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Comment by eru | Hacker News Reader

RFID is not even that much of a hit in retail, either. Some say, "yet". But widespread use of RFID in retail was "just around the corner" for several years, now.

As long as the technology is not cheap enough to (profitably!) slap an RFID chip on every 25 cent cup of yoghurt, it won't be ready for retail.

(At least that's the picture in Germany. But thanks to Aldi, Lidl and a few others --- most of our groceries don't even accept credit cards, because their razor-thin margins make them unable to swallow the fee. Debit card processing --- which is mostly free for the shop --- is nearly universal however. (Except for Restaurants; most accept only cash.))

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Wow, Germany sounds like a horrible place to go shopping.

Careful with the quick judgments. Credit cards are not popular in many parts of Europe, so it's no big deal. I don't have one, for example, despite being in the top 10% income bracket in my country.

In America, our debit cards are rigged so they work just like credit cards. This gives you some extra protections, delays when they draw from your bank account, (theoretically) gives you the protections of the merchant's agreement, and for many banks you get some sort of cash-back benefit from it.

You can also pay with PIN if you want. That makes it post to your bank account quicker, which is nice if you keep track of your online banking.

debit cards have less protection than credit, not more. I'd suggest looking at your contract with the bank and seeing where you are responsible for charges to your card.

I'm not sure what you're saying or how it's relevant. I'm comparing separate ways to use an American debit card. I'm not comparing either use case with using an actual credit card (which I concede has even more protections).

Debit cards aren't half bad. You have to use your PIN to spend money, makes a thief maxing out your CC harder.

In most parts of Europe, you also don't have to pay %15-20 on top of every meal at a restaurant out of obligation. Tips really are only tips, you leave one based on the service you receive.

For the life of me, I really can't get over the fact that you have to leave a 15% tip by default in the US (unless there was something blatantly wrong with your meal, of course). I mean, I'm not a dick, I still do it, I just can't get accustomed to it.

And, contrawise, when I went to Australia (coming from Norther California) and was told that I didn't have to tip 18% on all restaurant meals, I was actually _incapable_ of not doing so. So, even though it meant out of pocket money for me, It was better than having to deal with (completely false) belief that the serving person would think I was a total dick for not tipping them.

Getting back on topic (slighty) - I've had about $200 in cash in my pocket for the last couple months - I don't recall the last time I've been somewhere that I didn't use my Credit Card. Makes tracking my expenses via Mint.com a heckuva lot more straightforward.

You don't _have_ to leave a tip. People don't appreciate it, and if you get not-bad service you should tip adequately, but the tip is a mechanism designed to encourage servers to meet your needs as well as possible, and not neglect their patrons. I think they work well, generally. In most places, a tip is not mandatory (I have heard of some establishments banning frequent non-tippers), though you generally leave one anyway to gauge the server's performance. i.e., bad performance gets 5-10%, normal 10-20%, awesome 20%+.

You say that you don't have to tip and then advocate tipping 5-10% for bad performance in the same paragraph? Of course there is no legal obligation to tip, since if there was it couldn't be called a tip-- it would just be itemized billing. But the fact that in the US wait staff can be legally paid less than the minimum wage (before tips) provides an ethical argument for tipping, if not a legal one.

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