Why do restaurants in the US take your credit card, instead of simply bringing the machine to the table for payment?

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In Canada, I haven’t seen a credit card taken by the waiter for payment since maybe the late 90s. However, the dozens of times that I’ve gone to a sit-down restaurant in the States, I have not once had a waiter bring the machine to the table. Having the machine brought over is much faster and convenient, and allows the customer to be sure of what is charged, so why hasn’t this caught on?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

In the US, merchants are not responsible for fraudulent credit card transactions. So as a result, they have little to no incentive to buy a brand new, more secure credit card reader.

Many restaurants therefore still operate on their first ever card reader that they got decades ago, sitting on their front desk.

This is also the reason why so many places still swipe instead of using tap/chip.

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