cheb wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 6:17 pm
I think they used to be before the tablet based readers came along. The newer internet based banks also helped from what I've heard, an good target market.
If you have a card reader as a business, the operator of the card reader takes a %age from each transaction. Which, if you operate in coffees rather than, say, tourist transfers, adds up very quickly on a small turnover
Even on a transfer business, my boss changed the provider half way through the first winter due to huge charges that took fairly significant amounts from each transaction
Hence why coffees and small transaction items always seem so expensive. Then again a 1% fee on £5 is only 5p.
wheelnut wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 8:14 pm
Then again a 1% fee on £5 is only 5p.
At minimum wage 5p covers about 15s of work, before benefits, NI contributions etc. You don't have to spend long cashing up for the saving to be eroded (before you even start considering bank cash handling charges).
Taipan wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 1:00 pm
It has made me think about starting to carry cash again...
Wouldn’t help you trying to board a plane or get a train ticket - just shows how susceptible we are to single points of failure. You can put your server warehouses from here to Timbuktu to minimise geographical risk, but if they all update with the same patches at the same time…
The issue with security software is that it has to go out quickly, often, it seems, without proper testing.
cheb wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 8:03 pm
I always carry cash too, but that's another matter.
Would that he this 'walking around money' I've heard so much about?
I used to work with a guy who claimed he always had £1000 in cash about his person "in case a deal popped up".
Not that much, usually a minimum of enough to get a taxi back to where I'm staying or enough to buy dinner.
I also have two cards from two different banks on two different payment platforms. And if away from home two wallets both containing a similar arrangement. Lunatic prepping perhaps but it's solved small inconveniences several times now.
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 8:29 pm
I was really surprised one patch hit so many things TBH...or rather, how many seemingly unrelated companies/services use the same IT.
It’s no surprise really. There’s only two cloud server platform providers, MS Azure and AWS. They’re aren’t that many security software providers that are designed for huge systems either.
It usually is fiiine almost all of the time but it's a really buggeration when it's not.
My habits probably got started and honed when I used to travel with both spawn when they were much younger. I surprised many a woman with my ability to cope with two small children unaccompanied by their mother.
I was in Scandawegia 5 or 10 years ago, the supermarket checkouts didn't handle cash you just chucked in a hopper. They'd done away with small coinage too, 10whatsits was the smallest.
David wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 9:10 pm
How many whatsits are the too the pound nowadays?
About 8DKK to the pound last time I was in Denmark (got family over there).
Fun fact...supposedly the shop Flying Tiger (formerly just "tiger") gets its name from a pun. Ti is "ten" in Danish and Ger is like "quid". So Tiger just means "10 kroner". Poundland basically
That's what my Danish relies say anyway. You have to say it in a Danish accent really, which is basically the same as pretending you're pissed.
Last edited by Mr. Dazzle on Fri Jul 19, 2024 9:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.