> Phones have displaced paper money and credit cards as the preferred way to pay for a bill at the end of a meal
this is 100% unrelatable to me
I have never once used my phone to pay in a sit-down restaurant. I have only seen someone else use their phone when forced to, such as due to a forgotten wallet, and with much fussing and apologizing
Do you ever use your phone to pay anywhere? It's possible the process has evolved since you last used it. I use Apple Pay for 99% of all transactions and it's by far the fastest, most convenient for all parties method. They ask how I want to pay, I say credit, I double click the side of my phone and wave it over the reader. The entire process takes approximately 2 seconds.
Sometimes when traveling my credit card will get blocked and only then is there much fussing and apologizing as I attempt to find cash or pay with a physical credit card.
Some restaurants here in the US print a QR code on the check now. If you've got google pay/apple pay/whatever you can just scan it and immediately pay, then leave. There's also a few where you don't even need a server to order, you scan a code on the menu and can order whatever, a server delivers it, then you pay whenever and leave. It makes it really convenient when you go in with a bigger group. No worries about splitting bills, making sure everyone is ready to order, etc. Everyone can just order what they want, when they want, and all pay and leave when they want.
Random anecdote from Estonia. I noticed around a year ago that I'm getting old - I was the only person in a restaurant that used his card to pay - everybody else used either their watch or phone. Since then, I've also upgraded/downgraded and started to use my phone for payments.. just because I don't wanna be _that_ dinosaur.
It's not always like that though - you still have lots of people using credit cards (or rarely cash) in grocery stores etc, but it does seem much more common for _the elderly_, like me, 40+ :P
In general, I don't routinely carry a credit/debit card anymore; only exception is when I'm in the US, where it's still somewhat common to find swipe-only setups. I do normally carry a small amount of emergency paper money; if I'm visiting somewhere where paying with paper money is normal/preferred/mandatory (notably Germany), I'll have more.
But for normal usage, why would I carry around a card to tap on terminals when I can just tap a phone on them instead?
I think the US is possibly slightly behind the curve here because mobile terminals are a fairly new thing there; they mostly became common with Apple/Google Pay, so about ten years ago. In most of Europe, chip and pin became largely mandatory around the turn of the century, so people taking your card out the back to process it was no longer an option, and they pretty much had to have a solution that could come to the payer anyway.
I just went to mainland Europe over Easter. The only payment method I ever used was my phone (Google Pay). Not just restaurants, but everything. This matched my observations of other people. I withdrew some Euros just in case, but did not use them.
I had never used phones to pay, or been with others who had used phones to pay, either.
When I pay by myself I always pay in cash, although I am usually with someone else who wants to pay by credit card (or sometimes by debit card). A signal does not seem needed though since they will just tell them they are ready and then will pay immediately when they have the bill ready. When I am by myself, I will pay in cash and I will try to pay in advance when I can (which has other advantages as well, such as to know the price and if I have the money to pay).
Some restaurants have a fully online payment system where you get the bill on your phone and pay from there through some online payment system. I've seen this at airport restaurants, where it makes sense as you may be in a hurry and don't want to have to wait to get the server's attention. I wouldn't like it at normal sit-down restaurants in other situations.
I don't think this is a technology problem. There are lots of lo-tech ways of signaling that would like the cheque.
arguably, I don't want to. I have a credit card, I have cash. I have no reason to use a phone esp. in a situation where I have people literally waiting on me.
why do I tip these people if I have to do it all myself? might as well just order at the counter using my phone
This has been my experience in the US, too. I was in Vancouver a few weeks ago, though, and tap to pay was universal there. Even at nice restaurants, the waiter would bring a Square terminal to the table. It really sped things up at the end of the meal, and I liked it.
Hm? It's literally double tapping the side button on my phone and holding it near their payment terminal for half a second until it says beep, exactly like with a debit card just slightly more convenient. Why would there be any fussing or apologising
Since moving to Ireland 2 years ago, I've maybe had to reach for my wallet maybe 5 times in total. These days it remains in the car or forgotten at home.
Where do you live? Nearly every sit down restaurant I have gone to for the last year or so, the waiter has come to the table with a portable tap-to-pay.
We can create an app that needs location data and microphone access so that it can automatically sit there and wait for us to say “check please” and it can turn on a BLE beacon that talks to the servers phone, which, running the app, has already linked to the tables phones and recorded the guests orders for the server.
The server can access the users tipping history, sort of a restaurant social credit score, and the users get to have their data harvested 24/7 to support the app’s seamless automatic functionality! It’s going to be great!
I like this solution the best because it is the least intrusive. Before the waiter brings the bill, put your phone on the table so it's ready when they arrive with the bill. No need for the waitstaff to waste cycles or get distracted by having to look for a green card.
I'm fond of New Zealand, where you either pay as you walk out or the waiter brings you a mobile POS. There's no awkward 'take my credit card, walk away with it, and bring it back' moment. It's a much better system, and I would love to see it more common in the US.
Do waiters really walk off with your credit card in America? I'd never want to let my credit card out of my sight, let alone let some guy I don't know take it from me
I'm kind of digging the QR code on a receipt where I just pay from my phone's browser, get emailed a receipt, and I leave at my leisure. Been seeing this around busier places in the US though still pretty rare.
When the bill arrives you already knew it was coming since you requested it. So you could have simply had your payment method ready. Then you look at the number and pay it. As adults do.
To make clear that you want to make the payment immediately in case this wasn't already obvious, one could use speech: I'd like to pay now.
That's the system.
In the exceptional and unlikely scenario where a waiter speeds away upon you wanting to pay, they aren't going to care about your green sticker system either.
If it takes forever for them to return, I drop cash on the table and leave. I'm not going to sit around for 20 mins and beg to collect my money.
Here is what I do for credit card, I guess you can do the same for tap to pay with the same efficiency.
When the call the waiter to ask for the bill, or when you ask directly when he comes to take out your dishes or ask for dessert, just say directly how you will pay:
Not everything in life needs to be optimized with some system. Just politely wave at your waiter, wait for them, or pay at the cashier near the exit if you're in a hurry. Talk to people. Embrace the little chaos of life and the small imperfections that come with it.
Also in Japan, when you need something? You just raise your hand and say "sumimasen". Instead of waiting forever or needing the wait service to constantly check in on you.
I'm an American and don't tip very often anymore. I've talked to folks who work at restaurants and this is pretty common. I also used to work in food service(8ish years).
If a place makes me bus my own table or use qr code ordering, I'm probably not tipping anymore.
I don't tip on pickup orders either. This is definitely becoming more common in the US.
I don’t get it. Either say “I’m ready to pay now” when the bill is dropped off, or just flag the server down later when you are ready. What problem are we solving here?
I've done this a couple of times. One thing that's slightly awkward and could be refined is that it can't do "Girl menus".
At some fancy restaurants, they have two versions of their menus, the idea is that the person paying (who historically would be a man) gets a menu with prices, but people who aren't paying (historically wives, girlfriends and maybe children or clients) get the same list of dishes but no pricing.
In 2025 it's definitely not OK to assume that people who appear male are paying and people who appear not to be male are not - but it is very much possible that somebody is paying and some people are not, and so it would be nice if the person who is paying can delegate the choices but still pay and the systems I've seen do not facilitate this.
The kind of fancy place which historically had two menus (or maybe even still does although it probably pays to ask who gets which menus these days) this isn't a problem. Somewhere with a decent cellar and the sommelier to guide inexperienced users to a sensible choice is also going to have somebody just memorize what everybody is eating and if only a single person is paying for it all that's discretely handled, no problem.
But the place with a choice of red or white is going to expect phone ordering and it'd be nice if I could let other people choose what they're eating without also just handing them my phone or else expecting them to pay and then I refund it (which is embarrassing for them)
I hate this to be honest, if only because it's never frictionless for me. At the very least I generally need to create an account and verify my phone number or email address, often they also want me to download some shitty app that doesn't work properly. I will actively prefer a place where I can just order and pay with a human like the old days.
In almost every restaurant and cafe that I frequent in Ukraine, each table has a unique QR code that links to a site with both the menu and an option to pay the bill. The pay option shows the current itemized bill with options to pay with monoPay (a payment service operated by MonoBank which also operate this QR code system) or Apple Pay or iirc Google Pay. Tip can also be paid here (although it’s not pushed on you with dark patterns like in the US and 10% is reasonable). It felt odd at first to just walk out after a meal without having given money to a person but it quickly become my preferred payment method.
There is no app to install. WiFi is always available so you don’t even technically need to have a mobile data plan.
If you don’t want to use this then you call the waiter over and someone brings the mobile credit card terminal instead.
The “how does the waiter know to come and take payment” problem is unique to how restaurants in some countries handle paying the bill.
Phones have displaced paper money and credit cards as the preferred way to pay for a bill at the end of a meal.
In Europe maybe? I've never seen anyone pay with their phone. Not in big cities and not in rural areas in the US. I will never do financial transactions with my government spy device. To each their own obviously.
As for when I am ready to pay, I go to the counter and give them cash or I might use a debit card if I am picking up everyone's tab. If they give me grief then I simply do not return to that establishment and they will get negative reviews.
Pointing at people is considered impolite in some cultures. I think it's better to raise your hand with an extended finger and then cross both your index fingers to signal "close out."
I tend to try to pay in advance when I order so I don’t have to wait 5-10 minutes to get a bill, then have them run off as I grab my payment method of choice, to wait another 5-10 minutes to actually pay.
I was a little confused how my requests to pay early seemed to slightly irritate waitstaff. So I asked some restraint owner friends of mine and they mentioned how, depending on the POS configuration, the act of requesting or paying the check (forgot which one) automatically queues up your table availability to the next guest.
So I guess, convenience workflow feature for the restaurant host impacts creates an annoyingly rigid behavioral pattern that unexpectedly passes “waiting frustration” on to diners.
Seems like a call-light/attendant button (like in healthcare & airlines respectively) would be fairly inexpensive and make dining experiences wildly more efficient. Diners always outnumber servers, it would be nice to just press a button and let them know they're needed instead of having to crane your neck around looking for them and trying to get them to notice you so you can ask for your bill (or whatever else you might have needed).
I've only seen this at one place - a Japanese restaurant in Boulder, CO. Each table has a small red button with a weighted base, right next to the soy sauce and cube of extra gari.
You press the button, a server appears a few seconds later. Need to order, press the button. Need water, press the button. Need the check, press the button. Need for them to pick up credit card, press the button. I love it; it's like a flight attendant call button and I never have to wait for anything.
In EU waiter asks "cash or card?" when you ask for a bill, then brings both bill and the terminal, then you pay with a phone (just like 99% of others) and the whole process is done fast and smooth. No USA/Israel nonsense about taking your card to some back room and doing something with it. In fact, I don't really remember where my actual plastic cards are. Probably in a wallet, but can be in the desk drawer too, I've never used them for past 2 or 3 years.
[+] [-] ipsento606|11 months ago|reply
this is 100% unrelatable to me
I have never once used my phone to pay in a sit-down restaurant. I have only seen someone else use their phone when forced to, such as due to a forgotten wallet, and with much fussing and apologizing
[+] [-] lowkj|11 months ago|reply
Sometimes when traveling my credit card will get blocked and only then is there much fussing and apologizing as I attempt to find cash or pay with a physical credit card.
[+] [-] barnas2|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] tauntz|11 months ago|reply
Random anecdote from Estonia. I noticed around a year ago that I'm getting old - I was the only person in a restaurant that used his card to pay - everybody else used either their watch or phone. Since then, I've also upgraded/downgraded and started to use my phone for payments.. just because I don't wanna be _that_ dinosaur.
It's not always like that though - you still have lots of people using credit cards (or rarely cash) in grocery stores etc, but it does seem much more common for _the elderly_, like me, 40+ :P
[+] [-] Spunkie|11 months ago|reply
I know this is a bit of a bubble but all my friends that have androids have them rooted, so paying with our phones isn't even an option.
[+] [-] rsynnott|11 months ago|reply
But for normal usage, why would I carry around a card to tap on terminals when I can just tap a phone on them instead?
I think the US is possibly slightly behind the curve here because mobile terminals are a fairly new thing there; they mostly became common with Apple/Google Pay, so about ten years ago. In most of Europe, chip and pin became largely mandatory around the turn of the century, so people taking your card out the back to process it was no longer an option, and they pretty much had to have a solution that could come to the payer anyway.
[+] [-] JohnFen|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] maleldil|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] zzo38computer|11 months ago|reply
When I pay by myself I always pay in cash, although I am usually with someone else who wants to pay by credit card (or sometimes by debit card). A signal does not seem needed though since they will just tell them they are ready and then will pay immediately when they have the bill ready. When I am by myself, I will pay in cash and I will try to pay in advance when I can (which has other advantages as well, such as to know the price and if I have the money to pay).
[+] [-] insane_dreamer|11 months ago|reply
I almost always pay with my phone using tap.
Some restaurants have a fully online payment system where you get the bill on your phone and pay from there through some online payment system. I've seen this at airport restaurants, where it makes sense as you may be in a hurry and don't want to have to wait to get the server's attention. I wouldn't like it at normal sit-down restaurants in other situations.
I don't think this is a technology problem. There are lots of lo-tech ways of signaling that would like the cheque.
[+] [-] kyriakos|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] red-iron-pine|11 months ago|reply
arguably, I don't want to. I have a credit card, I have cash. I have no reason to use a phone esp. in a situation where I have people literally waiting on me.
why do I tip these people if I have to do it all myself? might as well just order at the counter using my phone
[+] [-] el_benhameen|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] mort96|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] beAbU|11 months ago|reply
I pay for evertything with my phone.
[+] [-] dmd|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] BrandoElFollito|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] K0balt|11 months ago|reply
We can create an app that needs location data and microphone access so that it can automatically sit there and wait for us to say “check please” and it can turn on a BLE beacon that talks to the servers phone, which, running the app, has already linked to the tables phones and recorded the guests orders for the server.
The server can access the users tipping history, sort of a restaurant social credit score, and the users get to have their data harvested 24/7 to support the app’s seamless automatic functionality! It’s going to be great!
[+] [-] hashmap|11 months ago|reply
This is when you pay, just have your card or whatever ready to go. Skip the extra limbo state and leave when you're ready.
[+] [-] wyclif|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] JohnFen|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] nlanier|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] voidUpdate|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] xeromal|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] rapnie|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] insane_dreamer|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] npc_anon|11 months ago|reply
To make clear that you want to make the payment immediately in case this wasn't already obvious, one could use speech: I'd like to pay now.
That's the system.
In the exceptional and unlikely scenario where a waiter speeds away upon you wanting to pay, they aren't going to care about your green sticker system either.
If it takes forever for them to return, I drop cash on the table and leave. I'm not going to sit around for 20 mins and beg to collect my money.
[+] [-] jmull|11 months ago|reply
No need for a new prop when there's already one handy.
[+] [-] greatgib|11 months ago|reply
When the call the waiter to ask for the bill, or when you ask directly when he comes to take out your dishes or ask for dessert, just say directly how you will pay:
The bill please, I will pay by card (/phone)...
[+] [-] tunapizza|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] kyleee|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] rvnx|11 months ago|reply
The world has evolved and moved to decent fixed salaries.
Japan: amazing service, perfect food, 0 tips.
America: shitty burger joint, rude waiter, 20% tip or they chase you outside.
[+] [-] uses|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] JohnFen|11 months ago|reply
The tipping culture in the US is horrible, but not that horrible. I've never seen such a thing happen, anyway.
[+] [-] chneu|11 months ago|reply
If a place makes me bus my own table or use qr code ordering, I'm probably not tipping anymore.
I don't tip on pickup orders either. This is definitely becoming more common in the US.
[+] [-] whall6|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] JohnFen|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] Skunkleton|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] anonzzzies|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] tialaramex|11 months ago|reply
At some fancy restaurants, they have two versions of their menus, the idea is that the person paying (who historically would be a man) gets a menu with prices, but people who aren't paying (historically wives, girlfriends and maybe children or clients) get the same list of dishes but no pricing.
In 2025 it's definitely not OK to assume that people who appear male are paying and people who appear not to be male are not - but it is very much possible that somebody is paying and some people are not, and so it would be nice if the person who is paying can delegate the choices but still pay and the systems I've seen do not facilitate this.
The kind of fancy place which historically had two menus (or maybe even still does although it probably pays to ask who gets which menus these days) this isn't a problem. Somewhere with a decent cellar and the sommelier to guide inexperienced users to a sensible choice is also going to have somebody just memorize what everybody is eating and if only a single person is paying for it all that's discretely handled, no problem.
But the place with a choice of red or white is going to expect phone ordering and it'd be nice if I could let other people choose what they're eating without also just handing them my phone or else expecting them to pay and then I refund it (which is embarrassing for them)
[+] [-] NoboruWataya|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] anelson|10 months ago|reply
There is no app to install. WiFi is always available so you don’t even technically need to have a mobile data plan.
If you don’t want to use this then you call the waiter over and someone brings the mobile credit card terminal instead.
The “how does the waiter know to come and take payment” problem is unique to how restaurants in some countries handle paying the bill.
[+] [-] LinuxBender|11 months ago|reply
In Europe maybe? I've never seen anyone pay with their phone. Not in big cities and not in rural areas in the US. I will never do financial transactions with my government spy device. To each their own obviously.
As for when I am ready to pay, I go to the counter and give them cash or I might use a debit card if I am picking up everyone's tab. If they give me grief then I simply do not return to that establishment and they will get negative reviews.
[+] [-] randysalami|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] wyclif|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] jksflkjl3jk3|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] laomai|11 months ago|reply
I tend to try to pay in advance when I order so I don’t have to wait 5-10 minutes to get a bill, then have them run off as I grab my payment method of choice, to wait another 5-10 minutes to actually pay.
I was a little confused how my requests to pay early seemed to slightly irritate waitstaff. So I asked some restraint owner friends of mine and they mentioned how, depending on the POS configuration, the act of requesting or paying the check (forgot which one) automatically queues up your table availability to the next guest.
So I guess, convenience workflow feature for the restaurant host impacts creates an annoyingly rigid behavioral pattern that unexpectedly passes “waiting frustration” on to diners.
[+] [-] pull_my_finger|11 months ago|reply
[+] [-] felixnm|11 months ago|reply
You press the button, a server appears a few seconds later. Need to order, press the button. Need water, press the button. Need the check, press the button. Need for them to pick up credit card, press the button. I love it; it's like a flight attendant call button and I never have to wait for anything.
[+] [-] Yizahi|11 months ago|reply