The food is over, now it’s time to pay. Proper payment begins with signaling the waiter that you want to pay. Wild gestures or the call “Waiter” are not appropriate. If the waiter does not approach you anyway, it is sufficient to make eye contact with him or to give him a discreet signal.
How Can You Pay the Bill with A Credit Card?
Cash flow serves as the lifeblood of any business, which is why restaurant payment processing is such an integral part of a payment operation. Every restaurant wants to make it as easy as possible for their guests to pay the bill. However, it is just as important to guarantee your staff a frustration-free process when it comes to paying the bill. After all, nobody wants to go back and forth between the tables and the checkout system or manually enter tons of information just to close a sale. Unfortunately, this process is still a reality for many catering establishments.
Paying a bill with a credit card is an option if your checking account is empty now. Invoices must still be paid on time. A transfer by credit card can help here. Paying an invoice by credit card involves several steps. It is important to remember that you cannot exceed the limit set by the credit card. It is often possible to transfer money directly from your credit card to the biller’s account. Doing this, call your bank or initiate the transfer in person at the branch. You can also ask for a transfer to your checking account and then pay the bill from there. A transfer from the credit card to a third-party account will incur fees. Depending on the bank, these are calculated as a flat rate or as a percentage. The costs vary depending on the bank.
Payments
A lot has changed drastically in recent years, and pay at the table is becoming more and more common. Over the years, the traditional way of processing payments has not changed. Most restaurants had a point-of-sale system where they would bring in customers’ credit cards, often out of sight, where they would manually swipe the card. The check was then returned to the customer along with the credit card. The result: unnecessary walking distances between table and counter is wasted time and therefore wasted money. In these traditional POS systems, all software and data was stored on a local server, which meant that restaurants had to buy software licenses. As a rule, restaurateurs had to maintain this software themselves and update it manually. More and more restaurateurs are switching to a mobile or cloud-based POS system. Nevertheless, no matter what type of POS system you use, it’s important to become familiar with a wide range of pricing models for payment processing. Because knowing how different payment processors charge restaurants like yours can ultimately save you money up front or on the fly.
Watch Your Card
The most important rule when you pay in a restaurant with a bankcard is that you must always see your card. The usual situation: you had dinner in a restaurant, the waiter brings the bill, you look at it, give him the card, he takes it somewhere and returns it to you with a check. Of course, in reputable establishments, everything will be fair, and they will withdraw exactly as much money from the card as you ate and drank. However, in some places it can happen, and something very unpleasant for you. A dishonest waiter or cashier may well copy your card details, and then the money will disappear from your account. Therefore, in reputable establishments, the waiter should come to your table with a mobile terminal, and you will roll the card yourself. Some restaurants have their websites on the Internet, and it will be possible to pay for your order directly from the table using, for example, your phone, without calling the waiter at all and without swiping the card.
The Usage Only
The most effective way to protect yourself from intruders is to order an additional card from the bank and use it only for payments in restaurants and shops. Such plastic is tied to the same account as the main card, but it has a different number and PIN. Even if fraudsters read the data from your additional card, they will not get access to the main account. Moreover, you can block the old card at any time and issue a new one.
The most reliable method to protect the card from fraudulent waiters is to pay in cash in restaurants. Of course, this is not very convenient because you have to carry banknotes in your wallet and take care of a sufficient amount of funds to pay the bill. In this case, it will not be necessary to give the card to the waiter, and therefore risk its balance. This approach has another important plus – savings. In order not to overspend, plan a certain amount for lunch or dinner and try not to exceed the set limit. This way, you can use your funds more efficiently.
Bottom Line
Now it remains to figure out where to apply the card and how to do it correctly. It is known that a special chip transmits a signal at a distance of up, this is an additional security measure so that a third-party device does not read your data. The place where to apply the card can be indicated by the same icon in the idea of waves, sometimes instead of it on the terminal you can see an LED flashing green. Reading information is carried out automatically, there is not much difference how to apply the card to the terminal – front or back side. Contactless payments can also be made at ATMs. For security purposes, the client can enable SMS notifications, as a result of each payment, notifications will be received. The bank also offers additional options – you can independently set a limit – upon reaching which a pin code will be requested.