Contactless now £30?

m4rc

Missus_Hyde wrote: »

You should have been around when you wrote out a cheque and presented it with your card at the till!! It would take an absolute age at the supermarket, especially if you were behind someone who had a mountain of shopping to deal with and then spent about ten minutes fumbling about in their bag for their chequebook, then wrote out the cheque, then had the signature on it checked by the cashier with the signature on the card.

I'd usually lost the will to live by the time I got to the actual checkout!!! :rotfl:

Or when you paid by card but they and to put the card in their device (no idea of the name) insert the little slips of paper - 3 pieces plus 2 pieces of carbon paper - then take the impression of the card. Then they had to write in all the details and you had to sign it, they would check the signature and tear out the carbon pieces, give you a piece and file the other 2 in the drawer.

Now if you had spent a certain amount they had to ring through to the card company (or a company who would approve on banks behalf) and give them all the details.

They would usually have to check ID too. It was a nightmare at Christmas as the queues were longer and the phone call would take ages to go through.

Don't forget too this was the time when each item was manually entered into the till, if the price sticker had fallen off they had to buzz down to Carol in her little office at the other end of the store to ask how much a packet of butterscotch Angel Delight was.

It's all a bit quicker now!

eskbanker

m4rc wrote: »

Or when you paid by card but they and to put the card in their device (no idea of the name) insert the little slips of paper - 3 pieces plus 2 pieces of carbon paper - then take the impression of the card. Then they had to write in all the details and you had to sign it, they would check the signature and tear out the carbon pieces, give you a piece and file the other 2 in the drawer

That'll be an Addressograph Bartizan Model 4850 flatbed credit card imprinter or more generically a 'manual card imprinter' (aka zip-zap machine) according to some debate on this thread, where a poster said they'd used one recently....

Nebulous2

Missus_Hyde wrote: »

You should have been around when you wrote out a cheque and presented it with your card at the till!! It would take an absolute age at the supermarket, especially if you were behind someone who had a mountain of shopping to deal with and then spent about ten minutes fumbling about in their bag for their chequebook, then wrote out the cheque, then had the signature on it checked by the cashier with the signature on the card.

I'd usually lost the will to live by the time I got to the actual checkout!!! :rotfl:

There were some advantages though. Some friends used to go to M&S when they were hard-up at the end of the month. Pay by cheque, get a refund in cash, then spend it on a night out. Who needs a payday lenders when a shop and your bank between them gave you an interest-free loan?

Oldfatgrumpy

I once, when very hard up, tried to take advantage of the three-day cheque-clearing delay as a buffer for payment for my son's school guitar lessons. I wrote the cheque two days before pay-day: the school presented the cheque the same day, to the same branch of the same bank where my account was held. I received the snotty letter from my bank, with a penalty charge, the next morning.

Missus_Hyde

m4rc wrote: »

Or when you paid by card but they and to put the card in their device (no idea of the name) insert the little slips of paper - 3 pieces plus 2 pieces of carbon paper - then take the impression of the card. Then they had to write in all the details and you had to sign it, they would check the signature and tear out the carbon pieces, give you a piece and file the other 2 in the drawer.

Now if you had spent a certain amount they had to ring through to the card company (or a company who would approve on banks behalf) and give them all the details.

They would usually have to check ID too. It was a nightmare at Christmas as the queues were longer and the phone call would take ages to go through.

Don't forget too this was the time when each item was manually entered into the till, if the price sticker had fallen off they had to buzz down to Carol in her little office at the other end of the store to ask how much a packet of butterscotch Angel Delight was.

It's all a bit quicker now!

Goodness me, I do remember that as well!! I had an "Access" card at the time; now I really do feel old!! :rotfl:

m4rc

Missus_Hyde wrote: »

Goodness me, I do remember that as well!! I had an "Access" card at the time; now I really do feel old!! :rotfl:

I remember floor limits being £50. Who spends less than £50 on a 'big shop' - they would be ringing for authorisation wih every transaction today!

I worked for a high street jeweller many years back when this stuff was all manual, when people wanted to buy on interest free credit we had to fill in forms and ring it all through. Nothing too unusual, except that when it was busy they would answer the phones with the authorisation number and hang up, they were so busy they were willing to take the risk rather than lose out on loads of business. Good way to get our sales up when it was busy, just offer all the skint people stuff they could never afford and tell them you were confident they would get the credit!

Feral_Moon

Nebulous2 wrote: »

There were some advantages though. Some friends used to go to M&S when they were hard-up at the end of the month. Pay by cheque, get a refund in cash, then spend it on a night out. Who needs a payday lenders when a shop and your bank between them gave you an interest-free loan?

There used to be a supermarket called Presto many years ago and they would cash cheques up to the value of £50 in their little kiosk. I think this was to speed up checkout but as you say, came in very handy for an interest free loan at the end of the week until you got your pay packet lol