Yearning for the return of proper debit cards

moneyaspie2024

I really miss cheque guarantee cards and the little hologram of Shakespeare, they should return immediately along with embossed cards like the good old days instead of all this unembossed portrait minimalistic nonsense !

la531983

Yeah, lets bring back outdoor toilets, chequebooks, Teletext and fax machines!

Or, just simply accept life, security measures and technology move on.

Rob5342

Co-op bank still have embossed cards with a hologram type picture on the back. 

It's surpring how long embossed cards have lasted really. I first got a debit card over 30 years ago and I don't think I've ever used it anywhere that had one of the old fashioned card machines that needed an embossed card to put the numbers on the slip. 

Devongardener

The original embossed cards were designed solely to work with the card machines that imprinted onto carbon paper receipts/sales records, long since replaced first by chip & pin technology and now contactless. What would be the point of bringing them back?!

MyRealNameToo

When I was in the states a little before Covid a restaurant still used a click clack machine for taking card payments. I tried to point out that the card wasnt embossed so the carbon paper had only caught the outline of the card and not any details of it but they weren't interested - probably as Id only select the 15% tip. 

Devongardener said:

What would be the point of bringing them back?!

Certain bottom of the barrel hire car companies state that you must have an embossed credit card to be able to take your hire car - if you fail to produce such a card they won't allow you to take the car without paying for their CDW. Clearly just a scam but by all accounts they do allow you to take the car sans CDW if you can produce such a card. 

Section62

la531983 said:

Yeah, lets bring back outdoor toilets, chequebooks, Teletext and fax machines!

Or, just simply accept life, security measures and technology move on.

The first of those is really useful if you do a lot of gardening, the second has never gone away (and remains reasonably well used).

Teletext lives on in BBC Red Button, and I'm fairly sure lawyers still enjoy communicating by fax (and apparently less hackable than emails).

And if your favourite retailer still has a clickclack machine for when they have power or internet blackouts then I could understand why still having an embossed card could be useful.

MyRealNameToo

Section62 said:

la531983 said:

Yeah, lets bring back outdoor toilets, chequebooks, Teletext and fax machines!

Or, just simply accept life, security measures and technology move on.

The first of those is really useful if you do a lot of gardening, the second has never gone away (and remains reasonably well used).

Teletext lives on in BBC Red Button, and I'm fairly sure lawyers still enjoy communicating by fax (and apparently less hackable than emails).

And if your favourite retailer still has a clickclack machine for when they have power or internet blackouts then I could understand why still having an embossed card could be useful.

Think the outdoor toilets were in loo/lieu of indoor ones not in addition to them. Whilst maybe useful for gardening and summer BBQs dont think most wouldnt want their only toilet at the bottom of their garden even if a keen gardener

Given we are talking chequebooks not cheques... why do you think they are reasonably well used? Can't remember the last time I even saw a chequebook let alone known one to be used. In 1990 there were 4bn cheques paid in, in 2023 there was 0.1bn cheques paid in and you can be fairly sure the vast majority of those were corporate cheques printed on letter stock not someone filling in and tearing out a cheque from a chequebook.

Teletext was broadcast in the vertical blanking internal of the analogue TV broadcast. Whilst something called teletext still exists its a very different beast in the same way our local paper was physical and published daily and now is only an app... sure its got the same name and its still journalism but most wouldnt say the newspaper still exists. 

NHS was a much bigger user of fax machines than the legal sector when OfCom removed the requirement for telecommunications to have to support faxes. Used to send faxes alot 17 years ago but their death was quick in most areas. Whilst an unencrypted fax is more secure than an unencrypted email given it's basically a direct connection both are less secure than encyrpted messaging. 

Shakin_Steve

With the embossed cards, the retailer had to ring up and get an authorisation code if the transaction was over a certain amount. Was it £50?

FIREDreamer

Shakin_Steve said:

With the embossed cards, the retailer had to ring up and get an authorisation code if the transaction was over a certain amount. Was it £50?

My current Barclaycard Cashback card is embossed.

born_again

Embossed cards used to cause a lot of complaints, as people wore the tipping off & could not read the number.

j.p

I miss my Visa Delta.