Credit/Debit Cards on Board

[MrX]

I was slightly stunned by the way Iarnrod Eireann/Irish Rail and their catering company handled credit card transactions on board the train.

Rather than having a portable chip and pin terminal, which one would expect in this day and age. The ticket inspector wrote down credit card numbers on little paper forms and stuffed them into his bag. Doesn't seem right at all.

Meanwhile, the catering crowd are doing something similarly manual.

I wasn't very happy with my credit card details being taken this way. I can't understand why IE can't issue a simple GSM-based credit card terminal to each MK4 train. It's not that expensive and it's not that complicated.

Also, given that the banks will shift liablity for fraud over to the retailer if they fail to use chip and pin when a chip card is presented to them, they are running the risk of financial losses if anyone hands them a dud card.