Red Robin has them too. I find them a bit tacky, but the whole chain restaurant vibe is a bit tacky, so… no big loss, I guess.
It’ll probably change, eventually. Half the table is probably on their phones anyway. But I do wonder if the manufacturers would have better success if they could make something bound in leather, with an e-paper display, and at least resembles something less high-tech.
Those terminals were useful when I was out of town with three co-workers and we were out to lunch at Olive Garden; the terminal made it easy for each of us to use our corporate card and charge a quarter of the bill.
And actually, I had lunch at a restaurant in the Atlanta airport with a QR code on the table. I scanned the code and was able to pay from my smartphone.
They’re convenient, to be sure. You can also order and call your server with them. I just don’t see them appearing in a “nice” restaurant.
I had an awful experience at an airport with one of those phone-only restaurants. The site itself was utter garbage. But I managed to place the order and pay for it. After that… nothing. Waited for ages for the order. The server was useless since all he knew was what was on the screen. Eventually we got in contact with somebody and we ate like an hour after ordering.
Same flaw as every internet service company. Works fine most of the time, but when it doesn’t you have essentially zero recourse. Not a fan of that principle applied to restaurants.
I could see that waiting an hour for your food might be a problem in an airport, where you might have only limited time until your flight starts to board.
Perhaps. It’s a Citi Bank corporate card, I don’t really know much more offhand. Not my money, not really my problem other than the bullshit expense report!
But the same card in different places had me need to do different things.
It was weird.
Meanwhile my personal card chip/tap whatever has stopped working and I need another one. It’s a PITA to use the PIN for basic purchases.
My Luxembourg bank charges a flat service fee of three euros per month to maintain our accounts and the associated debit and credit cards and to process all transactions to and from everything.
In Switzerland, all invoices must have a QR code. The QR code includes all the necessary information to pay the invoice.
This started in 2020, and has been the default since 1 October 2022. The QR-bill: efficiency squared
Switzerland also has TWINT (also available for people with German and French phone numbers), which means I can pay my neighbor by using their phone number, or pay at the grocery store, farm store, food truck, etc., via a QR code. TWINT charges only 1.5 % per transaction, not 2.5% (VISA or Mastercard) and there is no fee for using the service.
Many people in Switzerland still want to use cash, so even though the payments possibilities are similar to China, cash is still here. Last year we went to a streetfood festival and it wasn’t possible to pay with cash. So a lot of people didn’t go. This year they accepted cash.
For monthly payments, I get a e-Bill notification in my e-Banking app and I approve it. I could also choose to automatically approve the payments, but I do not, except for my mortgage payments.
In Switzerland, yes. All the banks do. And paper statements cost extra.
Here is the UBS fee structure in English. Many of the fees are per month, not per year.
It amuses me that all these people are adamantly telling that credit cards are just a convenient way to pay stuff.
Yet consumers in the US are on average 6.5k in credit card debt.
Re: the US banking system.
After reading this thread I think the US system is being made overly complicated by banks/retailers bending over backwards to accommodate every last arcane payment method. If you want to you can probably do everything with your phone, same as everywhere.
Here you can’t pay your groceries with a check. They stopped accepting them 23 years ago. We used to have paper transfer orders to send to our bank (long a common way to pay our bills) those were phased out in 2023. So now it’s cash, electronic transfer (I think you’d call it Zelle), or debit/credit card. I think all those also exist in the US only there are a number of weird payment methods grandfathered in. And somehow it is possible for people to require any weird form of payment or they don’t understand they can just give their details and everyone can just transfer money to them. OR somehow the banks are charging lower fees for the most arcane transfer methods - I find this hard to believe.
That’s a whole different topic, but yes, it’s all too easy to slide into credit card debt. It’s an insidious trap if one lacks financial discipline. It amazes me that the interest rates they charge are actually legal, and don’t fall under laws against usury. I guess that just illustrates the political power of banks.
Apparently, UK consumers manage with “only” £1,281 CC debt.
I have three credit cards: One from my bank, which is used for the vast majority of transactions; one from a store which earns me discounts on groceries and fuel, and a free Amex card that I got purely for the airmiles.
I could easily do without Amex but when we travel abroad I am conscious of the need for instantly available credit in the event of an emergency. I am also aware that if one card is lost or stolen, and I have to put a stop on it (which I can do with the app on my phone), I will have backup card(s) available. Of course I don’t tuck them all together in a handy wallet.
Banks in the UK wanted to start charging account holders for the privilege but they were prevented by the then government. In fact, they are obliged to offer a “basic” accounts, mainly for people on low incomes or benefits. These accounts allow payments in, and offer a debit card to withdraw cash, but no overdraft of any other benefits.
I once watched a fly-on-the-wall documentary in which the police were watching a particular ATM at midnight on Thursday. A while before that. a queue began to form and just after midnight people started withdrawing cash. Apparently, this was the earliest time they could draw their benefits, and most of them needed cash to buy drugs.
Amex now has a mix of charge and credit cards. The classic “no preset spending limit” cards are charge cards, the others are traditional credit cards.
What laws against usury? There are no federal laws and very few state laws. Most of which are set real high.
I have to thank “all y’all” for confirming that internationally-speaking, service fees seem to be the norm at many large-ish banks. I thought it was strictly a US-based money grab that the ‘big guys’ grabbed onto as soon as they figured out they could get away with it.
My next question (which may hijack the OP again), is why this is a practice at all anymore. Is the banking system that backward that they have to squeeze every last drop out of its customer base?
I see @Cervaise 's answer though. I guess the cost of processing transactions was just absorbed by the banks–now it cuts into their profit margin.
Tripler
Gotta fund those CEO ‘Golden Parachutes’ somehow, I guess. . .
Backwards? Nah, just “profit-driven.” I can’t speak to non-U.S. banks, but nearly all U.S. banks of any real size are for-profit, publicly-owned corporations.
Yet another way where the US is backwards. The limit was an APR of 48% in Canada, reduced to 35% as of this year.
Hope it’s not too much of a hijack, but this seems to be a good place to mention credit unions. They seem to take various forms worldwide, but in the US they’re something along the lines of a co-op: a member-owned institution that provides most of the function of a commercial bank, but is by definition a non-profit. They suffer most of the infrastructure constraints of their commercial counterparts (such as lack of a common method of processing transactions), but in my experience go about their business with much less folderol.
Thank you; I’d meant to mention credit unions as a contrast to most U.S. banks, and forgot to do so.
Japanese banks are expensive, unfortunately. They charge a ridiculous fee for bank transfers.
There isn’t a monthly fee but they charge ATM fees.
Most of our bills come as preprinted forms that we pay by cash at convenience stores. Our propane gas and kerosene is paid at the supplier.
Cellular and Internet are charged to our credit card and that is withdrawn automatically from our account.
the banks charge fees to merchants whenever a credit card transaction occurs
and don’t forget the paycheck-advance places with their high rates