goes through.
In theory Canada could be a full member because there's a landborder with the EU thanks to some random rock (Hans island) near Greenland that happens to have the greenland/canada border running over it.
Greenland isn’t in the EU, despite being a part of the Danish realm. And why would a land border with an EU country qualify you for EU membership anyways?
They bring the device to you which seems much more secure.
there are restaurants in California that have started doing this since 2021. However a lot of people don't like them because of the device asking for a tip and the server hovering around them waiting for them to finish paying so they can get the device back (and for the record, California does not have a separate minimum wage for servers like most other states so everyone makes the same $16.90/hr whether they're a server or retail worker)
I think this is no longer true for many people. I actually can’t remember the last time I had my card taken away except for some “fancy” restaurants. Many places just bring the device right to you now
It’s been that way in Europe for ages. But it’s been common in the US for the last ten years. At least in major metros. We skipped the bulky credit card readers and printers they had and leaped right to iPod touches.
Weren't creditcards famously known to be less secure because you could swipe them without a PIN or even copy the magnet strip? Debit cards in Europe have had a magnet strip + PIN + chip for 3 decades now and you can't build any credit debt which, in my book, is the safer option.
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u/thalassicus 2h ago
You never hand your credit card to a waiter or merchant who then takes it away to run it. They bring the device to you which seems much more secure.