You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Now with 3x more gears...

[cam_calderon]

On a similar theme, I was in Vancouver about a decade ago (2013), having lunch with my parents and some friends. My dad goes to pay and is quite surprised he can't tap his card on the payment machine. We'd been tapping for a couple years at this point.

I guess we are just that much more advanced.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by cam_calderon

On a similar theme, I was in Vancouver about a decade ago (2013), having lunch with my parents and some friends. My dad goes to pay and is quite surprised he can't tap his card on the payment machine. We'd been tapping for a couple years at this point.

I guess we are just that much more advanced.

In 2013? Pretty sure canada was tap most places by then. I do remember us being ahead of the US on tap which seemed weird.

[jayswin]

Hmm best I could find was that tap was implemented in 2014 in the US, but adoption was very slow there, and it took until 2018 to become predominant.

Nothing on Canada, so maybe it was slightly later than 2013.

[cam_calderon]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Hmm best I could find was that tap was implemented in 2014 in the US, but adoption was very slow there, and it took until 2018 to become predominant.

Nothing on Canada, so maybe it was slightly later than 2013.

It seemed the staff at this restaurant in Gastown had never heard of the concept. For some reason this lunch sticks out in my mind - we spent a week in Calgary then a few days in Vancouver via Banff, and I don't actually remember it coming up anywhere else. I was 17 at the time so my parents paid for everything - maybe some places like Safeway already had it?

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Hmm best I could find was that tap was implemented in 2014 in the US, but adoption was very slow there, and it took until 2018 to become predominant.

Nothing on Canada, so maybe it was slightly later than 2013.

I wouldn’t say tap is predominant in the USA even now. Every time I go I’m still signing. It’s brutal.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Weitz

I wouldn’t say tap is predominant in the USA even now. Every time I go I’m still signing. It’s brutal.

I feel like things have changed a lot in the US, at least where I live, in the last two years. I now pay everything by phone, and almost never am required to sign.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

I feel like things have changed a lot in the US, at least where I live, in the last two years. I now pay everything by phone, and almost never am required to sign.

That’s good to hear. My last 2 trips have been to Phoenix and St George and it was almost exclusively sign. Hell I was in whitefish in Feb 2023 and someone paid for groceries in front of me with a cheque!

[GGG]

It’s the lack of banking monopolies that slow things down and their archaic clearing system.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Weitz

That’s good to hear. My last 2 trips have been to Phoenix and St George and it was almost exclusively sign. Hell I was in whitefish in Feb 2023 and someone paid for groceries in front of me with a cheque!

Whitefish/Kalispell is interesting, on one of my last trips I stopped at a gas station and put my debit card in the card reader. Went through the process, selected chequing account and it didn't even ask me to enter my pin number. It just activated the pump and took my money as usual.

[bc-chris]

Originally Posted by cam_calderon

On a similar theme, I was in Vancouver about a decade ago (2013), having lunch with my parents and some friends. My dad goes to pay and is quite surprised he can't tap his card on the payment machine. We'd been tapping for a couple years at this point.

I guess we are just that much more advanced.

i remember reading eons (ok... probably 30 years or so) ago that Australia is usually one of the first countries for embracing/welcoming new tech/banking stuff like that - so what you say about tapping for a couple years already and it not being as widespread here doesn't really surprise me.

[Wormius]

It’s still like 50/50 whether I need to go into the gas station in the US to pay because they need a valid postal code, and Canadian ones, even with all of the characters removed and appended with 0s doesn’t seem to work anymore.

I don’t get what the point is. Criminals stealing credit cards and using them to buy gas $50 at a time.

[Brendone]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Whitefish/Kalispell is interesting, on one of my last trips I stopped at a gas station and put my debit card in the card reader. Went through the process, selected chequing account and it didn't even ask me to enter my pin number. It just activated the pump and took my money as usual.

Is it a Debit “Mastercard”? Those work like a credit cards in the states even though it’s accessing your debit account. Very handy as long as the pump doesn’t ask for a zip code

[fotze2]

Does using 90210 still work?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Does using 90210 still work?

No. In many cases using the just the numbers in your postal code with 2 zeroes after will work.

Ie T1X-1X1 would be 11100

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Does using 90210 still work?

if you know, you know

[cam_calderon]

Originally Posted by bc-chris

i remember reading eons (ok... probably 30 years or so) ago that Australia is usually one of the first countries for embracing/welcoming new tech/banking stuff like that - so what you say about tapping for a couple years already and it not being as widespread here doesn't really surprise me.

Yeah, it's kinda weird. I'm especially surprised to read about the States, but I'll admit I have zero knowledge of their presumably complex banking system.

[The Fisher Account]

90210 has never worked. I think if your CC isn't registered to that ZIP, it fails

[surferguy]

I always thought NZ was one of the test nations for new tech as it’s a small isolated island. Kinda like a focus group. Perhaps Aus becomes one of the first to adopt after given the proximity.

[Zary's-Mustache]

Anyone else's phone not working this morning? Can't make outgoing calls. Rogers.

[cam_calderon]

#### nz.