Re:EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros
by rtkwe on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @11:42AM
(#18969563)
> I saw this exact thing, for some reason they had no backup system to accept cash
To accept cash as a back up you have to have all the items in place to accept it all the time basically. You need the register and to have enough cash on hand to cover giving change plus the accounting and tracking at the end of the day to make sure cash hasn't walked. So if a place has the ability to accept cash intermittently they might as well accept it always.
Re:EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros
by dalore on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @01:47PM
(#18971046)
For those that don't handle cash, they could get some sort of insurance to make up for lost business (and any brand damage) if the machines go down.
Re:EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros
by bluejekyll on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @01:54PM
(#18971139)
Yeah, I realized that something along those lines is the issue. It's still surprising when a business can't operate in a situation like this.
Re:EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros
by e12e on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:03PM
(#18969822)
At least in Norway most visa debit (and/or credit) cards now come with nfc/"tap" payment up to a certain amount (10-15 usd I think) - with no need for chip&pin for "Small" transactions.
Has some issues wrt theft (portable pay terminal with boosted nfc signal/antenna) - but certainly convenient.
Re:EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros
by bryondowd on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:50PM
(#18970396)
Most of the places here in the US seem to have gone to chip only for small payments, with a signature on amounts over some limit, dependant on merchant. Wish we'd catch up and use pins.
Re:EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros
by bluejekyll on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @01:53PM
(#18971126)
As I understand it, the major card companies all required vendors to upgrade their payment systems to use chip. If they didn't (by some date I think last year) then they moved the liability from themselves in regards to credit-card fraud to the vendor.
Re:EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros
by colejohnson66 on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @05:59PM
(#18973528)
Isn’t there an exception for gas stations?
Re:EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros
by kyriakos on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @03:54PM
(#18972355)
I can't remember how long it's been since I signed for a cc transaction. Aren't PINs used in the US?
Re:EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros
by rfinney on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @04:23PM
(#18972614)
Generally not for credit cards. It is used for debit cards.
It's a problem buying gas (petrol) at unattended stations in Europe for Americans using credit cards. We don't know our PIN for credit cards.
Re:EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros
by Domenic_S on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:27PM
(#18970140)
> For cash you need to always make sure you stop by an ATM.
I used to get cash back at the grocery store. Very easy way to keep the wallet stocked since you're there 1-2x a week
Re:EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros
by freeone3000 on Wednesday January 23, 2019 @10:07AM
(#18978705)
The backup system in north america is a manual impression scan, where a carbon copy impression of the front of the card is made for later offline processing. Is this not available as a backup for when the electronic methods go down?
But ApplePay is actually more pleasant than both. I can pay with my phone and my watch. It is a faster transaction than both cash and credit, and no need to pull my wallet out.
With one big exception! There are a few places in the city that are starting to only accept credit/applepay/etc., but when their terminals go offline, they’re screwed. I saw this exact thing, for some reason they had no backup system to accept cash. I assume this is a rare issue, but still, I couldn’t believe they couldn’t resort to cash.