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Old Oct 22, 2019, 5:28 pm
  #27  
closecover
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Toronto, ON but someday (hopefully) OGG or ACK
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Posts: 263
Originally Posted by Badenoch
Evidently at least one American is having trouble managing handheld payment devices. Emerging technology can be daunting for our American friends while Canada has had chip and pin cards for over a decade.
I split my time pretty equally between the US and Canada and since we have residences in both countries, I have credit cards issued by US banks and by Canadian banks. I must preface what I am about to write by saying that so far I have been lucky in that I have never been the victim of credit card theft in the US due to handing the wait staff my credit card to pay the bill (I'm sure if that ever happened to me, my feelings would change). But I cannot stand the Canadian chip and pin system at restaurants. Whenever the wait staff hands me the payment machine to calculate the tip and enter my pin on the total amount, they always look over my shoulder to see what amount I enter as my tip. In fact one time after I entered my tip, the server yelled out "OH C'MON!" (This was for a relatively standard 15% tip). I prefer the US system where they hand you the bill in the little book after running it through and then walk away to leave you alone to calculate the tip.

Sometimes when I am in a real salty mood, I will use my no foreign transaction fee US credit card to pay for a bill at a Canadian restaurant. It's a guilty pleasure of mine to watch the staff scramble to find a pen. But I try not do this too often.

I have also noticed that when I pay the Canadian restaurant tab with a U.S. credit card, the machine will give me the option of charging me in Canadian dollars or U.S. dollars. I always choose the former because the U.S. credit card issuer will provide a better currency exchange rate than the handheld payment machine.

One last thing, I have been told by a banker friend of mine that the Durbin Amendment is the reason why there is not widespread acceptance of the chip and pin cards in the U.S. as there is in other countries. So it does not appear to be an issue of Americans not being able to handle emerging payment technologies. Since the Durbin Amendment is so highly regarded in other areas, I don't see the US joining the rest of the world on this matter anytime soon.
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