Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
PDQ Mobile
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by PDQ Mobile »

Psamathe wrote: 12 Nov 2021, 9:03pm
rareposter wrote: 12 Nov 2021, 6:12pm .....
After all it's not like you're riding around constantly looking at it; it can live in a pocket for almost an entire ride only coming out for...or to pay for a coffee.....
Used my phone to pay for something for the 1st time a few days ago. I only set it up after one of my cards was cancelled and re-issued with a new PIN (after a lot of fraudulent use) and I've not yet got round to using it enough to remember the PIN. Really easy, uses Face-ID instead of PINs and phone keeps a record of transactions.

How widespread is accepting phone payments i.e. do all the machines take such payments to the point where you can rely on it being accepted?

Ian
It'll cost you more in Europe though because of the "non Sterling transaction" fee. ( most banks)
Plus often poor exchange rates.

I am travelling with cash (mostly) still prefer it, even in time of Covid.
Never had a problem.
Psamathe
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Psamathe »

PDQ Mobile wrote: 12 Nov 2021, 10:55pm
Psamathe wrote: 12 Nov 2021, 9:03pm
rareposter wrote: 12 Nov 2021, 6:12pm .....
After all it's not like you're riding around constantly looking at it; it can live in a pocket for almost an entire ride only coming out for...or to pay for a coffee.....
Used my phone to pay for something for the 1st time a few days ago. I only set it up after one of my cards was cancelled and re-issued with a new PIN (after a lot of fraudulent use) and I've not yet got round to using it enough to remember the PIN. Really easy, uses Face-ID instead of PINs and phone keeps a record of transactions.

How widespread is accepting phone payments i.e. do all the machines take such payments to the point where you can rely on it being accepted?

Ian
It'll cost you more in Europe though because of the "non Sterling transaction" fee. ( most banks)
Plus often poor exchange rates.
....
(An aspect of touring with one use of a smartphone)
Any experience of using it in the Netherlands. NL supermarkets (and many other places) don't accept credit cards and would not even accept my UK debit card. Cards in these shops seem very restricted to Dutch (maybe a few others?) debit cards. I assume that iPhone payments would not be accepted as it seems it's really the credit card, just through a different means.

Ian
pwa
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by pwa »

I think I will stick with the debit card for most transactions. I use it for nearly all transactions these days, contactless if available, and nothing is easier in the hand. A phone, by comparison, requires a bit of dexterity, not touching the screen and so forth, but I can hold a card any old way and just tap the device. The only occasions I don't use the card are when cash is required, which is rare.
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Paulatic
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Paulatic »

. I assume that iPhone payments would not be accepted as it seems it's really the credit card, just through a different means.
Debit card.
I suppose it will load up a credit card as well I’ve no experience as I stopped using a credit card the day I stopped working.
The Apple wallet is gradually becoming more useful with more things designed now to go into it.
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pwa
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by pwa »

Don't you think it is having all your eggs in one basket if your only means of paying for stuff is via your phone. If your phone dies, due to battery problems or whatever, you are stuffed. That might be a small risk normally, but on a tour...........
Psamathe
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Psamathe »

Paulatic wrote: 13 Nov 2021, 7:27am
. I assume that iPhone payments would not be accepted as it seems it's really the credit card, just through a different means.
Debit card.
I suppose it will load up a credit card as well I’ve no experience as I stopped using a credit card the day I stopped working.
The Apple wallet is gradually becoming more useful with more things designed now to go into it.
I was thinking specifically in the Netherlands where supermarkets (and many other places?) don't accept credit card payments and didn't accept my debit card either. I have tested my bank account debit card as well as pre-paid debit cards (travel ones).

Ian
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TrevA
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by TrevA »

That’s odd. I was in the Netherlands 10 years ago and was paying for stuff with my UK debit card. This included cafes, restaurants, train tickets, hotel bills, etc. This was in and around Arnhem but also in Amsterdam.

I hardly carry cash anymore, I have my phone and my card in an RFID wallet. I think there’s an emergency tenner stuffed in there somewhere but it never gets used.

I do use Apple Pay quite a bit too, especially before the contactless limit was raised. I find that if my card is refused (happened to me a few times after my bank changed from Visa to MasterCard for its debit cards) then it will accept the same card via Apple Pay. I have both my debit cards and my credit card on Apple Pay.
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Psamathe
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Psamathe »

TrevA wrote: 15 Nov 2021, 5:00pm That’s odd. I was in the Netherlands 10 years ago and was paying for stuff with my UK debit card. This included cafes, restaurants, train tickets, hotel bills, etc. This was in and around Arnhem but also in Amsterdam.

I hardly carry cash anymore, I have my phone and my card in an RFID wallet. I think there’s an emergency tenner stuffed in there somewhere but it never gets used.

I do use Apple Pay quite a bit too, especially before the contactless limit was raised. I find that if my card is refused (happened to me a few times after my bank changed from Visa to MasterCard for its debit cards) then it will accept the same card via Apple Pay. I have both my debit cards and my credit card on Apple Pay.
Both in 2018 and 2019 I tried several debit cards in Dutch supermarkets (AH) and not would be accepted (both Visa and MasterCard based - Visa a bank debit card and Mastercard ones were pre-paid travel debit cards (designed for international use)). Certainly one camp site said they would accept credit cards. Cash is not a massive issue as there are plenty of ATMs everywhere, just wondered if Smartphone ApplePay got past whatever was causing rejections.

Ian
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CJ
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by CJ »

I'm just back from leading a group of 16 on a cycling tour (a 'CJC' tour now there's no longer any CTC) in Portugal. And I can tell you fellow travellers, Covid-19 has given another hefty twist to the spiral of smartphone dependency! Without your test results on an app on your phone you'd have a job to even get as far as check-in. Then you needed to show your vaccination status, and on arrival in Portugal the Passenger Locator Form - all designed designed around an app with any paper options not exactly obvious. Fortunately they changed the rules a week before our departure, so we did not after all need a 'fit to fly' test before the date we were due to return, but until then there appeared to be NO WAY of getting the necessary certificate within 48 hours of departure, that did not rely entirely upon a smartphone.

Some things did have paper alternatives, which worked just as well or even better. When actually in Portugal the NHS paper proof of vaccination (the one without an expiry date that you apply to have sent to you by post) was much more welcome than the smartphone certificate that lasts only a month. Yes, we each needed to show one of those at every hotel we stayed in and every restaurant. Waving the piece of paper was quick and easy though, no trouble. Apart from that however, smartphones were so useful for group coordination I could hardly remember how we managed without. In truth we sometimes didn't: 'back in the day', incidents of people going permanently missing mid-tour were not uncommon! Since everyone had a smartphone on this tour, I made a Whatsapp group for us: and it was so much easier to inform everyone of changes to the schedule than knocking on a dozen hotel doors whilst hoping the occupant was at home and not asleep, or writing little notes to slip under said doors!

And then I had the misfortune to be T-boned by a taxi five days from the end! Without our smartphones I honestly don't know how my wife would've been able to process all the information required by the insurance company to get me in and out of hospital and onto the flight home - in different seats to those we were checked into, so I could elevate the injured foot. In theory one might be able to get forms printed by one's hotel - if staying somewhere with enough stars - to fill in longhand then get scanned and emailed back by same hotel. In theory. If they get the email address and subject line right. Etc. etc. So much quicker and more certain to have the whole process in the palm of your hand.

Fortunately I go prepared with a dossier of page-a-day notes detailing the arrangements I've made at hotels, restaurants and visits etc., that I simply handed over to the group before being whisked away in an ambulance. So whilst the phone nevertheless came in handy for keeping in touch, paper was again the best tool for something. And whilst the phone's camera is good for snaps (e.g. of my wound, to show the next nurse to dress it how it looked before), I still carry a proper camera (Olympus Pen-F) for proper photography on tour. And I use a proper GPS (Etrex 32x) for navigation: because phones don't have the battery life, are hard to see in bright sun and touchscreens don't work in the rain. It really is a matter of the most appropriate tool for each job. And the smartphone is such a versatile tool, I wouldn't travel without one and view it as utterly indispensable for leading a tour.
Chris Juden
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Jdsk
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Jdsk »

Thanks for the details.

How are you?

Jonathan
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CJ
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by CJ »

Jdsk wrote: 15 Nov 2021, 6:25pmHow are you?
Jonathan
Not bad. The car pushed my foot into the bike, causing an open fracture of the end of my tibia, that the Portuguese surgeon fixed with a couple of screws. So now I'm hopping around on crutches waiting for permission to put weight on it and for the hole to heal, where I left a piece of me on the front of the car! I made a smooth landing on my right forearm and the road-rash is all healed up now.
Chris Juden
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Jdsk
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Jdsk »

Very sorry to hear that.

Hope it goes well from here on.

Jonathan
mattheus
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by mattheus »

Heal well, CJ.

(Hopefully you'll have more time to provide the Cycling Internet with nuggets of useful info, and spend less time gallivanting round the world

;- )
nsew
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by nsew »

Towing sixteen climate unaware baby boomers on bicycles around a foreign land must be a special kind of hell.
Tangled Metal
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Tangled Metal »

Psamathe wrote: 13 Nov 2021, 11:20am
Paulatic wrote: 13 Nov 2021, 7:27am
. I assume that iPhone payments would not be accepted as it seems it's really the credit card, just through a different means.
Debit card.
I suppose it will load up a credit card as well I’ve no experience as I stopped using a credit card the day I stopped working.
The Apple wallet is gradually becoming more useful with more things designed now to go into it.
I was thinking specifically in the Netherlands where supermarkets (and many other places?) don't accept credit card payments and didn't accept my debit card either. I have tested my bank account debit card as well as pre-paid debit cards (travel ones).

Ian
We toured years ago in the Netherlands and I didn't have a credit card only debit. Not many places accepted it since they're on a different system than the UK debit cards. We had to use my partner's credit card she got from a UK bank which somehow worked and we got cash from banks which accepted uk cards.

After that I got a credit card from Halifax designed for overseas use. It works pretty much anywhere in mainland Europe apparently, doesn't charge extortionate fees to use and you only get one fee for getting euros out not two as a lot of bank cards do at times. One of the cheapest ways to buy overseas at the time I read somewhere if you pay off the balance of course.

As to the phone. I had a smartphone back when I used to disappear in the Scottish Highlands on my own for a week's holiday end of May. I kept it turned off and had a brick as well in case smartphone ran out of battery. Fat chance as it was off for a week. Only on when travelling up and then home. The dumbphone got turned on at the end of knoydart peninsula once halfway through that trip, I wanted to eat at the pub there as it had a good rep. I turned the brick on and got a signal in a 10m stretch of hill for texts. I texted to say I was alive and turned it off.

Phones are useful imho for emergency use so worth having turned off and charged for that if nothing else.
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