Which is it most important to reopen asap? Pubs or Schools

[merseymouth]

Right you Techno Slaves, What if I do have a Contactless card, how would that help me if I go with my daughter, son-in-law and wife to have a noggin & a platter in the Limping Whippet Pub, the bill for my table order, which would of course would have to be placed using a smart phone which I don't have, would certainly be greater than the £45 limit on a Contactless transaction. So how do we sort that out?
With my Chip and Signature card I could settle without any problem. Answers on an un-used £20 note please, I am after all a needy pensioner! MM

[Tangled Metal]

Most places should be able to split a bill. Make the bu**ers pay for themselves!!!

[merseymouth]

Ho TM, So clever, but separating the order would separate the delivery to the table? Who hits the chow line first?? Who has to risk dying of thirst???
Regarding the last point - ain't a tight bu**er like you
What ever happened to the concept of service? MM

[Tangled Metal]

As students and later on group nights out we've had restaurants split the bill up afterwards so people can pay for themselves. I've also been in groups where people joined after we'd ordered and still got their food at the same time as the earlier arrivals. If they can't give the service when they're a services company... Course it was tongue in cheek comment.

This payment issue has really got to you. Perhaps we should stop labouring things on both sides. You're normally a very happy sounding poster on here. Let's simply differ and drop this part of the discussion so we can get our old* MM's jovial self back!! I prefer your jokes to an argument any day of the week.

* PS use of the word "old" refers to the pre payment discussion version of MM with no intended connotations of him being old. Even if the cap fits!!

[merseymouth]

Hi there, Certain things date us? First for me is having had to convert from "God Save The King" to "God Save The Queen"!
The second thing modern faddists have never had to do - Cope with "Pounds, Shillings, Pence, Half-Pence and Farthing". I don't think any of our fellow posters have had to use Half-Farthings, last issued in Queen Victoria's day.
Throw in having to do percentages over that currency range, try doing 2 and a half per cent of £23 15 shillings 6 pence 3 farthings?
No I can't do the maths, that's why we had ready reckoners!
Take me back to Lauterwasser Bars, even if the don't serve real ale. IGICB MM

[Oldjohnw]

Odd.

I use a smart phone and contactless and online banking.

I was 22 before LSD disappeared. I remember - and used - threepenny bits, sixpences, half crowns, halfpennies and farthings. I used a slide rule and log tables. I remember the day the king died.

So I don't know what point MM is trying to make. He still doesn't tell us how contactless is not secure.

PS I also use a fountain pen and send real postcards. In most things I prefer a bit old fashioned. But I won't cut myself off from society for the sake of a particular bit of plastic.

[[XAP]Bob]

Split the *bill* not the order.

It’s really not that hard. If you really went all out and got a basic smartphone then the £45 limit disappears as well - biometric + smartphone is 2fa, and therefore even more secure than cash.

In what way is contactless less secure than cash, that being the only objection you have yet managed to raise other than acting like my son when I tell him it’s bath time.

[Tangled Metal]

Let's just move on. We're arguing when it'll get nowhere. Entrenched views on both sides. Plus it is starting to look like we're ganging up on MM by keeping it going. He has his views let's leave him to have them. It doesn't affect us only it could affect him if the pub payment thing goes ahead, so why not just let it be?

[[XAP]Bob]

Let's just move on. We're arguing when it'll get nowhere. Entrenched views on both sides. Plus it is starting to look like we're ganging up on MM by keeping it going. He has his views let's leave him to have them. It doesn't affect us only it could affect him if the pub payment thing goes ahead, so why not just let it be?

You're almost certainly right... (Whereas MM and I are almost certainly *both* wrong, in the same way)

https://m.xkcd.com/386/

[RickH]

Read this article just now

BBC News - Coronavirus: Pubs 'may need to shut' to allow schools to reopen

It made me think of this topic!

[thirdcrank]

... In what way is contactless less secure than cash, (?)...

Cash is insecure in that it may all be lost or stolen, but the loss is limited to the amount of cash.

A contactless card is insecure in that if it's nicked, a swift baddy can get round the town and make a killing, limited only to the ceiling for transactions.

[RickH]

A contactless card is insecure in that if it's nicked, a swift baddy can get round the town and make a killing, limited only to the ceiling for transactions.

There is usually a total limit &/or a number of transactions limit which will mean the contactless will be declined (& will ask for chip & PIN). So the "killing" won't be that big. Plus I'm not sure what guarantees there are over refund of fraudulent transactions. The card I can check says I have a €150 limit, less any already used

Some cards/accounts let you freeze the card via phone app so you can stop the card working more-or-less instantly once you notice it missing.

[Sweep]

Read this article just now

BBC News - Coronavirus: Pubs 'may need to shut' to allow schools to reopen

It made me think of this topic!

yes, alarming - haven't been in a pub since a week before lockdown, was planning a pub crawl for september.

[thirdcrank]

A contactless card is insecure in that if it's nicked, a swift baddy can get round the town and make a killing, limited only to the ceiling for transactions.

There is usually a total limit &/or a number of transactions limit which will mean the contactless will be declined (& will ask for chip & PIN). So the "killing" won't be that big. Plus I'm not sure what guarantees there are over refund of fraudulent transactions. The card I can check says I have a €150 limit, less any already used

Some cards/accounts let you freeze the card via phone app so you can stop the card working more-or-less instantly once you notice it missing.

I understand all that. By "ceiling" I meant what you call a total limit. In my wife's circle of friends there are two people who must have lost sight of their handbags when eating out in a pub. They didn't realise that a card had been stolen more or less under their noses, because their bags didn't go, so no reason to stop the card. Obviously, £150 0r £200 is chickenfeed if somebody has a couple of grand in their wallet but it's megabucks to a lot of people.

[Syd]

I had the same last twenty note in my pocket for most of lockdown. I really haven't used cash. However family members have posted cash to our son and he's used it. Well, I used contactless and took the note off him to sit in my wallet unused. If I get anything costing exactly £10 I'll use it just to get rid of it. That's highly unlikely considering everything is 99p at the end.

I’ve had a number if £20’s in my wallet since March (can’t even recall my they are there as I seldom use cash).

Absolutely everything I have bought out and about is via Apple Pay on my iPhone or Apple watch or Garmin Pay on my Fenix 6.

Cash for me is well on its way out and that was even before Covid.

Now, back on topic, I am glad to see them hinting that they may need to close pubs again to keep opening of schools on track.

Kids at school allow parents, who otherwise would have childcare issues, to return to work ( unless that happens to be in a pub of course at they may be closed!)