In India , you can pay at most stores by scanning a QR code and paying either from an online wallet or directly from your bank acc using a Govt interface called ‘UPI’ by entering a PIN ( seperate from your ATM PIN) , it’s super convenient and it takes 5-6 seconds at best . No one really uses debit cards anymore , credit cards are still popular tho. Wondering if such a thing exists in the US ?
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I’ve never heard of that actually. We have apple pay (i think google pay too) where you can just pay w ur phone or apple watch. Amazon Go is also something where you don’t need to swipe a card or use cash, it just takes the money out from your account. But those aren’t common.
That’s not common as far as I’ve seen.
Some restaurants have QR code that you scan to bring up their menu as an option.
I’ve not been to a restaurant that lets you pay that way. Most places you give your credit card/cash to the waitstaff or go up to a register to pay.
At the register more and more places have “tap to pay” where you tap your card to a reader and pay that way with the chip in your card or a card you have stored on your phone or smart watch. Tap to pay is becoming more common as places upgrade their equipment.
They exist but they aren’t very common for people to use as you can just swipe your card, tap with your card or phone.
The only store I know that does QR code payments is Walmart but I’ve never seen anyone else use it.
>it’s super convenient and it takes 5-6 seconds at best
Same for us with cards and phone taps. It takes the same amount of time which is why people don’t feel the need to change as the advantage isn’t really there.
>No one really uses debit cards anymore , credit cards are still popular tho. Wondering if such a thing exists in the US ?
The top form of payment in America is credit card followed by debit card than tied with cash and mobile wallets. This includes tap to pay and swipe.
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/568523/preferred-payment-methods-usa/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/568523/preferred-payment-methods-usa/)
I’ve seen stuff like that but it’s not very common. A decent amount of businesses are starting to accept payments through apps like venmo, and bigger chains often have their own dedicated app which gives you rewards for paying with.
I’ve started seeing them in restaurants, but it is not common.
Not super common. Even tap-to-pay isn’t everywhere yet. Payment methods are notoriously slow to adapt to new technology.
I’ve seen it mostly in places that primarily accept payments through Square or other similar apps/services.
That said, I know it’s possible at Dunkin.
The most you’ll see is a QR code that brings up a payment menu/payment portal into which you put your credit card information.
I usually pay by tapping my phone or card, which likewise is super convenient and only takes 5-6 seconds (if that), so I don’t really see the benefit of the QR code option here. Sometimes I have to insert my card into the reader … but that isn’t particularly slow either.
No.
Some places use QR Codes as a replacement for menus and I find the process too annoying to deal with. I just flat out ask for a menu or just leave.
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I’ve been seeing this with increasing frequency just in literally the last few months. In that time, I’ve been to multiple bars and restaurants where your receipt has a QR code and you can pay by credit card, Apple Pay, etc. by scanning the code.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen it at a store before though; just bars and restaurants.
There was a push a while ago by a few retailers to do this (I remember Best Buy being one of them) about 6 or 7 years ago when NFC payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay (at the time Wallet) were on the rise. The retailers didn’t want to invest in new POS devices so they instead pushed a software update that added QR Code payments.
There was a massive backlash from the general public and the program was seen as a massive failure iirc. Many stores now support Apple Pay and Google Pay. I haven’t seen a QR Code since Best Buy’s failed attempt, though. Most people (including myself) still use credit cards via chip or tap to pay.
I’ve seen a few stores popping up QR codes to pay through Venmo but other than that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything outside of that.
Mostly people just use card, either through NFC like Apple Pay or Samsung Pay or the physical card itself.
I’ve seen this start to appear at a small number of local places this year so it is growing but not common.
No, the US uses tap/contactless payments.
Not common but it exists. Last time I used one was for a haunted house.
I’ve never seen it used, but I’m also not fond of the idea of paying with my phone. If I encountered a store that only allowed QR code payments, I wouldn’t buy anything.
Not really we use cash, cards, and contactless nfc payments like apple pay. The only qr code payment I’ve seen was the target app and bitcoin.
Not really, no.
For counter purchases, chip is most common. For service items like at a restaurant, they take your card while you’re still finishing up and bring back a receipt for you to sign and add a tip to.
PINs are limited to debit cards, credit cards and online wallets rarely if ever use them. We have strong protections on credit cards so objecting to a charge and avoiding it are very easy. Some people use credit cards because it’s so easy that it can actually be safer than a debit with PIN.
QR is mostly used as a quick way to provide a link, so at a business you’ll mostly only see it as a link to a restaurant menu or just the website for that location if you might need something there.
No. You pay using your card, by inserting the chip or tapping. You can also tap to pay using your phone with Apple Pay or Google Pay.
What you’re describing just seems like a bank transfer web app. I don’t see the benefit of doing that versus using a physical card. Maybe less of a risk of your debit card info being stolen? I assume it only works for debit cards?
In general it’s not a good idea to use your primary bank account for everyday purchases. Much better to use a credit card and just pay the balance in full every month. I stopped carrying my debit card in my wallet and I only use it for ATM transactions.
This reminds me of when the chip was all the rage in Canada but not at all used in America. It was weird. Progress is sometimes slow in the us. Especially when it comes to protecting money.
I use touchless via my phone for 99% of my purchases and it takes about 1 second.
(In my locale) Common at farmers markets, “flea markets”, and things like that where you’ll be paying an artisan directly for their goods. The QR code usually would bring up their Venmo.
At stores and such though, usually you’ll pay with card/phone (tap or insert chip).
No, they are not common here, especially compared to many parts of Asia. Americans receive benefits from credit card spending that are not common with QR / other digital payments. There are not strong enough incentives to switch.
No they are not the predominant or even a major method of payment in most of the US.
Not common, but not unheard of either. I regularly use contactless payments but it isn’t managed by the government. It is managed through your credit card / debit card issuer (most cards are contactless capable now) or through your phone with something like GPay or Apple Pay. The US government doesn’t operate like the Indian one in this way, we have a central banking system but it isn’t a consumer bank in the way we understand it. That is all privately handled. We have a number of merchant processors that are the go between for your bank and the credit card institution. It sounds like the Indian Government is filling the roll of a quasi merchant processor.
In the case of a QR code, which somehow overnight every restaurant I go to now does this, I scan the check or a placard on the table and the bill comes up and I can pay with a credit card or my stored GPay information. The waiter or waitress gets a ping that I paid so they don’t tackle me for dining and dashing.
Yes. The most common one here is called “Cash App.” Not a lot of venders use it, but it is available.
Never seen it
Is the code static or dynamic? In other words, is the code just the same code for everyone or do you have to wait for the code to be displayed?
Not common at all. Apple/Android pay very common.
No.
I assume there are no rewards earned in your transactions. I prefer to use my credit card because of the rewards. My credit card awards 2% cash back on all purchases. Spend $100 on something? That’s $2 added to my rewards. My wife and I just bought a car. I put the $4000 down payment on my credit card. That’s $80. Once I get a few thousand dollars in there, we will go on a nice vacation. It’s an easy way to save for our expensive vacations.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Touchless is becoming really common (using NFC, Google Pay or Apple Pay are examples, and some cards do it too now), but a QR code would require a data connection, and there are plenty of places where that wouldn’t work well.
There’s a restaurant by me owned by a former nba player that has it. It’s a poorly managed place.
I just got into Google Pay with my Samsung device. I used it for Monorail tickets in Vegas, I have had a few Southwest airlines tickets exported to Google Pay as well as a concert ticket. All three experiences have been buggy and I had to take my phone out of the case to get a good connection to the reading device and fiddle with Bluetooth setting (on Vegas monorail). I can’t have a line of people behind me while I fiddlefuck with settings. Been on some forums and adjusted settings to be a little more streamlined but haven’t tested since then.
Sorry for being pessimistic but I don’t think it’s there yet. I’d rather just have a QR code on my phone that a scanner can hit.
I normally only see that at small businesses, restaurants especially.
No, not common. I pay using my card on my phone often in europe and never bring my wallet anywhere. When I went back to visit family in the USA I realized that not even Walmart had that option sometimes and had to do the embarrassing “let me go to the car and get the card…” although generally contactless of some type is available now. QR scanning is something I’ve never heard of.
I’ve seen RFID and NFC used for digital payment but never a QR code. I’ve seen coupons with QR codes, notably by Subway.