AllieKat

Definitely. But I think restaurants have more specialised POS choices to address it.

D582

Generally, hairdressers are essentially self-employed. At restaurants they are employees of the restaurant.

Points Scrounger

I had thought that the cash only was about fees, but having to keep track of tips makes sense. The fellow I prefer at Great Clips mentioned they are switching from theur non-EMV register to something vague about "tablets" soon. I find $20 for a two-minute buzz cut extortionate, so use them for $6 beard trim only; cash only place in another neighborhood for $12 buzz cuts when needed.

If Visa, Amex and MC go anywhere near universally No CVM as implied, I don't see contactless being much of a demand at all.

RedLight2015

You don't even need separate accounts, just have separate locations, under one account. Use each "location" as each hair dresser, so that way you can still pull reporting up for all locations if needed.

tmiw

I know that the POS at JCPenney's salon will open the cash drawer if the customer enters tip on the MX915 so that the cashier can take the tip out and put it in the stylist's envelope. There's a big difference between a major company that has the resources to implement that vs. a small barber shop though.

As for Americans not using contactless, they might not on their own, but may with the right encouragement. It's why rewards have been a huge thing with US issued credit cards for quite a while (otherwise I'm pretty sure the US would still be a mostly cash based country even in 2018).

tmiw

Meanwhile, contactless fraud has overtaken check fraud in the UK, though I'm not sure that really means much considering there aren't too many Western countries that still commonly use the latter.

mikesyr18

The owner of the shop could just let the dresser take their tip from the drawer as cash while the owner keeps the money transferred from the credit card, no?

Rewards have little to do with the adoption of cards. Other technologies have resulted in the increase of card use, like online banking, online bill pay, an increase in merchant acceptance, etc.

Americans like to do things with the least amount of effort possible, so if online bill pay allows me to send a bill without writing a check, buying stamps, and buying/putting it in an envelope, I will keep my money in the bank. If my employer is able to direct deposit money into my bank, then I don't have to drive to the bank and cash the check. The same idea applies to mobile check deposits... If I don't have to drive to the bank by using mobile check deposit, I will keep my money liquidated because there's no way to receive cash from that transaction and it's pointless to drive there afterwards just to get cash out when I can use my card instead.

Technology like P2P payments has also lessened the need for cash... Do I need to pay someone? I'll just use Apple Pay or another P2P service like ACH or Pop Money.

Why would I want to carry $200 in cash around? So I can be robbed when my wallet is misplaced or stolen? A debit/credit card takes care of that problem.

Card usage has very little to do with rewards. If people used cards mostly because of the rewards, nobody would use a debit card anymore, and last I've checked, it's a payment method that's more popular than cash and checks combined.

Do I agree with actual credit card usage being popular because of rewards? I guess, but I would still use a credit card online, at restaurants, and at gas pumps for fraud prevention measures. The average consumer doesn't collect points, cash, or miles.

storewanderer

Staples now has EMV Contactless.

AID printed on receipt and App Label of Visa Credit.

No signature for $43 transaction. I think before it would have prompted over $25. Could be they went to a $50 signature window.

tmiw

Remember, debit cards used to offer rewards too. Plus, last I heard, credit cards are used more often than debit cards in the US.

Anyway, the point is that getting cash wasn't really a huge headache for most people, so it was no big deal to use it for smaller purchases since that was what was on hand (I doubt many people carried $200+ in cash all the time). The rewards encouraged people to try using cards more often for purchases instead, which eventually caused the new habit to "stick" and demand to increase. I know at least a couple of businesses around here that were cash-only all the way until they couldn't be anymore precisely due to that demand.

The same sort of parallel is there for contactless. Using a physical card isn't really a huge deal for most people (even if places like reddit seem to make it appear otherwise), so there's not much of a point in using something else. With rewards, there will be. In fact, people using mobile payments 3x as often with the Altitude Reserve compared to other US Bank cards seems to bear that out.

tmiw

Can't conclude that unless we see what happens when a card's inserted. It's very possible they're just supporting CDCVM (and also possible they've gotten rid of the signature prompt entirely a few months early).

AllieKat

CDCVM would only apply if the OP used a mobile wallet.

Anyway, it's funny seeing shops about to go out of business do stuff like this... Though it makes sense. The IT team keeps working until they're laid off.

Hopefully Staples manages to hang on somehow in the US, it can be handy. Here in the UK they got bought and the company that's bought lots of other failing businesses (Hilco) has rebranded them as Office Outlet. That said, I doubt those will last long either. They're in the business of taking what's profitable and shutting down the rest (though they have kept some HMVs open).

In the US, I know Staples is rapidly downsizing to avoid this fate. Missoula, MT went from two large Staples to one mini Staples. But is that enough to save a concept that's outdated?

mikesyr18

I doubt it, especially with the younger generations. Yes, debit cards used to have rewards (a few still do such as Paypal, Discover, and USAA) but if people were really using them for the rewards, they would have stopped using them shorty after Durbin and Dodd-Frank went into law.

Hearsay doesn't do much when you're trying to make a point.

As long as interchange fees on debit cards remain too low to realistically support rewards for the larger financial institutions and credit unions, I don't see that type of incentive to push contactless use in the U.S. It works with credit cards because the interchange fees are higher so they can support giving a bonus for contactless use.

tmiw

I tend to assume that a mobile wallet is used if a US card is used with contactless simply because the feature is still relatively uncommon.

I think Staples mostly hangs on due to purchase agreements with various companies. I know we were required to buy certain things from there for a while, for example.

From here:

Of course, that in itself doesn't say why credit's become the most popular but the study also says that the credit number's the "highest seen since 2007".

It could easily be something as simple as "use a mobile wallet X number of times and get your checking account fees waived". The rewards don't have to be cash back per se, though it works out to an extra $y per month for the person who doesn't have much in their account.

Majuki

I received a message from Chase saying that they're moving away from access codes for card free ATM access. Instead, one will use the mobile payments app with NFC to enable card free ATM access. Do you think Chase might start issuing physical cards with contactless due to this change?

mikesyr18

See, that's won't work either. That $12 fee for a basic checking account gets waived with a certain criteria on purpose.

1) Direct deposits totaling $500 or more - ensures it's more difficult to move your money away from Chase, for example, without incurring fees or the stress of dealing with your employer to change the direct deposit over, bill pay, ach transactions, checks, etc. Otherwise, it's $12 because they can't invest your deposits.
2) $1,500 minimum balance - is so Chase can make money from your checking account, and they assume $1,500 will let them make up for the amount of money it costs to keep your account open.

Waiving that $12 fee by using "x" amount of mobile wallet purchases doesn't help their profit numbers, but may cause the profits to drop; thus, the stock prices go down.

Even though I wish they would, I believe there was a statement made once the Visa Starbucks card came out with no contactless, despite the heavy NFL commercials promoting the technology.