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@yakkoj@fosstodon.orgSo there's rumblings that merchants are going to start passing on merchant fees to customers who use credit (and possibly debit) cards.
OK... time to dust off the old checkbooks. Time for anyone under the age of 30 to learn how to write a check.
Seriously, checks as methods of payment are TERRIBLE and there should be payment methods that are cash-equivalent and don't cost money to use.
https://fosstodon.org/@zorinlynx@tiggi.es/110714864815066079
fair question: does current retail even KNOW how to handle checks as a method of payment?
@yakkoj yes, they can be electronically processed too.
@yakkoj I expect most of the cashiers at my work have no idea but customer service probably does, and the self-checkouts accept checks.
@yakkoj The corner gas station doesn't let me pay by card for purchases under $5 (I usually go there just to get a can of soda). I've always assumed it's because of fees, which is kinda strange, considering there are plenty of companies who don't take fees for small businesses, but I guess the corner gas station is legally not a small business, as it's a franchise location of a large company...
@yakkoj Cash and change is an insane hassle. I always end up with way more pennies than I can carry, and it takes up SO MUCH pocket space. Checkbooks aren't really convenient, i.e. pocket-sized...
For better or for worse, cards and phone-tap fix all of those concerns, but the oligopoly on card manufacturing are for-profit companies, and they're not ubiquitously accepted.
This is why it's such a shame crypto is a scammer's playground.
@yakkoj I do think a national, law-backed standard could be beneficial here. Kill processing fees for companies in a certain income/tax bracket (or at all), require businesses to accept certain kinds of payment (i.e. cash and cards with chips, at the very least), and maybe try to adopt Zelle to work like the USPS does, and try to push it to more places.
I'm writing a lot here; I might as well make a blog post or something...
@blake and even when crypto isn't scam-adjacent, it's tainted by the same outfits running traditional finance.
@yakkoj That's true, too. Not to mention most (all?) of the blockchains/cryptocurrencies out there aren't private; they're actually even less private than using a credit or debit card.