I haven't used my card in an ATM machine for 6 months

[ursus arctos]

The UK has moved a big step closer to becoming a cashless society after official data showed that the number of payments made using notes and coins fell by 35% in 2020. Cash was only used for one in six payments, compared with a decade ago when it accounted for more than half of the total.

Changes in spending habits have been dramatically accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, and 13.7 million people lived a largely cashless life last year – almost double the 7.4 million figure in 2019.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...ts-now-in-cash

[DCI Harry Batt]

I can only offer my sincerest apologies, TT. That wasn't what I thought I was doing and didn't realize it would be taken as such. I'm mortified and I'm sorry.

Thanks. I didn't see this at the time as I'd expanded my Ignore List temporarily.

Might be worth a chat sometime about what happened there and how some of those things work.

[Bored Of Education]

I took out ?100 at the start of the first lockdown and think I only got rid of it sometime through the last lockdown.

[WOM]

Take your sarcasm and your homphobic shit and shove them right up your fucking arse so hard they come out of your fucking mouth.

I can only offer my sincerest apologies, TT. That wasn't what I thought I was doing and didn't realize it would be taken as such. I'm mortified and I'm sorry.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I have a few Euros hanging around I can take with me if I ever leave the country again. Would probably grab some local cash from an airport ATM if I was somewhere non-Eurozone yeah

[Belhaven]

I usually get at least some cash when I am abroad as I always assume they are handy for certain types of transactions, while I never have any when I am back home where I use my mobile phone for informal payments.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Appreciate the feedback.

Take your sarcasm and your homphobic shit and shove them right up your fucking arse so hard they come out of your fucking mouth.

[Amor de Cosmos]

And no, MasterCard is very much not just MasterCard, particularly in this respect. Different issuers/banks can and do have widely different policies.

Ah. That might explain a good deal.

[caja-dglh]

Mastercard is the merchant processor. They don't give two hoots whether it should be a transaction or not. They get paid by volume and the credit approval issuer based. Mastercard and Visa only get stuck with very specific types of fraud. The whole final drive to chip and pin was a day when the retailer would become responsible for any loss from card fraud when a transaction was not chip and pin compliant.

[WOM]

Right. One of them is a Big 5 bank MC and the other is an alternative / virtual bank MC.

[ursus arctos]

GY isn't wrong about that

And no, MasterCard is very much not just MasterCard, particularly in this respect. Different issuers/banks can and do have widely different policies.

[Amor de Cosmos]

One of my Mastercard issuers always wants to know, in surprising detail, where I'm going and how I'm getting there. The other has a 'nah, we good' policy. Very odd.

Isn't Mastercard just Mastercard, whoever the issuer is? I really don't know, both my cards are issued by my bank and I've never had any trouble with either of them anywhere. Nor have they ever been anything but helpful, including — maybe especially — when I had my identity stolen.

[Ginger Yellow]

Most confusing for me is the almost-simultaneous push for Chip and PIN, for security, and Tap, with virtually no security whatsoever.

It's only almost simultaneous because North America dragged its feet on chip and PIN for so long.

[WOM]

One of my Mastercard issuers always wants to know, in surprising detail, where I'm going and how I'm getting there. The other has a 'nah, we good' policy. Very odd.

[Amor de Cosmos]

And that is more convenient than cash?

Sometimes. In the instance I mentioned it meant I could use ticket machines at Kings Cross station (and others I guess) which don't take cash. I've never had an instance where a cards been declined, though I know you're supposed to notify them. My SiL did have his card eaten by a bank machine, though I can't remember why exactly.

[ursus arctos]

And that is more convenient than cash?

I also find it annoying that I am expected to give card issuers advance notice of travel to minimise the likelihood that a charge will be declined as "unusual".

[Amor de Cosmos]

I don't know about Canada, but in the UK there is a limit on how much you can pay for by tapping.

It's currently $250, up from $100 pre-Covid.

Chip and PIN is not at all universal, and that's before one gets to overseas transaction charges and limits

Ah, OK. But you can check (some) local differences before you travel. For example I have a four digit Visa PIN, which used not to be accepted in the UK, (that might have changed now) so I use my six digit MasterCard. I've actually found Visa customer service very helpful on that score.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I've used cash twice recently: on one occasion to tip for a food delivery and on the other to pay a team of scaffolders.

The sums of money were dissimilar.

[treibeis]

However quite a few places occasionally have times when "the card reader isn't working" (which usually means in truth "we'd like to hide today's transactions from the tax office")

A cash-only small businessman (and, yes, I've heard all the snarky comments, and they were shit first time round) says:

No, I reckon the card machine really was fucked. If you want to avoid paying tax, yet still offer card paymenr, you get several card machines. It's that simple.

And if you don't accept cards, you get two tills.

(For the record: I don't have two tills. I don't even have one till. I have a cash box. Everything I buy is bought with a card. Everything I sell is in cash. I like paying tax as much as anybody else does, but I also like sleeping soundly at night.)

[S. aureus]

I had ⏃ bit of trouble for ⏃ couple of years trying to use my visa card in the UK before the US started chipping them, something that I only imagine would have been harder if I didn't speak the language.

[ursus arctos]

I think that reflects short term thinking on the part of the card issuers and perhaps some form of cross subsidy from tap providers. I would expect it to change as fraudsters adapt.

[Capybara]

Most confusing for me is the almost-simultaneous push for Chip and PIN, for security, and Tap, with virtually no security whatsoever.

I don't know about Canada, but in the UK there is a limit on how much you can pay for by tapping. In the UK they raised the limit once the pandemic started but I think it was ?30 previously. If you only pay by tapping then every so often you will be asked to enter a PIN anyway so, basically, if you steal a card there are only so many transactions you can make before you have to provide a PIN. I guess the banks have decided that they want people to use cards as much as possible and that there is a certain amount they are prepared to lose through fraudulent activity to enable this to happen.

[WOM]

Most confusing for me is the almost-simultaneous push for Chip and PIN, for security, and Tap, with virtually no security whatsoever.

[ursus arctos]

Chip and PIN is not at all universal, and that's before one gets to overseas transaction charges and limits

[Amor de Cosmos]

that would depend on the prevalence of cards in one's home country and, perhaps more importantly, the compatibility of payment systems, which very much cannot be taken for granted (and can be especially difficult to navigate without any familiarity with the language).

I'm probably being naive but aren't Visa and MasterCard the same everywhere?