Re:People reluctant to use their Octopus cards for fear of l...
by oarsinsync on Friday June 14, 2019 @09:40AM
(#20182878)
Acceptance of payment mechanism is the other difference. Debit and credit cards aren't accepted as widely as cash or Octopus in HK.
Funnily enough, if you go to the more hipster parts of London, cash isn't accepted and you need a debit or credit card to pay in an increasingly large number of stores. Anecdotally, food trucks and markets often will prefer cards over cash (I ask which they prefer if I can do either) in London, while in HK I'll attempt to pay for everything by card first, and unless it's an upscale restaurant, I'll usually be rejected and get told cash/octopus only.
I also don't think you get contactless with prepaid cards. There's the whole up to 3x £30 guarantee / fraud angle that can't be covered adequately on a prepaid card. (On a regular debit card, you can do up to 3x £30 transactions without authorisation, and if any of them are fraudulent, your bank will reimburse you, regardless of whether or not your card has been (reported) stolen)
Funnily enough, if you go to the more hipster parts of London, cash isn't accepted and you need a debit or credit card to pay in an increasingly large number of stores. Anecdotally, food trucks and markets often will prefer cards over cash (I ask which they prefer if I can do either) in London, while in HK I'll attempt to pay for everything by card first, and unless it's an upscale restaurant, I'll usually be rejected and get told cash/octopus only.
I also don't think you get contactless with prepaid cards. There's the whole up to 3x £30 guarantee / fraud angle that can't be covered adequately on a prepaid card. (On a regular debit card, you can do up to 3x £30 transactions without authorisation, and if any of them are fraudulent, your bank will reimburse you, regardless of whether or not your card has been (reported) stolen)