Am in the midst of back to school shopping, and despite the (legit) claims abt rampant enshittification, I still find it amazing every time I tap my phone to pay w my credit card that in just my lifetime we’ve gone from the “SHUNK-CHUNK” machine to tap-and-pay. It’s really a huge, legit tech shift.
They Also used to have the kind with the long handle that pressed your “charge plate”, as they were called onto the carbon. Wouldn’t work now - all my credit cards are flat as a board.
I was floored that these are still in use, in a country that had tap to pay way before the US bsky.app/profile/mehr...
OK, but hear me out, what if the tap to pay machines made that satisfying SHUNK-CHUNK noise when it recognized your card.
I noticed the first time I got a credit card on which the numbers were no longer embossed. I pointed it out to a younger colleague, and they didn't have the faintest clue what I was going on about.
I worked retail when electronic swipers were still fairly new. You had to call in when cards were declined and sometimes you had to confiscate the card. They made us take people's credit cards from them!!
pouring one out for the last business i ever had dealings with that used one of those, about 8-10 years ago (then they got an electronic machine) and even 10 years ago they were the only place i encountered an imprint machine.
When I've told students how credit cards were validated in-store prior to linked POS devices (monthly-published cancellation books later followed by getting on the phone with an actual card issuer operator to get a code) they are reluctant to believe me.
I'm so old I know why credit card numbers used to be raised. It was for this contraption.
I worked retail and when the registers went down we could still HAND WRITE receipts to be entered later. The same 3 copy carbon ones that went through the register to be printed and then have credit card imprinted. Of course we also still took Traveler's Checks a lot then too.I worked retail and when the registers went down we could still HAND WRITE receipts to be entered later. The same 3 copy carbon ones that went through the register to be printed and then have credit card imprinted. Of course we also still took Traveler's Checks a lot then too.