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0 pointsmcv5y ago0 comments

Or you pay the restaurant through direct bank transaction. Credit cards are needlessly expensive, but not all electronic payment systems are.

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Silhouette5y ago

This has the added benefit, assuming both parties are happy to do it, that the business does not incur the overheads of handling cash, which is also not really free once you take into account things like security and bank fees.

I am firmly of the view that cash is essential as a safeguard and something people should have the option to use, but as we've seen recently here in the UK, modern alternatives like contactless payments using a bank card or one of the phone-based systems can be quick and convenient, and they do not seem to have resulted in a devastating wave of fraud.

pc865y ago

There is no means to do this in the US, debts cards have the same fees as credit cards (maybe more?).

mcvOP5y ago

This is the core of the problem. In the US, credit card companies have an effective monopoly on the payment infrastructure, and there's not cooperation among banks, and not enough political will, to propose a better system.

In the EU, there's been a lot of regulation over the past couple of decades to improve payment infrastructure. Before that, international payment within the EU used to be awful, and even transferring money from one bank to another within a single country could in some circumstances be bafflingly complex.