Europeans haven't paid bills by cheque since the 70s. Banks stopped giving cheques to current account holders in the early 90s.
Paying by check has one benefit. With the lack of security in many of these companies, at least your credit card info isn't stored on their servers if you pay with check. In the US some companies actually encourage you to set up a direct withdrawal from your bank account and others actually make you pay $10 to use a credit card on the phone.
So in Europe, how do businesses handle business to business payments? The way it is done in the US is usually by check. The vendor submits an invoice by mail and a check gets sent by mail within the due date. It is a very simple process. Many smaller vendors do not accept credit cards, and arranging for direct deposit is complicated and often the vendor is reluctant to set it up. Checks and paper invoices are well suited for tax audits as well. Electronic payments are not always printed out. Here in the US the auditors do not have free access to your electronic bookkeeping unless there is some violation so good paper records are important.
If the card swipe works. Depending on the card reader, my card has to sometimes be swiped 2 or 3 times to work. With most it works fine on the 1st swipe so I think the card is fine; some readers suck, especially the cheap ones (Square is especially bad.)
Errrr no! Thats not how chip'n'pin works.
The card is not swiped (no EU cards are swiped, this has been the case for MANY years), its placed in the card reader. The reader, makes contact with the chip which is on the card. You then type your PIN in and hey its done.
Just to get some facts about European into the discussion:
As a Northern European I've:
- Done electronic banking from home since 1989 (modem, then Web from 1994ish->)
- Paid everything with plastic since the '80s (direct debit)
- Had chip&pin for years. In fact swiping is not allowed anymore (or rather, the merchant takes the risk if they allow it)
- Haven't seen a cheque since the eighties
- Extremely rarely carry cash in the wallet at all for ca. 30 years
And when it comes to our Prime minister, his comment clearly was too difficult for many to understand: He directed the message at the Finnish paper industry and Nokia for their failure to re-invent themselves and therefore allowing the chinese, Apple and Microsoft etc. to kill Nokias phones and get the paper industry into trouble. Stubb is _very_ pro-iOS.
Translated: "The iPad has replaced his paper binders and other computers completely. He compares being stranded from his iPad to stopping thought processes altogether".
Um... "bizarre" is that Europe is 10 years ahead of the US in many banking respects (not all... but many).... and the US.... no... Apple is leap-frogging everyone.
America, so backwards and behind the times. Most Yanks still pay bills by cash or signing on a piece of paper. So last century.
Really, that's how most "Yanks" do it? I live in the US but I don't know about "most Yanks." I can say that I never pay bills with cash and only rarely by signing on a piece of paper. Most often, I just use electronic billpay. I'd guess that it's the poorer folks that rely on cash and checks. I think you've got poor folks in Euro-land, don't you? If one wants to make observations about backwardness, one would probably not want to be from an area abound with monarchies.
Paying by check has one benefit. With the lack of security in many of these companies, at least your credit card info isn't stored on their servers if you pay with check.
Paying by check has another security "benefit": your full account information is printed on every one of them. With this knowledge alone, a thief can make an unauthorized wire transfer out of your account, no secret PIN required.
Paying by check has one benefit. With the lack of security in many of these companies, at least your credit card info isn't stored on their servers if you pay with check. In the US some companies actually encourage you to set up a direct withdrawal from your bank account and others actually make you pay $10 to use a credit card on the phone.
So in Europe, how do businesses handle business to business payments? The way it is done in the US is usually by check. The vendor submits an invoice by mail and a check gets sent by mail within the due date. It is a very simple process. Many smaller vendors do not accept credit cards, and arranging for direct deposit is complicated and often the vendor is reluctant to set it up. Checks and paper invoices are well suited for tax audits as well. Electronic payments are not always printed out. Here in the US the auditors do not have free access to your electronic bookkeeping unless there is some violation so good paper records are important.
Online banking. A business will send you a invoice with banking details/code and you transfer the money online.
This is also the way for personal accounts paying bills or transferring money.
Paying by check has one benefit. With the lack of security in many of these companies, at least your credit card info isn't stored on their servers if you pay with check. In the US some companies actually encourage you to set up a direct withdrawal from your bank account and others actually make you pay $10 to use a credit card on the phone.
So in Europe, how do businesses handle business to business payments? The way it is done in the US is usually by check. The vendor submits an invoice by mail and a check gets sent by mail within the due date. It is a very simple process. Many smaller vendors do not accept credit cards, and arranging for direct deposit is complicated and often the vendor is reluctant to set it up. Checks and paper invoices are well suited for tax audits as well. Electronic payments are not always printed out. Here in the US the auditors do not have free access to your electronic bookkeeping unless there is some violation so good paper records are important.
Are you serious?
Bills have been paid by direct debit (a company debits the amount you owe from your account automatically) or standing order (for recurring fixed amounts) since the 1970's. Business to business, and person to person across distances, have been done by electronic transfer also: you give your bank the name, account number, sort code, and the amount to be paid, and they transfer the money. In the 70's that was done over the phone and the money took two days to be credited, now over the internet and the money is credited in about an hour, even cross-border.
Paying by check has another security "benefit": your full account information is printed on every one of them. With this knowledge alone, a thief can make an unauthorized wire transfer out of your account, no secret PIN required.
This is not true. Here in the EU, in order to access your account online or to make any transfers. You type a PIN into random number generator card reader which creates a one time code.
So you do this to log in, and if you make any payments then you have to do it again.
It's probably because we're a fair bit ahead of the US (in the UK) with our debit cards. We've had contact-less cards for a few years so the ApplePay system just doesn't seem that interesting. Although being able to pay for high cost items will be useful.
Paying by check has another security "benefit": your full account information is printed on every one of them. With this knowledge alone, a thief can make an unauthorized wire transfer out of your account, no secret PIN required.
I'm pretty sure that is not possible. To make a wire transfer I have to go to the bank and prove I am an authorized signer on the commercial account and on my personal account they txt a one time passcode to my cell phone which I have to enter into the account manager page to proceed. Plus a wire transfer cannot be executed without logging into the secure manager web page where I have a complex password. The system is quite secure, in addition they immediately send an email and I have 24 hours to actually recall or modify the wire.
Since Apple announced its Watch I've been window shopping for Cartiers and Breitlings. Wonder how many are in same boat and how that will impact sales of Apple Watch and watches in general?
Bills have been paid by direct debit (a company debits the amount you owe from your account automatically) or standing order (for recurring fixed amounts) since the 1970's. Business to business, and person to person across distances, have been done by electronic transfer also: you give your bank the name, account number, sort code, and the amount to be paid, and they transfer the money. In the 70's that was done over the phone and the money took two days to be credited, now over the internet and the money is credited in about an hour, even cross-border.
Checks are free except for postage. At my bank, wire transfers are $10, or $45 for international, plus the recipient is also charged for receiving the money at his bank. The more complicated aspect is just setting up the wire transfer. If I hire a service company for a one time small job, I don't want to spend a half hour getting their account set up to pay him $100. That is one reason checks are still in use. They are supper convenient.
Europeans are not "wary", its just not a particularly interesting proposition:
- unlike in the US, most Europeans access revolving credit limits through their current accounts, not credit cards, and therefore pay by Debit Card (even those that do have a credit card use it as a charge card and prefer to use their bank credit limit)
- unlike the US, Europeans have had a very efficient and fraud-safe Chip & PIN for years (we never show IDs)
- unlike the US, most Europeans have had Contactless Cards for purchases up to EUR 30 for many years
So, in the US, Apple Pay allows going from magnetic stripe + signature + ID to contactless by phone; in Europe, the proposition is to go from contactless card to contactless by phone (huh?)....
Well put, but you left out the part where a European would have to buy an €800 phone in order to use Apple pay instead of just using their existing contactless card which is free. Obviously some people might buy an iphone anyway, but they are a minority.
As for this piece of drivel:
Quote:
consumers on the Old Continent seem to eye such devices with relative suspicion
The author really needs to travel more. He's almost as ignorant as Sog35.
Comments
Europeans haven't paid bills by cheque since the 70s. Banks stopped giving cheques to current account holders in the early 90s.
Paying by check has one benefit. With the lack of security in many of these companies, at least your credit card info isn't stored on their servers if you pay with check. In the US some companies actually encourage you to set up a direct withdrawal from your bank account and others actually make you pay $10 to use a credit card on the phone.
So in Europe, how do businesses handle business to business payments? The way it is done in the US is usually by check. The vendor submits an invoice by mail and a check gets sent by mail within the due date. It is a very simple process. Many smaller vendors do not accept credit cards, and arranging for direct deposit is complicated and often the vendor is reluctant to set it up. Checks and paper invoices are well suited for tax audits as well. Electronic payments are not always printed out. Here in the US the auditors do not have free access to your electronic bookkeeping unless there is some violation so good paper records are important.
Errrr no! Thats not how chip'n'pin works.
The card is not swiped (no EU cards are swiped, this has been the case for MANY years), its placed in the card reader. The reader, makes contact with the chip which is on the card. You then type your PIN in and hey its done.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/21/4015674/paypal-here-mobile-payment-system-coming-to-europe-with-new-hardware
Just to get some facts about European into the discussion:
As a Northern European I've:
- Done electronic banking from home since 1989 (modem, then Web from 1994ish->)
- Paid everything with plastic since the '80s (direct debit)
- Had chip&pin for years. In fact swiping is not allowed anymore (or rather, the merchant takes the risk if they allow it)
- Haven't seen a cheque since the eighties
- Extremely rarely carry cash in the wallet at all for ca. 30 years
And when it comes to our Prime minister, his comment clearly was too difficult for many to understand: He directed the message at the Finnish paper industry and Nokia for their failure to re-invent themselves and therefore allowing the chinese, Apple and Microsoft etc. to kill Nokias phones and get the paper industry into trouble. Stubb is _very_ pro-iOS.
Translated: "The iPad has replaced his paper binders and other computers completely. He compares being stranded from his iPad to stopping thought processes altogether".
His latest tweets:
Um... "bizarre" is that Europe is 10 years ahead of the US in many banking respects (not all... but many).... and the
US.... no... Apple is leap-frogging everyone.So in Europe, how do businesses handle business to business payments?
An automated pan-european electronic invoice, that you pay directly in your web-based banking system. No paper, no insecure and cumbersome cheques.
Take a look at abbreviations like IBAN and SEPA for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Number#Single_Euro_Payments_Area_.28SEPA.29
America, so backwards and behind the times. Most Yanks still pay bills by cash or signing on a piece of paper. So last century.
Really, that's how most "Yanks" do it? I live in the US but I don't know about "most Yanks." I can say that I never pay bills with cash and only rarely by signing on a piece of paper. Most often, I just use electronic billpay. I'd guess that it's the poorer folks that rely on cash and checks. I think you've got poor folks in Euro-land, don't you? If one wants to make observations about backwardness, one would probably not want to be from an area abound with monarchies.
Paying by check has one benefit. With the lack of security in many of these companies, at least your credit card info isn't stored on their servers if you pay with check.
Paying by check has another security "benefit": your full account information is printed on every one of them. With this knowledge alone, a thief can make an unauthorized wire transfer out of your account, no secret PIN required.
Paying by check has one benefit. With the lack of security in many of these companies, at least your credit card info isn't stored on their servers if you pay with check. In the US some companies actually encourage you to set up a direct withdrawal from your bank account and others actually make you pay $10 to use a credit card on the phone.
So in Europe, how do businesses handle business to business payments? The way it is done in the US is usually by check. The vendor submits an invoice by mail and a check gets sent by mail within the due date. It is a very simple process. Many smaller vendors do not accept credit cards, and arranging for direct deposit is complicated and often the vendor is reluctant to set it up. Checks and paper invoices are well suited for tax audits as well. Electronic payments are not always printed out. Here in the US the auditors do not have free access to your electronic bookkeeping unless there is some violation so good paper records are important.
Online banking. A business will send you a invoice with banking details/code and you transfer the money online.
This is also the way for personal accounts paying bills or transferring money.
Paying by check has one benefit. With the lack of security in many of these companies, at least your credit card info isn't stored on their servers if you pay with check. In the US some companies actually encourage you to set up a direct withdrawal from your bank account and others actually make you pay $10 to use a credit card on the phone.
So in Europe, how do businesses handle business to business payments? The way it is done in the US is usually by check. The vendor submits an invoice by mail and a check gets sent by mail within the due date. It is a very simple process. Many smaller vendors do not accept credit cards, and arranging for direct deposit is complicated and often the vendor is reluctant to set it up. Checks and paper invoices are well suited for tax audits as well. Electronic payments are not always printed out. Here in the US the auditors do not have free access to your electronic bookkeeping unless there is some violation so good paper records are important.
Are you serious?
Bills have been paid by direct debit (a company debits the amount you owe from your account automatically) or standing order (for recurring fixed amounts) since the 1970's. Business to business, and person to person across distances, have been done by electronic transfer also: you give your bank the name, account number, sort code, and the amount to be paid, and they transfer the money. In the 70's that was done over the phone and the money took two days to be credited, now over the internet and the money is credited in about an hour, even cross-border.
Paying by check has another security "benefit": your full account information is printed on every one of them. With this knowledge alone, a thief can make an unauthorized wire transfer out of your account, no secret PIN required.
This is not true. Here in the EU, in order to access your account online or to make any transfers. You type a PIN into random number generator card reader which creates a one time code.
So you do this to log in, and if you make any payments then you have to do it again.
Sez the guy from a country* that's only one of two in the world to not adopt the metric system....
*It's mine too.
Which country are you talking about? UK uses both systems. Depending on what you do its mostly metric.
The survey was for "smartwatch based payment" not specific to any brand.
Says the guy from the country* that's only one of two in the world to not adopt the metric system...
*It's mine too.
Myanmar.
Paying by check has another security "benefit": your full account information is printed on every one of them. With this knowledge alone, a thief can make an unauthorized wire transfer out of your account, no secret PIN required.
I'm pretty sure that is not possible. To make a wire transfer I have to go to the bank and prove I am an authorized signer on the commercial account and on my personal account they txt a one time passcode to my cell phone which I have to enter into the account manager page to proceed. Plus a wire transfer cannot be executed without logging into the secure manager web page where I have a complex password. The system is quite secure, in addition they immediately send an email and I have 24 hours to actually recall or modify the wire.
Since Apple announced its Watch I've been window shopping for Cartiers and Breitlings. Wonder how many are in same boat and how that will impact sales of Apple Watch and watches in general?
Bills have been paid by direct debit (a company debits the amount you owe from your account automatically) or standing order (for recurring fixed amounts) since the 1970's. Business to business, and person to person across distances, have been done by electronic transfer also: you give your bank the name, account number, sort code, and the amount to be paid, and they transfer the money. In the 70's that was done over the phone and the money took two days to be credited, now over the internet and the money is credited in about an hour, even cross-border.
Checks are free except for postage. At my bank, wire transfers are $10, or $45 for international, plus the recipient is also charged for receiving the money at his bank. The more complicated aspect is just setting up the wire transfer. If I hire a service company for a one time small job, I don't want to spend a half hour getting their account set up to pay him $100. That is one reason checks are still in use. They are supper convenient.
Europeans are not "wary", its just not a particularly interesting proposition:
- unlike in the US, most Europeans access revolving credit limits through their current accounts, not credit cards, and therefore pay by Debit Card (even those that do have a credit card use it as a charge card and prefer to use their bank credit limit)
- unlike the US, Europeans have had a very efficient and fraud-safe Chip & PIN for years (we never show IDs)
- unlike the US, most Europeans have had Contactless Cards for purchases up to EUR 30 for many years
So, in the US, Apple Pay allows going from magnetic stripe + signature + ID to contactless by phone; in Europe, the proposition is to go from contactless card to contactless by phone (huh?)....
Well put, but you left out the part where a European would have to buy an €800 phone in order to use Apple pay instead of just using their existing contactless card which is free. Obviously some people might buy an iphone anyway, but they are a minority.
As for this piece of drivel:
The author really needs to travel more. He's almost as ignorant as Sog35.