this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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This seems… reasonable..? They’re not telling you not to do this. It’s a safety measure in case 1. You either fat finger the tip screen and don’t realize it or 2. You write a $5 tip on your receipt and the waiter rings it up for $50. It probably triggers after 25 or 30% on a tip. Who cares?
I don’t really get a lot of people on this website. This is just a good faith, consumer friendly security check email and people will still read it and find a way to feel morally superior about it
I don't understand why credit cards are secured so badly in the states. Here you can't adjust a charge after it has been confirmed (plus you usually have to enter a pin whan swiping the card if the amount is over a certain threshold).
Kind of related: when my family went to the US for vacation and we ate at some restaurant, the waitress came with the bill, my dad said something like "make it $x". When she sait to just write in the tip on the bill and my dad told her that won't work she insisted that thats how it always works (which tbf it probably does for american customers). Sure enough when we checked the card statement later on they just took out the original amount, not the tip writen in.
I have always been very confused about whether the tip line on the receipt in the US works with my British cards given that I enter a PIN into a terminal that doesn't show that tip amount.
As of last year I'm pretty sure the tip is deducted from my card, but I don't think that has always been the case. I understand it works based on PIN-authenticated pre-authorisation for a higher amount and they later take your tip+bill from that pre-authorisation.
It doesn't seem very secure but the US always seems behind on card security.
When I first started travelling to the US for work restaurant staff were always extremely confused about why my card needed a PIN. They often tried again and again or said my card wouldn't go through, then worked out that it needed a PIN. Lots of places then had no way to hand you the terminal to enter it, like they would have to push aside mountains of junk to get the terminal out, or invite me round to the other side of the bar because it's literally screwed down.