[vonmoltke]

> America is very backwards in tech for daily life. About 2 years ago I was blown away when I arrived at the San Francisco airport and had to buy a train card with a Visa card; the customer service guy got flustered and pulled an old carbon paper swiper thing out from under the desk, and asked for my signature.

America is very backwards because of one thing that happened to you that has literally never happened to me in the 21+ years I have been an adult here?

How did you even find a human to pay? I have always used a ticket vending machine at SFO.

[rorykoehler]

Cheques haven't even existed for 15+ years here in Ireland. America is quite slow on the uptake of tech considering they are arguably the most disruptive innovators in the world as a country.

[seanmcdirmid]

I haven’t used checks routinely for the last 20 years in the states. I’m always really annoyed when some random niche activity requires it and can’t accept an online transfer. Then I have to go to the bank and get a temporary one.

[wenc]

Checks still have lower transaction fees for large amounts than most electronic forms do payment (cost: a postage stamp).

I was looking for electronic ways to send a substantial wad of money domestically once and almost all electronic transfer providers wanted a percentage.

Would be interested to know if there are any online services that can match the transaction fee of a check.

[easymodex]

Cryptocurrencies.

[Scoundreller]

You might want to bite the bullet and buy the 200 for $10.

At least they don't expire.

[seanmcdirmid]

It is annoying. I can get certified checks for free at the bank.

[vonmoltke]

Checks have lived on beyond their useful life, unfortunately. I think the only reason they still exist is the arthritic ACH system and the desire by some receipients to avoid credit card processing fees.

Still, while checks may still be a thing they're pretty rare and rarely required. Mobile and contactless payment is pretty common (outside the food service industry, but I blame the food service industry for that).

[mailslot]

Transaction & processing fees are no joke. Big or small, 3% of your revenue before profit, is a big deal.

It made sense as a convenience fee, until it became ubiquitous. Now it’s a tax that people are blindly opting in to.

[j8014]

I think it depends on who is the customer and where things take place. My mother in law still uses checks, prefers in person banking, and doesn't use technology. She loves getting cash back when she shops. Same with a brother in law of mine, cash is king, technology is a mobile phone to sms his family and friends. He is a successful business owner, btw.

I haven't written a check since the late 90's, when I receive a check, I deposit it directly from my phone. I never carry cash. When I shop its nearly all online. Unless its a restaurant, I've ordered and paid before stepping foot or driving through the place.

The point being, business's accommodate their customers and there is a shocking amount of people who don't care about technology in the US, especially outside of business and tech centers.

[nereye]

Cheques exist in Ireland to this day, e.g. see https://personalbanking.bankofireland.com/campaigns/bank-of-....

Or, from https://www.permanenttsb.ie/legal-information/terms-and-cond...:

Taxes and Additional Costs 1. Government Stamp Duty will be charged to your account for each cheque book issued to you (currently €20 per cheque book of 40 cheques). ... etc.

[rorykoehler]

I stand corrected but the observation is still valid.

[piva00]

I had similar experiences with backwards technology while visiting the US. Buying tickets for the BART or Caltrain is nothing similar to the experience with NS in the Netherlands or even the BVG/MVG in Germany (even if Caltrain nowadays has an app), it feels really antiquated and buggy. Having my card swiped and asking for signatures in receipts at stores, cafés or restaurants is also a thing of the past even in Brazil.

The metro card in NYC is also pretty outdated, the whole metro system looks terrible but talking strictly about technology even the ticket machines are problematic, touch screens that don't work properly and so on; buying bus ticket in PABT is also a quite bad experience.

[vonmoltke]

Except for the actual card technology issues (which are frustrating, though that glacier is slowly moving), those are all matters of how those transit agencies are run, not issues with the payment system.

As for cashless technology, there is significant political backlash to cashless systems. See the efforts by NYC to force businesses to accept cash as payment. I don't think the glacier is going to move much faster until that political resistance is addressed.

Edit: s/cars/cashless/

Android predictive autocorrect is worse than useless these days.

[pmjordan]

those are all matters of how those transit agencies are run, not issues with the payment system.

I think that was the point of the originator of the thread - the technology is there, it's just not applied properly. It may have improved recently, but when visiting SF for a few weeks in 2013 and 2014 I was left scratching my head about how best to charge my Clipper card for Muni transit. Topping up the credit via the website had a waiting time of 1-2 working days, so if you were trying to catch a tram or bus into the city centre from the outer neighbourhoods, you had to plan ahead for having enough credit, especially when the weekend was coming up. At BART stations it was usually less problematic to charge the cards - assuming the machine worked, which wasn't always the case.

At any rate, the whole thing felt very uncivilised and anachronistic compared to my experiences in much of Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. (Japan's Pasmo and similar cards require cash for charging and largely don't accept credit cards, but you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere where you'd have to walk more than a block for an opportunity to charge them - or to find an ATM for obtaining the cash you need.)

[delfinom]

>As for cashless technology, there is significant political backlash to cashless systems. See the efforts by NYC to force businesses to accept cash as payment. I don't think the glacier is going to move much faster until that political resistance is addressed.

But it's political resistance for valid reasons. Per the FDIC, 18% of Americans are underbanked https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/ and 8% are unbanked.

The real problem is 1.) banks are a cancer on society. Most banks these days charge you ridiculous fees if you don't have even a $1500 in the account 2.) the unbanked and underbanked aren't introduced enough to credit unions which are ideally their answer to having savings account that doesnt fuck them 3.) unforunately credit unions cant afford to take risk with offering those with poor credit ratings a credit card

Otherwise, consider yourself lucky to be posting on HackerNews from probably working a tech job to be arguing for non-cash accepting stores. Plenty of people don't have that luxury.

[icebraining]

Accepting cashless tech and not accepting cash are unrelated issues. Here I can use my phone alone as the transit ticket, buy a physical ticket with a contactless ATM card or with plain coins and bills.

[delfinom]

>The metro card in NYC is also pretty outdated, the whole metro system looks terrible but talking strictly about technology even the ticket machines are problematic, touch screens that don't work properly and so on; buying bus ticket in PABT is also a quite bad experience.

The Metrocard is what one would call a hi-rel product, it hasn't been replaced because it works (baring the annoyance of the turnstile readers which one can eventually master and never have an issue). It is being phased out now in favor of NFC and contactless card payments by 2022. It's only really recently that NFC support has become widespread in private industry anyway and most banks have resisted the same on issuing contactless cards due to cost (and little or no retailer support until recently). They are also adding a buyable in cash payment card for those that dont have a phone or credit card for the poorer folks that don't have the luxury (essentially contactless Metrocard).

Touchscreens are another fun animal. The reason many suck is because they are resistive instead of capacitance touch. They can be made far more resilient against damage/vandalism than a capacitive touchscreen of a phone where the agency would go bankrupt repairing them every day. Downside is, resistive screens do really suck.

[csomar]

> Having my card swiped and asking for signatures in receipts at stores, cafés or restaurants is also a thing of the past even in Brazil.

They are just trying to get that sweet tip.