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Comment by dkonofalski | Hacker News Reader

I use it nearly every day and definitely for almost every purchase I make. I no longer carry around a wallet now that digital IDs are a thing and have only had 1 situation in the last 6 months where I needed a physical card because they had TTP disabled on their terminal.

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That's impressive, I want to live where you do! I swear there's one major retailer by me (never remember until I'm at the terminal) that still has tap to pay disabled. Catches me every time.

I'm down to just a 4 card MagSafe wallet (credit/debit/ID/car key), but I'd love to get to just a phone. Sadly I'm sure Wisconsin will be another 5-10 years before supporting digital ID.

I'm down to just my backup card in my MagSafe wallet. I'll occasionally keep my ID in there too but only if I know I'm going out to a place that needs to check a physical ID. If I could, I would do without the wallet completely.

A few years ago I was surprised that in some states it is illegal to go out in public without an ID in the event a cop stops you and asks for ID. Seems completely contrary to everything we were taught growing up.

I am not a lawyer, but I am fairly certain that that isn't true (if you're not driving).

Many states require that you identify yourself (presumably full name and DOB at a minimum) to an officer upon request, but I don't think that means you have to carry the physical card, just provide your identity (which can be done verbally).

In my area most restaurants with table service don't have an easy way to do tap-to-pay (a few chains have something at the table for you to pay at that supports it). Also two of my most common retailers do not (Kroger and Home Depot). Very few gas stations support it, though the one closest to me recently added it.

Kroger and Home Depot

Yep, Kroger and Home Depot are the biggest stores I've been to recently that don't take tap-to-pay, but there are some other national chains.

Also recently: my neighborhood florist, doughnut shop, parking garage, and hamburger stand don't take tap-to-pay. I've never been to a gas pump that does, though they all have the logo for it on the front. Every time I've inquired, the people inside say it's not enabled.

Record stores are about 50%. The one I went to most recently, I had to show them how to do it.

But interestingly, my shoeshine guy does take tap-to-pay.

I always keep at least one backup card and some cash in my wallet. I recently had to make an emergency trip to the Walgreens at 5am, and its credit card/tap system was down. It was cash-only for about a week. Glad I had cash backup so my family member's health wasn't held hostage by a technology glitch.

In the UK, they bring the card reader to your table and the transaction completes wirelessly. If you want to add a tip, you type the amount into the reader before you tap.

Increasingly public transport supports contactless instead of tickets or proprietary NFC systems - notably the whole of London supports contactless and I've not used an Oyster card in years now.

I've also not seen a card reader that doesn't support contactless since at least 2015, possibly longer. I'm not sure, but based on how quickly contactless rolled out from 2007, I suspect they'd been adding support to the hardware a well before it was enabled.

I know everyone says it but USA really needs to do better. It doesn't make sense that this is so uniquely difficult to rollout there.

Many gas stations are still magnetic strip only. It was the majority as of a couple of years ago, but it's shifting quickly. That said, I still very frequently encounter gas stations that don't accept chip or tap, only strip.

I can pay with contactless / Apple Pay almost everywhere, except the largest grocer chain in Texas - H-E-B - doesn't support it. Unfortunately, this is where I make most of my purchases, so I end up using Apple Pay on infrequent other shopping trips.

Walmart and Home Depot seem to be major holdouts in the U.S. I wonder what they’re waiting for.

Home Depot is exactly the one that I wasn't able to use it at. I don't go there too often, though, so it's one of those things where I plan for it when I need to go now.

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