German universities have been using a similar thing for some time in the cafeterias. It's not a bank card, it's a card explicitly for cafeteria usage. However, it works in every university cafeteria within the city and on most vending machines in and around the university, too.
The first difference, though, is that the card has to be very close to the receiver to make your payment. You have to place it on a special terminal. It's cool, you can leave it in your portemonnaie (some people left their card in their moneybags so long, that they have problems finding them when they want to actually get them out for whatever purpose) but you have to place your portemonnaie onto the terminal.
The second difference: it's prepaid, and it's dedicated to a special purpose. The (small) amount of money on it is already paid to central cafeteria billing and you can only pay food with it.
A bank card? Nah, there currently still seems to be too much risk. Not yet.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Julien @ Dec 19th 2005 12:21AM
German universities have been using a similar thing for some time in the cafeterias. It's not a bank card, it's a card explicitly for cafeteria usage. However, it works in every university cafeteria within the city and on most vending machines in and around the university, too.
The first difference, though, is that the card has to be very close to the receiver to make your payment. You have to place it on a special terminal. It's cool, you can leave it in your portemonnaie (some people left their card in their moneybags so long, that they have problems finding them when they want to actually get them out for whatever purpose) but you have to place your portemonnaie onto the terminal.
The second difference: it's prepaid, and it's dedicated to a special purpose. The (small) amount of money on it is already paid to central cafeteria billing and you can only pay food with it.
A bank card? Nah, there currently still seems to be too much risk. Not yet.