Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for August 06, 2022

I’m thinking Arlo’s new app will prove about as useful as that credit card carbon.

Everything is moving toward a cashless society. I hate it but I use the card all the time. I just can’t talk myself into using a phone app.

I recently inadvertently allowed one of my credit card accounts to close from lack of use. It was with a twinge of nostalgia that I realized the account was my oldest card, opened in 1970.

(But the one I opened in 1971 is still alive. I recently bought something with it just to keep it active.)

I remember time before the first “credit card”.

And today I only have debit cards.

As for carbon copies, I can’t remember when was the last time my card required a signature rather than a pin code.

Forward to carbon.

I used to carry cash to pay for small purchases because the store wouldn’t have to pay a fee for a card transaction. But then COVID came and the stores didn’t want to handle cash as the means of transmission wasn’t well known. In addition in my state the law says that merchants cannot add a fee for card transactions but they can give a discount for cash transactions. Merchants used to have minimum purchase amounts for card transactions. But not since COVID. Before COVID they would have never let me process a credit card transaction for $.87.

For all the efforts companies and the government tried to do to move us to a cashless economy over the decades COVID accomplished in a month.

Hackers love those apps, one stop “shopping”, a Facebook account makes it sweeter.

Translation: We’re old.

I use the cards and can check online if I need to know anything. I still use cash for certain things because I was tried of cards being hacked, gas stations, restaurants and supermarkets.

And you needed to use carbon paper between sheets of typing paper to make a copy. A real bug-a-boo to correct when you made a mistake.

My biggest reservation about cashless payment systems is that too many sites have been hacked and I worry about card information stored on them.

who remembers the sliding credit card plates at the full service gas stations?!

Yes. sobs

They still give a copy of a purchase…just not a carbon version.

My dad would rarely use a credit card except maybe on a tank or two of fuel while returning from a very long trip and/or maybe to buy a couple of Christmas items. He would ask for the carbon from the knuckle busters. If not properly disposed, you could read the card info from the carbon and/or reapply it on another paper surface. This was the OLDEN days to ID theft or take money from someone’s account.

I have found a couple of stores that still have on hand the card imprinter with the carbon copies. They have the devices in case of a lengthy power outage.

The carbon copy seems like it was 5 lifetimes ago. Back when the actually checked the signature on the card to be sure it matched. Now I don’t even bother to sign my name; I just make a squiggly line.

And the credit card was a piece of cardboard with a metal piece which had the numbers raised so that the machine could press the numbers onto the receipt. Boy, am I old.

Ka-chunk.

If it hadn’t been for keeping detailed track of finances for more than a decade in Microsoft Money I wouldn’t have been able to project that I could actually retire early. Most people have no idea how much money they spend or where it goes.

And the carbon had the full credit card number/name for future fraud use. I came across a post card I sent in the early 80s asking for my SS history; it had my full name, address, birth date and SS visible to all. I got the report back (with the post card attached) and never had any stolen ID.

Once upon a time, they didn’t have to give you the carbons…

don’t trust Finn techs

I do remember that carbon copy, amazing how we have changed.

Dang Jimmy, you must be as old as me…

Just ran across an old carbon for a gas purchase stuck in an old book. It noted that back in 1971 I paid $5.60 for 17.0 gallons of gas—$.32.9 per gallon. That was good for a laugh or two…“Those were the days, my friend…”

I take it he’s wondering the Total Number of Cliffs That Can Be Driven Off-Of? [ TNCTCBOO ] (what it is ‘is-what can go wrong is possible’}

It used to be that retailers had to keep copies of the charge slips. If a purchase was challenged, they had a limited amount of time to retrieve the original as a proof of purchase. This carried a cost, so some retailers set a limit – say $ 50 – and if the item in dispute was less than that amount, they just issued a credit. This was the motivation for signature capture pads. Only problem was the POS equipment did not know what to do with it. Now nearly every receipt is printed on thermal paper. If left exposed, the printing fads. That signature printed on the bottom goes nowhere. So now Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are signing a lot of receipts.