Ideally, I could tap my card on someone's smartphone and pay them right then and there some arbitrary amount.
I can do that, sort of. I have an app on my iPhone, from my bank, that allows me to pay anyone in Australia with nothing more than their phone number, along with being able to do Transfers to anyone, check my account balance, so on, so fourth. Most of the Major banks here have an app that does something like that - ANZ, Commonwealth, westpac, St George, Bank of Queensland, National Australia bank all have them, at the least.
Most apartment complexes are still like that. They require a deposit by check or money order.
I still pay my rent by check, however my apartment has recently offered the option to pay online but if I did that they charge $25. Unless I set up automatic payment, it's free.
My apartment complex is like that also, I can pay online, but it would cost me $17.50. I could also pay with a credit card, but they want me to pay the surcharge. So I pay them by check. I write 3 of them a month, rent, electric bill, and child support.
We have these. They are called prepaid VISA (or other company) cards. They are often reloadable. We don't have to engineer shit.
I can't pay, say, some guy on the street with them.
Then your problem is not that we need to engineer the card. It's that we need to engineer the technology for every person to have a personal receptor for the card. Those damn things are currently very expensive and more trouble than they are worth for the average guy.
If you increase the technology, the absolute anonymity is probably going to have to go. That's the price of doing business digitally. It's not a material product changing hands, so it's harder to keep track of without attributing it to an account.
Wow, every single service and almost all rent can be paid over the internet free of charge down here, and I thought I lived in a 3rd world country.
Same here. My rent, my bills, pretty much anything that isn't a brick and mortar store purchase, I can do online, or from my phone. Damn near everyone I know does the exact same thing, and as I mentioned before, I can pay anyone I like from my phone, with nothing more than their Mobile number. Even most private landlords prefer you to do everything online. Most banks, internet banking and payments are completely free, in fact, it's rare - to the best of my knowledge - to find one that DOES charge for an electronic transaction, with the near universal exception of taking money out from another bank's ATM.
Is this the same in the US?
If not, What the Fuck, USA? How are you not getting this, it's all pretty basic stuff.
Wow, every single service and almost all rent can be paid over the internet free of charge down here, and I thought I lived in a 3rd world country.
Yeah, I find it absolutely ridiculous. It's basically a way to get more money, imo. Sure it costs them to have that convenience, but stopping by the front office once a month to drop off my rent & water/sewer/garbage check isn't a problem for me.
It's the same here. Even though my landlady wants a check, my bank prints and mails the rent check for me. Everything else I pay via ACH debit.
Most banking institutions offer free bill pay, which is awesome. I really don't use it because most of the bills I pay, can easily be paid online through their various websites.
That allows Rym to accept payment from a random guy with a credit card, but not really the other way around.
Unless it is ubiquitous enough to where everyone is carrying one...
Nor is it anonymous.
I never said that particular implementation is the perfect solution, it is just an example of technology which could be used for the situation provided.
Wow, every single service and almost all rent can be paid over the internet free of charge down here, and I thought I lived in a 3rd world country.
I can pay all my bills online, however I had to write a check last month for rent because their website was non-functional by the payment deadline.
For the record, the fact that 1€ and 2€ is coinage rather than paper money is fucking retarded. Probably the prime reason I'm practically never carrying money anymore, only my bank and credit card.
Yea, I really don't understand why my apartment complex won't do the online rent thing for free. I would do it, just to keep the number of bounced checks down. I know for me, it's no big deal to walk down to the office and drop the check off. Certainly worth $17.50 to me. My electricity is provided by the city I live in, so I'm sure there is some kind of bureaucratic crap involved with paying them online. I'm not one for a lot of government regulations, but if I was king of the world, I would make so everything could be paid online.
Didn't someone claim that the USA land of the internet?
Only for the young and the wise. The rest don't even own computers, or if they do, can't conceive of doing anything but checking their email on them.
Our former landlords would hand-write letters to us, and I saw first-hand that they used physical ledger books rather than even a spreadsheet. None of them owned a computer as near as I could reckon.
That's a "No" then. Excuse me while I marvel at the fact that my grandmother did everything on her computer when she was not visiting family. A decade ago.
That's nothing next to what companies stand to lose. Let's say Wal-Mart sells 100 cans of corn for 49 cents. That's $4.99, right? Well, let's assume now that they sell 100 cans of corn for 50 cents. That's $5.00. But Wal-Mart doesn't sell 100 cans or corn. Wal-Mart sells 100 million cans of corn. Do the math.
That's nothing next to what companies stand to lose. Let's say Wal-Mart sells 100 cans of corn for 49 cents. That's $4.99, right? Well, let's assume now that they sell 100 cans of corn for 50 cents. That's $5.00. But Wal-Mart doesn't sell 100 cans or corn. Wal-Mart sells 100 million cans of corn.Do the math.
The irony is killing me.
I was waiting for someone else to pick up on this.
That's a "No" then. Excuse me while I marvel at the fact that my grandmother did everything on her computer when she was not visiting family. A decade ago.
True that. The Young and the wise matter nothing, Tell me when the majority of you catch up to the rest of the world.
How can 100 cans at 49 each be $4.99? I can see how, by raising the price to 50 cents, 100 cans will make $5.00 more than if they cost 49 cents, but the way you've stated whatever it was you were stating is either very confusing, or just plain wrong.
EDIT: no wait, even I got mixed up there. They make $1, not $5.
Comments
If you increase the technology, the absolute anonymity is probably going to have to go. That's the price of doing business digitally. It's not a material product changing hands, so it's harder to keep track of without attributing it to an account.
Is this the same in the US?
If not, What the Fuck, USA? How are you not getting this, it's all pretty basic stuff.
I've never used a credit card device like that before, but I know Nuri has. How are those prices compared to what you typically pay?
Our former landlords would hand-write letters to us, and I saw first-hand that they used physical ledger books rather than even a spreadsheet. None of them owned a computer as near as I could reckon.
n. pl. cur·ren·cies
1. Money in any form when in actual use as a medium of exchange, especially circulating paper money.
My understanding of both words suggests currencies is actually more accurate here, although denominations or currencies would work.
EDIT: no wait, even I got mixed up there. They make $1, not $5.