People who don’t carry their bank cards with them

[Auburngal]

I was in Sainsbury’s this morning and systems are down. No contactless, chip n pin taking ages to go through. Unable to buy gift cards, mobile top up vouchers.

Systems going down like this happen not very often but when they do it’s awful.

On the self scan next to me a woman screamed at the manager on why she can’t pay on her mobile.

Why do many people don’t carry their bank cards anymore? The cards don’t weigh much. Plus if the contactless payment system goes down, hopefully their card will go through via chip n pin. Also they won’t look like idiots either. No sympathy for these.

Regarding contactless payments- sometimes your bank, NOT the retailer etc asks you to do a CnP payment as part of security. “I dunno my PIN”. You can change your PIN to any number you want (not 1234, 1111) at any ATM under PIN services.

It still works. I have no idea of the technicalities but it works.

When i worked in Sainsburys in nineteen mumble mumble, power cuts weren't unusual.

In those days tills were electromechanical and could be manually cranked. So we all used to punch the prices in, and the lads off the shop floor (one per till) would crank the handle to ring the price (to be fair they were pretty heavy machines to work).

That's good to know. I've always been curious but never bothered to test it.

My phone is so old and crap but I do only pay a tenner a month!

I often leave my wallet at home and won’t keep a card in the phone case because it makes it easier for a thief to access accounts if they steal your phone and it really annoys me if I can’t see messages when my screen is locked.

(I know it’s the same if your bag is stolen with your wallet and phone in it but I usually have my phone in my pocket)

In what way is doing your grocery shopping at the weekend sad?

You might want to revisit the way you do it if takes you so long, I'm assuming there that it must do otherwise you comment makes no sense at all

Because I can't have my purse and bank cards out with me at work but I have my phone and can use contactless to pay for food etc.
it's clearly not staffs fault but I was in Sainsbury's today and there was no signage or staff telling customers of the issues it was only apparent on check out.

Tesco had this exact issue the other week. It appears to be quite common this year, what with McDonalds' issues yesterday too!

you can just ditch the trolley and go elsewhere

Most Sainsburys has wifi you can connect to if you are willing to give them your email or phone number (Well, an email or phone number)

How long are you taking to do your shopping if you're there all weekend?!

Because 99.99999% of the time you don't need your card or cash. I feel sorry for the retail workers today- people shouldn't be rude to them as it's not their fault.

Off topic but why are you still paying for a phone thats so old? Surely you'd have paid for it years and years ago if it can't do payments

No idea how it works but it does. Our local Tesco’s system went down one day and I was about the only person who could pay because I had my card.

I almost always have my card, although rare I've had occasions when Apple Pay hasn't been accepted or worked, and it's less inconvenient to carry my card than it is to not be able to pay for a weeks shop.

In the case of contactless payments not working a card gives the option of chip & pin, manual entering of the card number (customer not present transaction) or withdrawing cash.

I still have various different cards / loyalty cards / membership cards that are physical anyway.

We had signs and a meet and greet team to explain things

And we'd been on here this morning so knew to take cards but I usually don't because it's just something else to loose

@BobnLen what a bizarre comment! 🤣 my grocery shop takes me about an hour from setting off and getting home. I work full time Mon-Fri so like many people find it easier to do at the weekend. I don't spend all weekend at the supermarket.

Thank goodnesa youve pointed that out, now all the saddos spending all weekend in Sainsbury's have a solution to not being able to pay for their shopping, phew, I thought theyd be stranded for days

Or get shopping delivered to free up weekends

Yeah cards and cash are old fashioned..till you can't make a purchase with your chosen bit of tech.

It didn’t help me having my card in Sainsbury’s this morning as I had a Mastercard debit and they’d only accept visa debit or cash and told us when we got to the almost front of the till, some beautiful soul offered to pay for my shopping so I didn’t have to go get cash and line back up, I then got her money out and the cash machine and bought her a coffee, people were giving each other coins as they were short, it was quite a nice help each other atmosphere in our Sainsburys

I rarely carry my cards, I just use Apple Pay. I’ve never not been able to pay. I suppose if systems were down often, I’d rethink and would probably carry cash, not cards. They’re not though so I’ll carry on just taking my phone out and about.

I wouldn’t be screaming at staff if I couldn’t pay. That’s awful.

I work in a rural supermarket and it's not unheard of for our Wi Fi systems to totally crash (particularly during thunderstorms). People can still pay with C&P or cash, but not contactless.

I did get shouted at by a man who wanted to take out cash via Apple Pay (we don't do cashback other than by inserting the card yet). Apparently 'everywhere' does cashback on Apple Pay, and he wouldn't believe me that we didn't and, for some bizarre reason thought that I just didn't want to do it. He didn't have his card on him, of course.

Hmm

I think Sainsbury's need to get their shit together re systems. Paying by phone is extremely popular with millions doing it every day.

Do you carry cash to cover a whole weekly shop or a cheque book, just in case the card machines are bust? No. Nobody does as time has moved on. Sainsbury's need to get it together.

I've got a slim phone case with a flap closure and it has 3 card slots in. I keep driving licence in one and 1 credit card and 1 debit card.

You are confusing two things here.

Not carrying your cards is one situation, being a twat is a different problem.

I don’t take my cards with me most of the time, but I do if I’m going to the supermarket or the like.

Most of the time I pay using my watch. I’ve been doing that for 8 years now and in all that time it’s not failed yet. It doesn’t even need a connection to WiFi, phone signal or even a connection from your watch to your phone.