[eldaisfish]

worth mentioning that this seems a problem limited to the US. Even in Canada, the smallest of towns will have contactless payment. Many Canadians don't really use cash because interac/credit cards have all supported tap to pay for over a decade now.

[throwaway894345]

To be clear, the US has contactless payments all over and probably has had them since ~2015, it just took some time for people to "discover" them.

[seanmcdirmid]

A lot of POS's support contactless payments, but they were kind of flaky for the first two years, and...oddly slow.

Fred Meyers here in WA still doesn't support contactless payments (QFC, owned by the same company, does, however), annoying since I still have to shop there often.

[throwaway894345]

> A lot of POS's support contactless payments, but they were kind of flaky for the first two years

Yeah, that was my experience as well.

> Fred Meyers here in WA still doesn't support contactless payments (QFC, owned by the same company, does, however), annoying since I still have to shop there often.

I've largely had good experiences all over the midwest, but there are a few Stripe card readers that advertise "contactless" but don't actually work (probably misconfigured?). I've been traveling around AZ recently, and I've found a few POS terminals that don't support contactless at all, strangely. But overall they seem pretty widely available.

[techsupporter]

> Fred Meyers here in WA still doesn't support contactless payments (QFC, owned by the same company, does, however)

Some Freddy's do, at least intermittently. A few weeks ago, the one in Lake City had it enabled on their pads at the self checkout and I successfully used tap. But when I went back a week after that, tap was turned back off.

Kroger uses their smaller brands as testbeds for stuff and since QFC is somewhere in the bottom five for size-of-Kroger-operated-brands, I guess it makes sense.

[seanmcdirmid]

In the Seattle area, Fred Myer is the only place I can’t use NFC payments, for the last 3 or 4 years. Target has them, though sometimes their COVID plastic on the terminals interferes with it.

It’s annoying I have to carry a credit card, driver license (WA doesn’t support digital licenses yet), and an Orca card (also, annoyingly not phone compatible yet) in the wallet MagSafe attachment for my phone.

[adventured]

People will still be talking about how the US doesn't have contactless payments another five years from now. It's an inexpensive way to feel good.

[cromka]

> People will still be talking about how the US doesn't have contactless payments another five years from now. It's an inexpensive way to feel good.

From my personal experience, there were roughly about 80% of shops in NYC, up until the beginning of pandemic, that did not accept contactless or where it did not work. One particular supermarket next door had the proper POS for 3 years and it still wouldn't work even this May when I left.

The restaurants were even worse.

[brimble]

I've only just gotten used to the slide-it-in-the-slot kind. Whatever that's called. The thing that's replacing the magnetic stripes, more or less.

I always forget about contactless. I think all my cards can do it? Not knowing for sure is why I never try, and just stick the card in the slot, which always works.

I think I've paid with my phone one time ever. For some reason I can't bring myself to trust it to work 100% of the time so I can leave my cards at home, at which point I may as well just use a card since I have 'em anyway. I guess I could start carrying phone + cash as a backup and skip the cards, but that's even less convenient. I do activate the payment screen (iPhone) all the time by accident, though I couldn't tell you how.

(I'm not even that old...)

[throwaway894345]

> I've only just gotten used to the slide-it-in-the-slot kind.

I always called this "chip". My UK friends called it "chip-and-pin" in 2012. But yeah, no idea what the technical or widely-accepted colloquial terms are.

> Not knowing for sure is why I never try, and just stick the card in the slot

Yeah, for some reason the UX for contactless is terrible. Sometimes something will show four evenly-spaced green lights (and sometimes they're blue--in any case, why does that mean "contactless"?) but often those lights don't appear until you attempt a tap-to-pay and then they might be delayed by several seconds. And even then, occasionally the hardware malfunctions and can't actually handle tap-to-pay. These hardware failures seemed to be way more common in the early days, but now almost everything does support tap-to-pay--you just often can't tell until you try which is just the dumbest thing ever.

> I think I've paid with my phone one time ever. For some reason I can't bring myself to trust it to work 100% of the time so I can leave my cards at home

I definitely do it as a last resort, but I've done it a few times (e.g., if I forget my wallet). Mostly on iOS I'm often trying to pay quickly and I try to activate the contactless payment but I'll end up turning my phone off or I'll try to bring up my card before my phone is close enough. The uncertainty always makes me feel way more anxious than it should and it's just less stress to use a card (cards also don't run out of batteries).

[seanmcdirmid]

> Mostly on iOS I'm often trying to pay quickly and I try to activate the contactless payment but I'll end up turning my phone off or I'll try to bring up my card before my phone is close enough.

Having an Apple watch helps out a lot here. I can't do it on my phone either, but on my watch it is trivial.

[throwaway894345]

Good to know. I've had my eye on one for a while, but I opted for Air Pods last Christmas. :) Maybe this year...

[hackmiester]

The easier flow is to bring up the card while you’re next in line, then tap it to the reader when it’s time to pay.

[RulerOf]

You can often scan your phone/card much sooner than when you're presented with your total. I tap my watch at the grocery store as soon as I'm finished loading up the belt.

Whenever "your transaction" begins at the register could be when you're eligible to present your payment to the terminal.

[outworlder]

You should see the 'contactless' symbol (looks like a sideways wifi logo) if your card supports it.

I generally pay with the apple watch if the store supports it (most seem to, nowadays). It is more convenient than reaching for the wallet since the thing is in my wrist anyway.

[eldaisfish]

my point is that contactless and chip-cards have been around for so long outside the US that magnetic stripes are the oddity. Even the smallest of places with electronic payments will support either chip cards or contactless tap or often both. Near the US border in Canada, many shops have machines that read magnetic stripes. These machines cater almost exclusively to American travellers.

[ska]

And yet, I've had contactless rejected (even, we want a signature) as recently as 2018, at least. In major metro in California - let alone gas-station-in-rural-Georgia type places.

The tech was mostly there a while ago, but hardly universally supported. This is one tech area where the US has definitely been notably behind the curve.