General > General Technical Chat

Credit Card, Bank Card NFC. The most useless function every invented

<< < (15/26) > >>

Marco:
As I've said before, given how cheap transistors are they should have done time of flight measurements of the signal and made that part of the standard (so the NFC device remodulates a PRNG sequence it receives from the terminal on a different frequency in some analogue circuitry to send its data, the terminal measures the lag). They still should for a new version.

MITM would be gone and it would just become a digital key for a true proximity lock.

Mobile phone payment would still be more secure, because you see a vendor independent confirmation of the payment details without having to rely on a possibly compromised terminal ... but I hate having to have a mobile with me everywhere so meh.

Berni:
Cash is still the primary way of payment here.

Pretty much everyone doing face to face business will take cash, while not everyone has a POS terminal to accept cards. So i tend to keep 10 to 100€ of cash on me. Yet find myself using cards more often because it is faster and more convenient.

It is more the US that had big dollar counterfeiting issues, to the point where a lot of places would only accept cards.

PlainName:
Problem with cash is that things like buses don't give change, and those and car parks charge stupid values like £3.29.

Can't remember the last time I paid cash for anything, but I notice in the likes of Lidl that those using cash take far longer on checkout than those dabbing a card (even when it needs a PIN check). Also can't remember the last time I had to patch a hole in my pocket because of the coins, or had to find a cashpoint before going anywhere or doing anything.

Bassman59:

--- Quote from: Berni on March 13, 2022, 05:09:50 pm ---It is more the US that had big dollar counterfeiting issues, to the point where a lot of places would only accept cards.
--- End quote ---

I think counterfeiting is probably low on the list of reasons why many places only accept cards here in the US.

In no particular order:

A: credit card issuers are all competing with each other to get customers to use cards instead of cash. They do this by offering "rewards," which used to be points to be used for purchases through "partners," but now is increasingly just either a 5% discount at point of purchase (Target does this with their store-brand "Red Card), or some percentage of "cash back," commonly 1%, but for certain "categories" like groceries and gas station purchases the cash back can be 5%. Of course the categories change frequently, so you need to be on your toes to take maximum advantage, but cash back is always better than "points" you have to redeem for products.

YES -- it is obvious that cash back isn't free. It is paid out of the swipe fees charged to merchants so they can accept card payments. Of course the merchants have to charge 3% to 5% more for their products just to cover the cost of the swipe fees, and sadly the merchant agreements between the card issuers and the retailers generally precludes the retailer from offering a cash discount. So from a consumer perspective, you're paying for the swipe fee, anyway, so you might as well use the card and get the "benefits."

So to that end -- I will pay for purchases at my locally-owned coffee shop or record store or guitar shop in cash, and they get the benefit of not having to pay the swipe fee. For the big box chains? Screw 'em, I'm going to use the cards that give me the benefits.

B: some merchants see the cost of swipe fees as being lower than the labor cost to manage counting and handling cash. I asked my friend who runs a local coffee roaster/shop about this, and he said from his small perspective, he goes to the bank regularly anyway so dealing with cash is no big deal. And he appreciates the savings from not paying the swipe fees. But, with the big box stores, it's a lot easier for all transactions to be electronic so they don't have to have the armored car come and take a million dollars in cash to the bank.

C: Employers do not trust employees to not steal cash from the till, even though the tills are counted out at the start of a shift and counted in at the end. (Employees don't trust employers, either; different issue.) Employers will embrace any idea that keeps workers from handling large amounts of cash.

PlainName:

--- Quote ---It is more the US that had big dollar counterfeiting issues, to the point where a lot of places would only accept cards.

--- End quote ---

Another US thing is civil asset forfeiture: the police apparently pull trivial traffic stops and then confiscate any cash they find. Even if the traveller isn't charged with anything, the cops keep the money. Clearly, using a card instead of cash circumvents that.

https://www.nlg-npap.org/civil-asset-forfeiture/

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page

There was an error while thanking
Thanking...
Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod