421–430 of 581 posts
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Exactly like that most likely, I am old enough to remember those machines where credit cards left their mark on the receipt, that is why their numbers are higher than the card. Here, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_imprinter
Wikipedia claims they aren’t being used in the 2020’s, but I’ve still seen stores in the past year pull them out when the internet is down.
1yr timeline is ambitious if it means fully deployed. Clearly the right thing for Sweden and others to do. Also worrying that even 3yrs into the Russian invasion, bordering countries are urgently increasing their preparedness for future conflicts.
I believe most of those POS systems can operate in offline mode, in Europe at least. I have friends who work for large event organizers, and they have spoken about how if the system is offline the bars can continue to take payments, but there is a risk as a person's account may not have sufficient balance to make the charge when the system comes back online. Most people here pay by card and I would say the vast major…
I was able to pay "offline" for my groceries at corner store nearby when their terminal had really bad or no connection at all - and that did happen a lot. They were just gathering all payments and when the "computer guy" was around he'd upload these to the Internet. The only caveat was that for some reasons these payments would be stuck for more than a week on transactions list
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They use largely the same rails/network (for example Mastercard). The only meaningful difference is on how and when funds are reconciled. Some payment providers ask up front to simplify the flows as it's not totally trivial to determine what sort of card it is, and also because different fees apply - historically some merchants added specific fees to basket etc. (less so nowadays but the UI convention sticks)
> The only meaningful difference is on how and when funds are reconciled. Nope, even this is identical. These days the difference between a debit/credit card is pretty much aesthetic, from a transaction processing perspective there generally isn’t any actual differences. Differences that people see today are most artificial for the purpose of justifying extra fees, or higher interchange based an entirely arbitrary fa…
But to your wider point; from a transaction fee point of view you are dead right. Of course a credit card has other attractions; for example it's credit :D but also things like section 75 protection.
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They use largely the same rails/network (for example Mastercard). The only meaningful difference is on how and when funds are reconciled. Some payment providers ask up front to simplify the flows as it's not totally trivial to determine what sort of card it is, and also because different fees apply - historically some merchants added specific fees to basket etc. (less so nowadays but the UI convention sticks)
> Some payment providers ask up front to simplify the flows as it's not totally trivial to determine what sort of card it is And because the same card can be both. At least here in Brazil, most bank cards have multiple uses (credit, debit, ATM) in the same card. AFAIK, they're separate applications within the same chip, and the terminal has to select which one to use before starting.
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Offline credit card transactions are still supported, and Square even supports it in the US. Europe use of debit cards instead of credit cards is much higher than the US.
That’s because credit card benefits suck in Europe and there’s no point to using them. If you need credit, there are credit options with much lower rates than what credit cards offer. And the reason credit card benefits suck is due to european interchange fee caps and regulation.
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Offline credit card transactions are still supported, and Square even supports it in the US. Europe use of debit cards instead of credit cards is much higher than the US.
That’s because credit card benefits suck in Europe and there’s no point to using them. If you need credit, there are credit options with much lower rates than what credit cards offer. And the reason credit card benefits suck is due to european interchange fee caps and regulation.
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From memory, online and offline transactions are usually split out by BIN number (first six digits) The BIN will tell you which bank was the issuer and which class of card you have, like standard or premium, though most readers probably don't take that into account beyond the card scheme and card type associated with the range that the individual BIN is in. Many banks will have multiple BINs for the same card type if…
It's usually based on the chip settings. Rules aren't as simple as "always online" or "never offline"; an issuer can e.g. convey that they'd prefer online transactions for certain types of payments, while offline is ok for others, via relatively complex configurations of the code of the chip application. Before that, there was the service code on the magnetic stripe, which also can convey things like "online only" or…
Your correct on the risk spread. I wasn't confident last night (I'm not totally versed on the terminals) but looked it up. As I understand if you choose to accept offline only payments then you accept the risk of the transaction failing. If it's the issuers choice they own the risk.
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Offline credit card transactions are still supported, and Square even supports it in the US. Europe use of debit cards instead of credit cards is much higher than the US.
That’s because credit card benefits suck in Europe and there’s no point to using them. If you need credit, there are credit options with much lower rates than what credit cards offer. And the reason credit card benefits suck is due to european interchange fee caps and regulation.
Though Amex are currently in dispute with the Netherlands who believe the caps do apply to them. I don't think a final judgement has been made yet.
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Are there people that like cheques? They are no longer a thing in New Zealand. It seems like something no-one would miss.
Are there people that like cheques? For no good reason, I keep a list of why I use checks (in the U.S.): - Charitable donations because charities maximize every penny, and electronic contributions eat into that - Paying the accountant - Good accountants make every penny count, and aren't interested in paying credit card overhead. - Tipping the paperboy at Christmas - Tipping the doorman at Christmas - Business licens…
I thought printed papers were all but dead even in the US and can't recall the last time I saw a stand or store where I could buy one. They faded away unceremoniously, like phone booths.
That there is enough money in it to motivate kids to get up in the morning still today I would never have guessed.
Also astonishing are the size and presence of the various fees! Around here a 5 dollar fee for invoicing is the highest I've seen, and it raises eyebrows even among the Mercedes/BMW crowd because everyone knows it doesn't cover any actual additional costs, so it's basically a scam. A way for companies to say "interest free" while still collecting interest.
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Your card doesn't know the balance, it doesn't work like that. Offline transactions mostly died off when the limit in the UK for contactless was raised to £100. At £20/30 (the original limits) issuers/merchants risk accept some payments not being valid (and the total limit before you had to chip and pin was fairly low top). And worth saying, the merchant has some control on the terminal but mostly the decision of off…
Out of interest is this both debit and credit cards, or just debit?