Fun Stuff > CHATTER
When in Rome, do as the Romans do
mustang6172:
I miss the days when you could pump gas before paying. Some of you may have extrapolated this from my post in the "Dreams" thread.
It's like nobody trusts each other anymore.
Carl-E:
Too many drive-offs when the prices skyrocketed a few years ago.
It's like I tell my students about cheating - "It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I can't trust anybody!"
Loki:
The discussion of gas stations reminds me how weird toilet payments are here at those gas stations which are located along our famous Autobahnen. (They also sell food for thrice the normal price, of course).
Most have a system installed which has you pay 1 Euro for entering the toilets, then you get a voucher worth 50ct in return and can use it at any gas station which uses the system. Of course, most people forget to do so.
Barmymoo:
Oh I remember those toilet vouchers, I think! Weird.
I haven't been with someone filling up with petrol in the UK for years, but last time I was (probably two or three years ago) you could still "pump then pay" as you sweetly call it (we don't use the verb pump for filling up with petrol - it is a lot quicker, I have to admit). I found it odd that I had to pre-pay when I was driving in America, I'd never heard of that before.
jwhouk:
1. Akima, the system in the US is known more or less as "credit/debit" cards. The major card companies (Visa/Mastercard, American Express and Discover) all have them; my bank uses Mastercard. Retaliers say "Credit or debit" when you pull out a card to pay. While cash is good for most transactions, checks (or "cheques" as you Brits/Canucks call them) require ID for purchases - where they're accepted. As for the chip-in-a-card thing: most cards in the US only have magnetic stripes. I do have one card (by Amex) that had a chip embedded at one point - they've since done away with it.
2. Up here in Wisconsin, our ATM cards are sometimes called (by those of us old enough to remember them) "Tyme" cards. The acronym (Take Your Money Everywhere) was started by a consortium of banks in the state in the 1970's and 1980's, with the idea you could get cash from your bank account anywhere. Some banks with older machines, or in out-of-the-way places, still have the TYME logo on them.
3. I hate the fact that my younger self decided to get into credit card debt. I'm still paying on several cards, but I'm a lot less in the hole than I used to be.
4. Pay toilets never worked in the US. Too many people got around the coin slot mechanism by "crawling under" the door. Cash for things like that aren't seen as "value" for Americans; there are people who gripe at Aldi's having quarter slots on their carts.
5. Pre-paying for gas isn't universal in the states, but the drive-offs have made it rather ubiquitous. I use gas cards exclusively for fueling up, and pay for them in full when the bill comes at the end of the billing period.
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