Well well well, I don't usually eat in O'Briens anymore but I was hungry for a snack so I had a poke in the door to see what they had but immediately saw the massive sign they had up "MINIMUM CHARGE €10 ON DEBIT/CREDIT CARD".
Now I do not understand this policy. Why, oh why, would anyone refuse business just because it is on a card? It makes people like me walk away and it loses them income. It does not help the economy in any way.
In Holland, they have a system called Chipknip where your chip acts as cash, you can put money onto the chip part of the card and spend it in stores, any amount whatsoever.
I asked in one shop, a Spar in Glasnevin, why they wouldn't accept cards for transactions under €10 and the shop assistant was bewildered. He said he wasn't sure but that he thought it was because it meant more work for them at the end of the day so they tried to minimise transactions on card to save them work.
Hopefully, Ireland, the Ireland of the Celtic Tiger, will realise that we have not only to be at the same level as other countries around the world in how we embrace technology but we should try to be ahead of them. Let's take the lead in embracing technology that accelerates our economic wellbeing.
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