so use a card? there is always something. breaking free is never going to be without ANY inconveniences, it's how they build their moat after all. okay so once those two work, one goes to the next thing on the list; "I wish I could switch but I can't use gboard on it and the swiping is 0.5% better than the stock keyboard so it's unusable to me"
(you can use gboard, that was just an example - but it's always these small inconveniences, just like in the chrome vs firefox threads)
I use 5 different banking apps and 3 other financial/investment apps and they all work fine, you should check compatibility with yours [1]. And to be precise, contactless payments work but not through Google Pay - I've heard that Curve is a viable alternative, and some banks might have their own systems that aren't based on Google Pay (though most seem to be).
In Europe contactless payment is nearly everywhere - nearly every store supports it. Even in Germany (which is historically very pro-cash), since Covid more and more people pay with card and many of whom pay contactless.
In the EU we have some rules that even contactless payments with card sometimes, but not always, need to have some kind of additional authentication in the form of entering your PIN. Contactless payment methods via phone or watch don't have this need because they already have their own authentication methods. That's why so many people pay with their phone or watch. Its just more convenient and always contactless. (no PIN needed)
How is it in the US? Are things like Apple Pay still limited to certain stores?
Apple pay is supported in a lot of places, but it depends on the point of sales system. Contactless cards are nearly universal, but some gas stations require chip.
We do not use pins with credit cards here, so that isn't a distinguishing feature of phone pay.
I live in Europe, I experienced many people paying with the phone/watches, it was never faster than tapping the bank card. Anyway PIN is required only for purchases over 20EUR.
Not really. Outside of Walmart and maybe a smaller store ran by an older mom and pop shop, you can use NFC payments practically anywhere even at a drive thru. Only reason I still have my wallet is mainly for drivers license, but even that’s on the horizon.
I like having cash for tipping and dining, particularly bars where closing out can take a long time and I don't deal with coins. I also keep a copy of my emergency 2FA backup for my password safe in case my phone breaks or gets lost when I'm traveling.
In Europe? Debit cards. Hardly anyone uses a credit card in a supermarket.
If I'm going out I'll have both a debit card and cash in my wallet. Given that large scale outages of payment networks are no longer theoretical but to be expected, not carrying cash is just silly. Since I have a wallet in any case, I see no point in using contactless payments on a smartphone — I usually don't take it with me when getting groceries.
I have no idea if I can even do contactless phone payments on GrapheneOS, but since everything else works (including my bank's app), I don't care.
> In Europe? Debit cards. Hardly anyone uses a credit card in a supermarket.
Such sweeping statements are impossible for "Europe". It's a big place. Plenty of people use credit cards in supermarkets. But it's orthogonal to the discussion. A creditcard can be contactless or on a phone. Or on a watch.
That article lists some reasons why using a credit card doesn't make sense in most European countries. It's not a way to build up your credit score for one. As a Dutchman, the only way I can lower my credit score is by taking on debts (with the exception of a mortgage).
The US is a big place too. I am fairly comfortable in making the sweeping statement that credit cards are a thing used by many people there.
> It is also a big place where credit cards just aren't a thing for most people
Nonsense. It's hard to find actual statistics on the number of credit cards, but it's obvious that the Netherlands are an outlier, with a paltry 0.02 credit cards per capita, vs Luxemburg's 3.98 (wtf). If I filter out the non-EU countries from the dataset below, I end up with 0.5 credit cards per capita. That's nowhere near "not a thing for most people". They're just "not a thing" in NL. Big difference.
If 25 people have 4 credit cards each and 75 people have none, then we have 1 card/capita, but only 25% of the population uses credit cards.
The median seems to be 0.25 cards/capita. Your own source already ~agrees that they're "not a thing for most people" (if we're really pedantic we can start looking at populations of those countries), but to find a more realistic estimate for the percentage of the population who use credit cards we would have to divide this figure by the average number of credit cards among people who have at least one.
I think it's healthy for a population to not have as part of day-to-day life to pay with credit, effectively paying with money you might not actually have, going into debt. How many US citizens are crippled by credit card debt, and the interest on it?
You can pay with credit card as a convenience + fraud protection mechanism without ever paying interest by just paying your bill off every month.
When chip and pin was first rolled out, Europeans were shocked by the low security of swipe cards in the US. The reason that wasn’t an issue for Americans was (and still is) that credit cards have excellent fraud protections.
If someone steals my credit card, it is the bank’s problem, not mine.
The risk of paying by debit card on a regular basis is unfathomable to me, even with fancy tech to try to make it secure.
I wasn't suggesting individuals shouldn't be able to pay with credit. I have a credit card myself, which I use when I can't pay with debit. I was suggesting that for a population as a whole, having paying with credit being so commonplace leads to crippling debt issues, which as far as I can believe "the reports", is an issue in the US.
Your comment on the risk of paying with debit cards surprised me. I've never considered it a risk at all. It made me realize that perhaps here (in the Netherlands) we have consumer protection systems in place, in addition to the payment systems, that prevent any issues.
It's not about credit/debit, it's about phone/card. Americans tend to use "credit card" as a generic term for payment cards.
And yes, phone NFC payment is one of those technically unnecessary conveniences that's really easy to get used to. You probably already have your phone out or at least accessible in like one second, paying with it instead of pulling out your wallet and finding a card or even cash is just sooo nice. I hate that I've gotten this used to it.
That being said, you can still get NFC payment on a rooted or reflashed phone. Instead of Google Wallet, find a bank or card provider that has their own app. I use the Curve "proxy card" and it works fine.
In my case sliding my card out of my wallet is faster than unlocking my phone given the lack of consistency of the fingerprint reader of my google pixel when using my smartphone case (and I am too clumsy to use a smartphone without a case covering both sides, broke too many screenw already). Some people just leave the card on their smartphone case too.
I also see a lot of people struggling because they need to pay while being on a call or because their smartphone is just way too big to be handled comfortably with one hand given the size of their hands.
Physical CC can be used by anyone holding it or actually just standing close.
Contactless payment with phone only after the phone is unlocked().
Physical card contactless payments have a limit (don't remember it) after which you have to use it with pin. At least all mine. Boring. Payments with apple/hoogle/Garmin have higher transaction limit.
I could probably go on longer but these are for me.
() I know it can be done without, but it also can be done with.
They have had problems with the suspension arms, but word on the street is that it’s just the brake discs.
Denmark is significantly more moist than California, and EVs regenerative braking doesn’t wear the braking discs, so they rust, thus failing inspection.
The solution is trivial (periodically disable regenerative braking), but many people didn’t know.
> They have had problems with the suspension arms, but word on the street is that it’s just the brake discs.
That is certainly one of the issues, but 22% of the model Y's had loose suspension arms. So the brakes (which I agree is a more minor yet still inexcusable issue) aren't the only issue.
I was under the impression that VAT taxes are considered to impact mostly the poor. While in absolute terms the rich are impacted most, in percentage terms VAT is considered a much smaller portion of expenses for the rich than the poor. I quote:
"VAT is a regressive tax, putting more burden to the poor than to the rich. Indeed, VAT applies the same rate to everyone regardless of their level of wealth – but the richer you are, the lower the proportion of your revenue goes to consumption."
In the U.K. most living expenses are don’t get charged vat, or get charged at a low rate - food, rent, public transport are vat free, electric, gas are low rated.
Why tax the gasoline but then the airplane ticket and not the kerosene?
And similarly i would extrapolate to do we tax the buyer of electricity (which could be green sourced) or the manufacturer - the gas burner. Or maybe even at the first point of contact with the carbon source, the oil company.
If you shoot someone and hit their head killing them or just their ear, its a matter of luck (and possibly skill), the charges are different. The justice system judges based on intent as well as outcome (i.e. execution X luck).
well you're not wrong. That attempted Trump assassination was a few inches away from being in the same books as John Wilkes Booth, instead of being talked about for less than a week and then forgotten. Sentences would have been night and day.
Many jurisdictions have the same punishment for attempted murder and murder though.
I get that there are different views on how much punishment should be based on intent vs outcome. My opinion is factoring in outcome in criminal sentences is often pragmatic, but if we had omniscient judges, judging on intent would be ideal.
It disables your stomach... its like taking PPIs for gerd only to later find out the problem was low stomach acid and now your acid production capability has been permanently damaged by meds
I really don't understand this metamaterials hype.
While obviously this stuff is cool, is it science worthy?
This is basic engineering isn't it? How is this different than a bridge designer designing how a bridge will deform and different kinds of stress?
Sure they make it modular more abstract and general, but is it truly novel its the same science as the bridge designer isn't it?
