How do you feel about pay at the table?
 

It's pretty common outside the US (where they bring a machine to your table and run your cards) but I haven't seen it in the US yet. A couple places try to do the tablet at the table thing though and that concept seems fine to me. However, a common complaint I've heard about waitstaff bringing the card machine is that it feels weird to have someone standing over your table while they process your payment. Thoughts?

How do you feel about pay at the table?
 

It's common in most other countries that use the chip and pin system, since the terminal has to be handed to the cardholder for him/her to punch in his pin.

Yep, though it's possible that those won't come here in large numbers because the US is chip and signature. The thread is mostly to see how people feel about pay at the table as a concept in general; is it something that American FTers are okay with in general or is there a preference for letting the waiter/waitress take cards away? Are there non-American FTers who hate the portable card machines, even?

With my chip and pin cards all the restaurant staff look the other way and wait until I am done. With my US signature cards they just leave the paper for me to sign. Aside from the physical presence albeit not starring at me, I don't find a difference between the two. Actually, until this thread I never gave it much thought.

H

This thread seems to be more about whether the credit card leaves your sight or not.

In terms of paying at the table, I find it much more comfortable than paying the bill at a cashier near the door.

If I'm hosting an important business dinner and wish to make a good impression, I'll discretely leave the table to settle the bill or even arrange this in advance with the restaurant, and expect them to get it right or else.

How do you feel about pay at the table?
 

This is standard in Europe thanks to chip and PIN and the use of mobile terminals. It's good because the card never leaves your sight.

You guys will get used to it. :p

How do you feel about pay at the table?
 

This is one of the things i really like when traveling. i wish we (usa) would switch to this, but i don't see it happening on a broad scale anytime soon. However, the Chili's by me does have machines on the tables so you can pay the bill on your own when you are ready.

Our Chili's has the system too. I quite like it just for the convenience (not really worried about card security). You can also order dessert if you want it.

Certainly in the UK, I'd think something dubious was going on if my credit card disappeared during payment. However, I've no objection to a cashier by the exit for settling up, particularly in restaurants with lower staffing levels. That wait between receiving the bill and settling can be incredibly irritating, particularly if one of the chip+pin machines runs out of battery.

Actually, there's a restaurant I go to sometimes in Copenhagen which takes this to an extreme. Restaurants in Denmark tend to have absolutely minimal waiting staff (people don't come cheap over there), and this particular one gives you a smart card as you enter. You then seat yourself, and order directly from the bar or one of the chefs at different stations round the open kitchen. It all goes on the card.

At the end of the evening, you pay on the way out - your choice if it's all paid by one person, or split however you want.

Vapiano perhaps? It's a German-owned chain that has good Italian food. They do the card and station model.

Agree it really doesn't have anything to do with security, but as you said the convenience is nice (re-order drinks also)...and i suppose it does have the added benefit of your card not disappearing, even if that isn't the main reason it was implemented.

How do you feel about pay at the table?
 

As a Canadian I don't know anything else. I guess this doesn't happen in the US...?

It's like the metric system, why aren't you there yet? We're all waiting!

I agree. I've had my card cloned twice in the last 5 years. Both after trips to the US and both times the cloned card was used in the US. As the only times the card was out of my sight was in restaurants I'm sure that's when it happened.

Sadly, I agree. It probably would be different if banks didn't decide to go chip and signature but now that they have, there's not really any sort of justification for most places to spend the additional money on the portable card terminals. For the few foreign cards that come in, they can just walk those cardholders to the staff station to enter the PIN (or possibly reject the card altogether and ask for another form of payment, but that's against Visa/MC rules).

Tourist areas might get those terminals though because that would be a lot of people to have to walk to the staff stations. The larger chains too, but they'd use those table side tablets to reduce staff costs more than anything else.

We will be moving to chip and pin soon enough. I expect to see this more in the US. Personally I am all for it - I never liked the idea of just handing out my card and letting someone take it for a while. One of the reasons why credit card theft is high in this country. We are trying to catch up!

Metric, on the other hand, that is a different issue.

I like it. I wish more places would be like Chili's and have the kiosks on the table so you can pay when you want to and not have to give your card to the server to go swipe at a terminal somewhere out of sight.


A bit OT...


As for the metric system you'll probably never see that in the US namely due to the sheer number of road signs (distances between cities, mile posts, exit numbers, speed limits etc) that would have to be changed to KM. Add in reprinting of maps and the like and the cost would be astronomical.

BioMio in this case...

A while back, California finally got exit numbers on their freeway signs. They didn't do a mass installation though--they only added the numbers as signs needed replacing/fixing. Might be something that could be done for metric conversion but it would take a fairly long while to fully complete.

We're quite happy mixing metric and imperial in the UK. It's a very typically British messy compromise...

Right. This is now standard procedure in Canada. The main reason all the banks went to chip & pin is we actually have decent banking regulations in Canada.

The Canadian banks all said a long time ago they were moving to this system, and they did. The U.S. banks are all scared to go first, because there's no incentive for any one of them to do so.

I like it from a security point of view. The only negative is that if you add a tip, you are doing it right under the eyes of the server. I prefer to tip in the privacy of my own mind.

Of course this tipping issue is primarily a US thing anyway.....

Indeed. In fact one of our local roads has sign boards that were placed for measuring distances in KMs but ended up with them printed in miles.

As for the chip and pin machines at the table... Other than sometimes having to wait ages to pay I think it's great.

Since the terms and conditions of owning a card, certainly in the UK and I believe much of the rest of the world, do not allow you to let the card out of your sight in strangers' hands, I find it very uncomfortable watching the staff taking away my card to get out their cloning kit....

But pay at table, certainly in informal dining, is taking on a new dimension with apps like Qkr! which allow you to scan a QR code embedded in the table and pay that way. Saves having to wait for the bill - you each just pay and go. Far better.

I actually believe we will skip chip and pin in the US. I already do a fair amount of my transactions using ApplePay (grocery and sporting events). Restaurants are the only place where my card is ever out of sight. OpenTable is developing a system where you pay your bill on your mobile device. Professional sports are working on a system which will require every attendee to have a mobile device -- no paper tickets, no cash or credit cards at concessions. The White Sox did not even send out printed season tickets this year.

Ironically in 30+ years of heavily using credit cards, the only place I had a card cloned was at a trendy restaurant in London in 2008. The server swiped my card in front of me and a few days later someone started racking up purchases at a D&G boutique. Amex caught it and, since it was the only transaction I put on that card during that trip, went after the restaurant.

I prefer to pay at the table. I have not had any problems with card cloning or theft by unauthorized use but I am uncomfortable watching the card leave my sight in an unfamiliar restaurant. Since Chili's is owned by Brinker, has anyone seen the Ziosk at Maggiano's as well?

Ironically the only reason why Apple Pay is even usable anywhere in the US is because of the chip migration that's happening right now. We'll likely still need it for years to come simply because there needs to be a fallback for when phones don't work or aren't supported.

Personally, I think the belief that we will all have smart phones and feel comfortable enough using them for anything that comes up is wildly optimistic and perhaps even a bit dangerous. that would be the proverbial straw that would bring the downfall of the technology haves and have nots.

Don't think that it is just restaurants where your card gets striped. Yes that is a very common place, but there are also many ways thieves can get the info right off of your card right from the machine. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busin...423-story.html

I hear almost 80% of people in this country have some sort of smartphone. Maybe not one that can do NFC though. I will give you that it is ridiculously easy to spend money with Apple Pay, possibly too easy.

I do like the small units at the Chili's and just saw one not too long ago at a Red Robin. I slightly worry that someone can intercept the wi-fi signal and decrypt it to find my information, but my worry level on that is pretty low.

My main reason for liking it isn't so much my card leaving me but it seems that as soon as we are done with a meal and want to pay and leave, the server is nowhere to be found! Or hasn't printed the check etc. etc. It allows me to finish, swipe the card, and be on my way with a minimum of delay.

I prefer it as well, for the same reasons others have mentioned. I've heard of a few large scale card thefts at restaurants so it's nice if the card stays in your hands. I've seen it at a handful of places in the US. One place in Atlanta that I can't remember the name of and used to visit. Theirs had the buttons you could press for tip percentages. Fast and easy.

I think anything else (other than pay at the front, I guess) is insane. And the vast majority of people I know here in the US agree. Most people I know (not technical people generally) HATE that they take the cards away. It doesn't take a techy to realise that this is a huge vector for fraud.

I'm not sure what the question is...is it about card security or is it about whether you should get up from your table and pay at the maitre-d station? Wherever I eat in the world (US included) the bill is brought to me at the table, and I pay at the table. Some places then have the waiter scurry off to find a machine, and at other places they swipe it through the main till and come back with the bill. Either way, I'm not really bothered.

I've used pay-at-the-table card scanners while traveling abroad, and I like them. I like the greater security of my credit card not leaving my control. I've never felt like the staff were hovering over me, waiting for me to finish. Of course, in traveling abroad, there's rarely been the dynamic of how much I'm going to tip the person who's standing right there as I pay.

We eat out all the time. Hand over our cards all the time. Never had an issue.

I'm not sure I understand. I use Google wallet at my grocery store which does not take chip cards.

I'm fine with any payment approach (at table w/machine, no machine, front payment register) and do not care if the server is watching what I'm putting down as a tip if applicable.

When I used to use Android I tried to use it as often as I can. Unfortunately the places where I could use it were few and far between. Apple Pay made NFC mainstream and basically removed any cost justification that retailers had to buy the non-NFC capable credit card terminals for their chip card upgrades. As a result, there are far more places where one can use NFC now.

+1
going to a place that ISN'T like that is rare!
And often I find it's smaller places where you just get up and pay on your way out.


I"m not too worried about my card being compromised. I mean that's what credit card protection is for after all.
Then again I do watch that thing pretty closely though, especially when I travel.
Having said that, if it was to be compromised, it'd likely be at home.

At full service gas stations, I always get out of the vehicle, regardless of the weather, to take my card inside to pay so that the card isn't out of my sight.

I've never worried that much about restaurants, but I don't tend to eat in sleazy places (unless someone else is paying).

AmEx seems really good when something bad happens involving at least their higher end cards.

if youre using pin, obviously hold a hand over machine while entering.

and pin obviously requires at the table, and they dont know if you dont have pin.

i was annoyed that tax was included in tip percentage. (i knew it would be, but server said it wasnt.) im guessing restaurants sometimes take it (the tip on tax portion) rather than server.

amex is best regarded for disputes. to the point that they may help with fraud, and merchants complain.
at one point diners club was also well regarded, maybe only for business, and i think it went downhill.

I agree. Allowing your card to simply wander off and then return 10 mins later is going to be a thing of the past pretty much everywhere by the end of this decade.

It still works this way in Singapore and I haven't had any issues with my cards (the only ones I have had were with a Singaporean company not securing its stored data properly). But sooner or later it will be a case of paying at the table everywhere (or just paying by the counter upon leaving the restaurant).