I hope this takes off solely so I can pay with a credit card directly at my table at restaurants instead of having them take it to back of house. Much of Europe has been doing this correctly for a long time now
I'd even be happy if the United States can go one step prior to this and actually have the customer-facing portion of the terminal (the bit with the slot, keypad, and NFC reader) actually face the customer. I'd use tap-to-pay and such far more often if I could reliably use the part of the terminal that's supposed to be for my use and if it said up front if tap and insert are supported.
Instead, right now we get this madness, especially at a lot of smaller shops, where the clerk is using the merchant side box to enter the payment amount then fumbles around with the customer side pad to insert the card and complete the transaction for me.
Just let me tap or enter my PIN, please.
(I have two cards that are PIN primary. I've put stickers on both that read, in large letters, "THIS CARD USES A PIN PLEASE ALLOW ME TO ENTER IT." On one of them, it has, in smaller letters, "THE TRANSACTION WILL DECLINE IF YOU DON'T.")
That's exactly how it usually works everywhere here in Poland. The terminal faces me, I tap the card to it and enter the PIN. At least in my bank, PIN is needed for every transaction above 50 PLN, so I can't imagine it any different.
I'm on the East Coast, and I find that lots of stores have the user-facing terminals now. Either the are tablets that flip or turn, or they are a permanently outward-facing screen like the Square one. The latter type is definitely preferable.
In Canada, the server generally just brings a terminal to my table with the bill. They put in the amount owed, and I use the terminal to add tip and complete the transaction.
Speaking as an American, I've always found at-the-table swiping to be kind of strange, at least for higher end meals. It puts the commerce part of the evening a little too front and center for me. Or maybe I'm just not used to it.
I'm an American who spends a decent amount of time in western Europe, to give you where I'm coming from. At high-end meals it is just like everything else with the service; if done properly, it is just as smooth and elegant as the rest of the meal. I actually prefer the single "interruption" of pay and depart (or not, considering most European dining styles involve a suitable amount of lingering even after payment) versus the request check, check delivered, payment method retrieved, ticket returned for signature series of steps, possibly including an optional return for the server to pick up the signed ticket prior to departure due to some back-of-house requirement.
I think you're simply not used to it. Meals are almost always paid at the table here in Canada. Basically, the bill comes out, server either has or will come back with the machine, enters cost, hands it to you. You tip on the machine, tap, done. For higher end stuff or groups you break the $100 tap limit, so it's insert and enter pin, but it's still quick.
The speed of it is quick, and it also gives a good chance for wrapping things up (can we get this packed, thank-yous, goodbyes if it's a bigger group, etc).
Of course, it may also help that we have chip-and-pin and tap pretty universally, so we rarely hand our card over to anyone - having the server take the card is incredibly strange for me when I'm down in the US.
As someone living in Canada, what surprised me when i went to the States for the first time was the restaurant's reluctance to split the bill individually, something we take it for granted in Canada.
I've handed over my card to strangers hundreds (or maybe thousands?) of times in my life and had no problems to date. So ya, not really worried about it.
I suspect a lot of comfort with what happens with credit cards in the United States comes from people believing that their card issuer will simply handle the problem if any fraudulent or merely unauthorized charges appear. There's no risk from the card going out of sight if the card is useless because the card issuer will reverse charges upon request. (Moving to chips, even with signature, is supposed to alleviate the main source of fraud here, that being cloning the card.)
That said, I'm with you; I much prefer to have my card handled just once and within sight. It is faster, safer, and, to my mind, simply more convenient.
You are probably right, but that comfort comes at a price, and the price can be seen right there in the original article: 2.6% + 10 cent credit card payment overhead.
And that is considered "cheap"! By contrast, in the European Union there's a cap of 0.3% on credit card interchange rates and 0.2% on debit. Of course that's just the raw interchange fee; a small merchant has to pay more than that to its card processor, but there are all-inclusive, Square-like offers for debit card processing fees below 1% for small merchants, and larger ones manage to keep both debit and credit processing cost way below 1%.
So the "comfort" of being able to hand over your credit card to someone who takes it out of view and possibly does unauthorized stuff with it increases prices of all the stuff you buy by roughly 2-3%.
Is this actually the case though? Even if your card is taken by the staff and you don't see being charged, you are still being charged and some entity is processing the payment. I find it hard to believe that there are no fees just because terminal is stationary.
It's way more convenient. In the US, primarily, you either ask for the bill, you wait until they bring it, you give them your credit card, wait for them to charge it and bring back your card and the copy to sign, then you are free to leave.
In the EU, you ask for the bill, they bring you the bill and the credit card machine, and you are charged right there at the table, where you have to sign (because you have an US Credit Card after all)
Actually it's kind of funny when you visit remote places in Europe, and the proprietors are confused because this is the first time they've rang up a US Credit card, and the machine spits out a second receipt asking them to validate the signature.
It's embarrassing for Americans because they're squeamish. They have to leave a tip, and if the server is doing the payment right there, you have to actually face them when leaving your embarrassingly inadequate tip.
In the American model, payment is processed away from the customer and the bill is left for tip-adding after the server has left, to save the sensitibilities of cheap customers who tip badly.
Not a European expert by any means, but I've found that when you pay with CC there usually isn't a place to leave a tip. Tipping is done with spare change left on the table.
Also, I thought tipping itself isn't necessary, as many european countries have social programs to offset low wages.
Living in Germany: In most high-pricing restaurant situations I experience the person making the payment for the group would briefly before the last drinks are empty, approach the waiter/bar and make the payment away from the table. Also to avoid debates such as "let me pay, no let me pay, no you can't etc etc"
Mobile terminal doesn't prevent you from doing that. :-) That's what I do if I want to skip on the "no, lemme pay" banter. What I find curious though is that there are places in Germany where one can pay using plastic. ;-) It's always a complete PITA that most places I visit in Germany take cash exclusively.
Not limited to Japan.
Most places I've been to have you paying either before or after you eat from some form of counter. Depends what kind of place it is
Canada switched to that sort of system when chip+PIN was introduced many years ago, so the hardware is available in North America as well from major providers like Verifone. It's just that you need more terminals for concurrency with such a system, and it's not integrated into the full POS system so the waiter/clerk has to actually input the amount. Nobody wants to pay extra if they don't have to, which is why it's not as quick to rollout in the US. Chip+signature in the US still doesn't require the customer to interact with the payment terminal, so I doubt US restaurants and other businesses will be quick to switch to this or other handheld terminals.
This is what I’ve wanted to bring to the US from China. QR code on the table that lets you order and pay from your phone. It’s my favorite part of WeChat in China.
I prefer the privacy of the waiter going and coming back - there are a lot of social norms involved in "getting the check" and bringing the terminal to the table would really disrupt that, possibly for the better but who knows.
Imagine going out with some clients and getting "insufficient funds" notice what an embarrassment that would be...the waiter acts as a buffer or could in some cases get your attention.
But your definitely right from a security perspective and privacy this is much better...other than the insane fees they collect :)
What do I care if they skim my credit card? It’s not my money until I pay my bank. I can report a fraudulent transaction and request a new card right from my bank’s app.
They DO already in much of Europe. Every single restaurant in Norway operates this way. It's fantastic. You pay and go on your own time and you don't worry about your card getting skimmed. Nothing not to love.
At Chili's (an American chain restaurant) they have these payment devices on each table. I can't stand them. First, they take up space on the table that can get quite crowded with all the plates and glasses that tend to accumulate during the meal. Second, they play constant ads (great, now each table can have a TV! What a wonderful distraction). Third, I've experienced about a third of the time, the device isn't working properly, or breaks down partway through paying (my coworkers and I now treat the device as if it'll shatter if you so much as look at it wrong). And fourth, it seems to take longer to pay when the check is being split vs. the waitron [1] taking our cards and processing the payments given the verbose nature of the UI.
And finally, I don't know if a skimmer has been added to the device by previous customers. It is left on the table.
Or, if you don't want to sound like you are describing a robot using a term Merriam-Webster describes as “vaguely disparaging” [0], you could use the gender neutral term almost universally used in the industry, “server”.
Thanks. In South Africa "waitron" is standard, and I hate it, and most people from outside the country just have a "wut" reaction. "Server" is much better.
That's not what's proposed. This would be a terminal that is carried by the waiter to your table, not one per table like in Chilli's/Red Robin/Applebees.
I know Clover has a similar terminal that I've seen used in restaurants around Seattle, and if you go to a restaurant outside of the US, you'd likely see what's being proposed here.
Many places already have this in the US. They have longer range table side machines or cellular based. These have been around for years. Its up to the establishments to choose the terminal they want to use.
Instead, right now we get this madness, especially at a lot of smaller shops, where the clerk is using the merchant side box to enter the payment amount then fumbles around with the customer side pad to insert the card and complete the transaction for me.
Just let me tap or enter my PIN, please.
(I have two cards that are PIN primary. I've put stickers on both that read, in large letters, "THIS CARD USES A PIN PLEASE ALLOW ME TO ENTER IT." On one of them, it has, in smaller letters, "THE TRANSACTION WILL DECLINE IF YOU DON'T.")