Originally Posted by
AllieKat
Which is what I said, a lot like chip and signature cards are in Europe. The occasional refusal if a restaurant literally has their terminal in the back (employees only area), but that's rare - normally they're at a host's station. So just the headache of being marched up to enter your PIN.
Possibly the occasional outright refusal in high crime areas where bulletproof glass is used to isolate the customer from the service provider, but that'd be it.
Speaking of host stations...
Mobility will be important as restaurants will likely be required to complete chip and pin payments without taking credit and debit cards away from the table in the near future. In Europe and Canada, where they have been using the EMV standard for nearly a decade, restaurants are required to complete card transactions without taking cards away from the table. Many industry experts expect to see similar practices become mandates in the United States. For instance, in a recent webinar about EMV, Heartland and the National Restaurant Assocaition strongly encourage restaurant owners to consider POS systems that offer, or plan to offer, hardware and software that can support tableside payments.
I didn't know that was a Visa/MC mandate (or possibly by law?). I kinda figured it was because it would be a logistical nightmare to switch to pay at front or make people go to a host station.