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On Saturday, February 23, 2019 at 1:03:30 AM UTC-5, Rod Speed wrote:
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Rod Speed wrote

The U.S. banking system is the dinosaur.

True, weird that the country that invented the credit card
manages to have the crudest card system around even now.

Tho admittedly you don't see to many using those
machines which put the card on a multi sheet piece
of paper and sort of run the handle over the card so
it prints the car details onto the paper slips anymore.

I bet quite a few places still have those under the cash
register in case their computer connection is down.

Very few can do anything with no power anymore, no way
to even use cash with the checkout not being powered.

One giant leap for you lot.

You lot still use checks much more than most now too.

On average, yes. The devil's in the details, though.
I write a check for my property taxes because the
township charges a fee for either credit cards or EFT.

Because north america has stupid card fees, much higher than
the rest of the world, even with visa and mastercard cards.

Some contractors are easier to pay with checks.

Not here, I can pay any cellphone number. Same
in the wilds of africa too, the vast bulk of those
transaction are done between cellphones.

Other than that, I mainly use credit cards for anything
over $10 and cash for anything under $10.

I use the phone for everything except garage/yard sale
purchases now. I can pay to any cellphone number but
its not worth the hassle convincing the seller that thats
a valid transaction with people queuing to pay for what
they have bought and not so convenient for the seller.

My arbitrary limit. I just feel like a fool whipping out the
plastic for a loaf of bread.

Thats mad. Makes no sense to fart around ensuring you
have enough cash in the wallet to pay for the bread.

In fact some of our operations that flog coffee etc dont accept
any cash at all, its card or phone or watch or go without.

I do get a little vexed with old ladies
using checks at the grocery store.

Ours stopped accepting checks decades ago now.

You can somewhat blame the sensationalistic media who
were telling us anyone walking down the street could read
the information off of an RFID or other wireless credit card.

That doesn't explain why chip and pin was so slow coming to america.

Same reason we don't use SI. People are suspicious of change.

And yet they didnt do that with cellphones, computers, TV or even politics.