Is It a Canadian thing?

[14Fiesta]

Okay, so I work at a grocery store in a city near the North Dakota/ Manitoba border, and we frequently serve Canadians that come to the states for cheap shopping. I have noticed a pattern of how you present your payments. Our tills are set up to where you swipe your card yourself, and whenever someone from Canada pays, they always tell me what network they are using! For example, someone will say:

"I'm using Visa"

or 

"It's on MasterCard please"

Absolutely nobody from the US EVER says what network they are using (unless they are asking if we accept AMEX lol) we just silently swipe our cards violently through the reader and leave, so I always know who you are. 

This intrigues me though. How do you guys operate up north? The way everyone does it makes it seem like you process CC payments differently in Canada. Are you required to disclose what card network you are using to the cashier in order to complete the transaction?

Thanks in advance for solving my curiosity.

[Anonymous]

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@14Fiesta wrote:

Okay, so I work at a grocery store in a city near the North Dakota/ Manitoba border, and we frequently serve Canadians that come to the states for cheap shopping. I have noticed a pattern of how you present your payments. Our tills are set up to where you swipe your card yourself, and whenever someone from Canada pays, they always tell me what network they are using! For example, someone will say:

"I'm using Visa"

or 

"It's on MasterCard please"

Absolutely nobody from the US EVER says what network they are using (unless they are asking if we accept AMEX lol) we just silently swipe our cards violently through the reader and leave, so I always know who you are. 

This intrigues me though. How do you guys operate up north? The way everyone does it makes it seem like you process CC payments differently in Canada. Are you required to disclose what card network you are using to the cashier in order to complete the transaction?

Thanks in advance for solving my curiosity.

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Very interesting question ... I am curious too. For myself I go to Cavalier, North Dakota and north ... first time I heard of this.

[CreditMagic7]

Interesting indeed. Also makes you wonder if they might say "It's on a Discover please"

[14Fiesta]

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@ArmyVietVet wrote:

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@14Fiesta wrote:

Okay, so I work at a grocery store in a city near the North Dakota/ Manitoba border, and we frequently serve Canadians that come to the states for cheap shopping. I have noticed a pattern of how you present your payments. Our tills are set up to where you swipe your card yourself, and whenever someone from Canada pays, they always tell me what network they are using! For example, someone will say:

"I'm using Visa"

or 

"It's on MasterCard please"

Absolutely nobody from the US EVER says what network they are using (unless they are asking if we accept AMEX lol) we just silently swipe our cards violently through the reader and leave, so I always know who you are. 

This intrigues me though. How do you guys operate up north? The way everyone does it makes it seem like you process CC payments differently in Canada. Are you required to disclose what card network you are using to the cashier in order to complete the transaction?

Thanks in advance for solving my curiosity.

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Very interesting question ... I am curious too. For myself I go to Cavalier, North Dakota and north ... first time I heard of this.

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So you are from Canada, and you never do this/ have never seen anyone do this?

[Anonymous]

That's interesting. I'm from California but when recently before paying I usually ask, "Do you take ____?" just in case. I'll be sure to notice this when I go to Vancouver next month.

[TheGardner]

I'm not sure if you will get too many Canadian responses as Fico is an American thing and Canada is issued different cards.

[ilovelisa]

When I went to Canada, everytime I used the card, the person asked what type of card it was. I thought that was strange, but maybe they just have to input them differently into the machine.

[jon22guitar]

I would be perplexed and sarcastically reply "Do you want a cookie?"

I've never heard of this. Any insight would be appreciated. 

[eddie84]

Must be that Canadian thing I've read about...  eh?  

[Roarmeister]

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@14Fiesta wrote:

Okay, so I work at a grocery store in a city near the North Dakota/ Manitoba border, and we frequently serve Canadians that come to the states for cheap shopping. I have noticed a pattern of how you present your payments. Our tills are set up to where you swipe your card yourself, and whenever someone from Canada pays, they always tell me what network they are using! For example, someone will say:

"I'm using Visa"

or 

"It's on MasterCard please"

Absolutely nobody from the US EVER says what network they are using (unless they are asking if we accept AMEX lol) we just silently swipe our cards violently through the reader and leave, so I always know who you are. 

This intrigues me though. How do you guys operate up north? The way everyone does it makes it seem like you process CC payments differently in Canada. Are you required to disclose what card network you are using to the cashier in order to complete the transaction?

Thanks in advance for solving my curiosity.

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OK. OK.  I will let you on in a secret... its because up here the vendor asks us.  Yep, that simple.

We use debit POS most of the time so the vendor asks us if we are going to pay by debit or credit?  The natural reflex is just to say Visa or MC or debit.  Amex isn't used much. Discover is a foreign object.

It might have something to do with how the vendor sets up the payment POS machine to take either the debit or credit card just prior to handing it over so can punch in the code.  I'm not a cashier so I don't know if they have to input something different or not to recognize the different type of cards.  We switched to EMV 5 years ago, maybe that also has something to do with it?

It is probably as natural as Thanks,Your welcome, I'm sorry, pardon me and "he shoots, he SCORRRESS!.