Where I am, a few payphones exist here and there, and they use specialized cards that are (iirc) tied to the person. This was probably done just so the police can spy on who makes calls.
We still have some really cheap parking meters. For example to keep people from using the library parking lot all day, there is a meter and 2 hour limit. It’s only a quarter for half an hour or maybe even an hour.
But who carries quarters anymore? There’s an app for that. You can pay by app. Each quarter has a quarter surcharge. I think that’s unreasonable and refuse but a lot of people are ok with it. I say “100% fee is unreasonable” but they say “25¢ fee is cheap and convenient ”.
I’m surprised that they didn’t just embed a card reader in the phones.
Where I am, a few payphones exist here and there, and they use specialized cards that are (iirc) tied to the person. This was probably done just so the police can spy on who makes calls.
Still not really feasible. The card charges on a $0.20 call would be “unreasonable”.
Depends on how you define unreasonable….
We still have some really cheap parking meters. For example to keep people from using the library parking lot all day, there is a meter and 2 hour limit. It’s only a quarter for half an hour or maybe even an hour.
But who carries quarters anymore? There’s an app for that. You can pay by app. Each quarter has a quarter surcharge. I think that’s unreasonable and refuse but a lot of people are ok with it. I say “100% fee is unreasonable” but they say “25¢ fee is cheap and convenient ”.
Anyone would consider a 20c fee on a 20c charge to be unreasonable.
Visa executives find it perfectly reasonable, apparently.