Does any restaurant in America have a wireless credit card machine?

By on October 17, 2007 in Devices

I got a note from reader ‘S’ who enjoyed the recent ‘America’s dire handset marketplace‘ post and commented thus:

When you pay by credit card in a restaurant they still don’t have GPRS/EDGE/Wi-Fi readers that they can bring to the table. Why not? What a massive business opportunity.

I was thinking that too. They still take the card *away* to the wired card machine. Surely the suppliers must be readying wireless terminals?

Or are they waiting to properly deploy PIN first?

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  • Krystal

    We have ones here in Canada. For paying debit too. Although not tons of places have them. Sometimes you even have to follow the server to the bar/computer area to pay.

  • http://www.rfmo.com loulou

    I only saw one once in Ohio, at a new Chinese all you can eat place. I think it was a national chain, but can’t recall which one. And it was a “swipe and sign” receipt giving one, not PIN.

  • Chapin

    It is a cost vs. benefit issue. Why would a small business, who already pays crazy amounts of money to the card associations pay extra for a wireless card terminal. We won’t see it here for a while, just like we are not seeing a rapid move to contactless payment terminals.

  • chaki

    In Boston I used one at Legal Seafoods – it’s by a company called Ingenico. It was cool – you are asked to enter tip % and then swipe the card. Two receipts are printed out and you sign one and take one as usual. I think it was a Wi-Fi handset.

  • GaryK

    I agree with Chapin that it’s a cost/benefit thing. as a yank now living in the uk, I’m still at a loss as to the practice of having the tail-end of a pleasant meal interrupted by a somewhat clunky business transaction while all parties are still at the table; pushing greasy buttons on a bulky machine right in front of your date and guests. This practice still feels very awkward to me even after six months being here. I miss the more discreet practice of having the card silently whisked away by the waiter and quickly scribbling on it just before exiting. In the states especially, where we don’t have to deal with entering pins, I certainly can’t see how the wireless would save any real time, on the waiter’s or the customers’ part. Also, while I happen to be on this rant, I really miss the ability to discreetly add a tip on the credit slip left at the table – I’m still not clear exactly how adding a non-cash tip is done here with these systems.

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