New innovations in credit cards, 1985

[@supasimon]

"at this upscale restaurant the average lunch bill runs up to 20 dollars, or more" oh

[@hilldoggydogg635]

🤣 You beat me to it.

[@johnarbuckle6775]

Let’s hope the new president can get it back to being that way.

[@Mahoromatic]

@@johnarbuckle6775 20 dollars went a long way in 1985...

[@markylon]

Are you that ignorant have you never heard of inflation. $20 back then was a huge amount.

[@garzdiva]

@@markylon $20 in 1985 is about $58 today. That's still wayyyyy lower than what you'd expect at an upscale restaurant these days.

[@Thingsyourollup]

"And fraud is almost impossible" - lol bless their hearts.

[@PauloHernandezXD]

To quote Beavis & Butthead; "Check it out, this videos really old!" "Yeah, this is back when people weren't as smart." lol

[@bvdtv12345]

Beat me to it. Exactly what I was thinking….”Just wait”

[@ajspice]

Smart cards actually are very hard to defraud. It's HUMANS that get duped. You made this comment like it's some kind of crazy, widespread epidemic.

[@PauloHernandezXD]

@@ajspice you're very defensive; why?

[@eadred9164]

You will get caught.

[@TheRealLaughingGravy]

In the early 1980s, when I started dating my wife, I had a VISA/ATM card from my bank. After a movie we thought about going to dinner but we didn't have any cash. I told her I'd get some at the bank, but she didn't understand because it was late, the banks were closed. I went to the outdoor ATM and withdrew $50 (it came out in two envelopes with $25 each). She was completely dumbstruck. She'd never seen anything like that before. She thought I was from the future. It's pretty funny to think about it now, but it was revolutionary back then.

[@JR-sq2of]

@@TheRealLaughingGravy I thought they only gave out $20 bills only in the 80's. Will your wife verify your claim? 😆

[@guerrilla_radio]

Cool story on how to conquer a girl's heart :)

[@jonathantan2469]

And now you can use your banking app on your phone to withdraw cash without needing an ATM card, if you somehow need cash.

[@3ffrige]

It’s still revolutionary today! Just doesn’t seem like it because it’s another thing we all take for granted.

[@Betapro461]

The ATM was invented in the 60s

[@dreamer40]

Kind of mind boggling to me that the 'smart card' chip technology was being piloted in US in mid-80s but took until the 2010s to be widely available?

[@daftoptimist]

Same; I’d like to do some reading about what the holdup was.

[@HunterB738]

@@dreamer40 It’s like this for everything. It takes forever for it to trickle down to the general public.

[@adamtate3953]

It was probably because the machines the businesses needed were more expensive for business than the dial-up computers or click-clack machines. If no one has the machine to accept the smart card, what use is everyone having a smart card?

[@Ed.E]

@@dreamer40 in the UK chip and pin started getting round in the 90s and contactless on the late 00s

[@straightpipediesel]

What happened was the Internet. Chip cards were designed by Europeans which had expensive government-owned telephone companies (US and Canada deregulated phones in the 80's, Europe took until the 90's). The chip was designed to handle daily transactions without having to call the bank. There was less need for that in North America. The Internet came and communications became much cheaper and instantaneous. Then the problem became fraud being shifted online, which chip cards do little to solve by themselves. TL;DR: it was designed to a 90's European problem we didn't have.

[@fennugreek-gs5zb]

"catching up with the modern deadbeat"...this segment had so many great lines, but that was poetry.

[@SwaggieSteve]

The year 2000 is going to be crazy

[@AudieHolland]

Flying cars!

[@Quansem]

Flying Y2K bugs! We all wore beekeeper hats back then.

[@SuperSkandale]

Flying cars I hear.

[@jonblablabla1014]

That restaurant owner looks and sounds like the scientist from the Simpsons 😂😂

[@KeepingOnTheWatch]

@@jonblablabla1014 Actually, I thought he looked very much like Artie Ziff. “Hello, Marge. Have you heard? I’m stinkin’ rich!”

[@zackboring3314]

@@jonblablabla1014 yes

[@MasterofPuberty]

Who is based on Jerry Lewis in the original Nutty Professor. Exactly what I thought when I saw him, too!

[@Bada_Boom78]

lol good one

[@PinoyMukbangPro]

Something like that came into my mind too when I saw him. He looks so stereotypical. LOL

[@HowieIsaacks]

Wow! 64K memory. What will we do with all that memory?

[@DST.73]

Actually, I really doubt there was that much memory in those cards back in 1985. Memory was super expensive back then, and much bulkier. Heck, if there was 64k in there, the card itself could be worth more than your credit limit!

[@mRahman92]

That's as much as the Commodore 64! Are you mad?

[@appleintosh]

@@DST.73Those “smart” cards could also be hacked to change the available balance on the card, and were incompatible with accounts that have multiple authorized users. It’s no wonder they never took off

[@markh.6687]

That's what people said about the 4K in the Commodore VIC-20, until I walked into my high school computer class with my assignments already written and test-run before putting them on our dumb-terminal-based system to run/print/turn them in.

[@FXP1688]

I doubt that even today those cards have more memory. There is simply no need for it to be more.

[@jevinday]

It's amazing that they made a machine so fancy that no one ever committed financial fraud ever again

[@marks6663]

Not what they said. They said it would make fraud, the kind of fraud what was common back in the day, almost impossible. Which it did. Never said it would make future kinds of credit card fraud impossible.

[@mitch3384]

@@marks6663 Whoosh.

[@marks6663]

@@mitch3384 whoosh? Do you know what that even means in a comment section?

[@averageatom]

@@marks6663 Whooosh

[@VintageTVMemories]

I remember working at Shell in 1998 and having the "KEEP CARD" message on our terminal. The employee was awarded $100 for keeping the card. The evolution of plastic continues!

[@HunterB738]

No they didn’t. 🤣

[@Peizxcv]

What’s “keep card”?

[@westrex]

@@Peizxcv It means don't return the card to the customer. It is likely stolen and has been used many times recently. If you were brave enough to tell the customer that you are not going to return the card, the card issuer would reward you.

[@westrex]

@@HunterB738 Yes the card issuer did pay a reward, but merchants often kept the money instead of giving it to staff.

[@HunterB738]

@@westrex That’s a myth. Never happened.

[@Doggieman1111]

These machines were actually a true pinnacle of human thought back in the day. They might be simplistic now but all credit card operations we take for granted were built upon this "old" tech.

[@No-mq5lw]

Chip and tap to pay are fairly different than mag stripe in actual implementation than a magstripe

[@BobRooney290]

innovation. something severely lacking these days. all we have is verification after verification after verification. 3 steps forward, 10 steps back.

[@Dan-di9jd]

It comes with a heavy price though. In 1985, it was almost unheard of to be in debt with a credit card. But in today's society, it's almost unheard of to meet someone who isn't in some sort of credit card debt.

[@Tristinfate]

Everyone is amazed at $20 lunch, but remember most people were making little more than $3 and hour at that time.

[@yvan2563]

This is about the 1980's, not the 1930's. edit: guess I was wrong. Then again a small bag of chips only cost 25 cents when I was a kid.

[@tonysteel1377]

@@yvan2563 : The comment is correct. I literally just Googled and minimum wage from 1981 through 1989, was $3.10.

[@tonysteel1377]

Correct!

[@cardboardboxification]

@@yvan2563 apparently you were not working in the 80's

[@mattlaeff724]

Wrong. Most people do not make minimum wage, nor do they get paid it. Even today -

[@SH-ly1uy]

1:17 wow. Upscale restaurant charges 20 bucks per person.

[@AP-gb3eb]

@@SH-ly1uy I pay more than that when I order fast food delivery nowadays

[@1970broncoman]

@@SH-ly1uy adjusted for inflation that’s about $60 today

[@gotacallfromvishal]

Yup! This is the consequence of supporting foolish socialistic measures like "livable wage", increased "programs"/welfare, increased government spending, and increasing corporate tax rates. Maybe one day people will vote for tax cuts but knowing Canada they wont, and Canadia will become Argentina in 20 years

[@RhinoXpress]

0:44 bro got glass lenses so thick he could see the moon landing site.

[@jenbermol]

‘Moon landing site’

[@steveh3734]

@@RhinoXpress and 0:55 he's talking about someone you can't see.. with those goggles i bet he can see your soul..

[@bennyson6692]

Look at his forehead

[@yermanoffthetelly]

He looks like Bubbles from trailer park boys 😂

[@dustyflair]

@@yermanoffthetelly bubbles dad

[@sbkpilot1]

upscale lunch for $20.... now you can't even get fast food for that

[@tookitogo]

Well $20 Canadian back then is $51 now. Inflation, ya know?

[@rick_terscale1111]

@@tookitogo Thats exactly what I guestimated for Australia too, $50.

[@lurekayaklrf]

@@tookitogodo you think there’s a single person in the western world that isn’t aware of inflation come on.

[@progenitor_amborella]

@@tookitogo while inflation is real, a significant amount of rising prices is actually corporate price gouging. Look at the data showing them raking in record profits.

[@tookitogo]

@@lurekayaklrf Yes, absolutely. In fact, many people don’t actually know what it is.

[@tookitogo]

5:07 Heh, I thought that mall looked familiar - I worked at the Columbia mall 15 years ago!

[@williamhaynes7089]

In the 80's I remember going to stores and they had a printed book with card numbers in it.. the store would have to check the book while everyone in line waited.

[@LMB222]

I was a vendor and we had that book delivered until around 1999.

[@jessihawkins9116]

what book. what are you talking about book

[@williamhaynes7089]

@@jessihawkins9116 it was like a phone book type material.. vendors had to look up your card to see if it was on the valid list

[@mikecumbo7531]

@@jessihawkins9116 every week or month Mastercard & Visa would send stores booklets with invalid or bad card numbers. A cashier would have to check your credit card number against those in the book. Back then many people didn’t have a card, some had one or two and few had multiple cards like today.

[@googleuser8740]

Please explain more? They had a book of every valid card number???

[@oldprecision]

Yeah, the card was switched. Sure buddy.

[@Charlie-zj3hw]

@@oldprecision ikr I like how they caught fraud on camera

[@Doggieman1111]

"Honest mistake" LOL

[@UncleDavesKitchen]

Sure, Cheryl, the card was switched.

[@cpmiller1965]

I’m now Cheryl, pronouns they/them

[@AudieHolland]

In movies the customer at the table never checks if they got their own card back.

[@Peizxcv]

Wow, $20 a person at upscale restaurant. Now it’s $80 with just an entree and $200 with an appetizer and a drink

[@chrisstromberg6527]

They also had to pay a 13% interest rate to borrow money from a bank to buy a house or buy a car. This was also after the interest rates reached a high of 18% in the 1980's.

[@MarkWarren-sn3op]

My mother's grocery bill in 1985 was $20

[@objective7042]

@@chrisstromberg6527 at least in those times, average house price is around $70,000 and it's payable on a single income even with 17-20% interest.

[@HollywoodF1]

Yes, and we used to make a lot less.

[@Orincaby]

That's why fast food is still so popular

[@charlesflannery4610]

I began working at kmart as a 16 yr old cashier in 1988. I can remember using these. Still had to use the imprinter. Before that there was the dreaded book--can remember those with my parents

[@litarea]

I worked at a dry cleaners when I was 16 in 2014, and even then they trained me how to use the imprinter. Saved my butt when the computers went down one day!

[@guardianoftheduat]

@@charlesflannery4610 what is the book?

[@KatharineOsborne]

@@charlesflannery4610 I worked in a bookstore in the 00s and one day the power went out and the store manager unearthed an imprinter from somewhere deep in the bowels of the store. I got to use it once in the 4 years I worked there. Very satisfying feeling to it.

[@johnwang9914]

@@charlesflannery4610 Initially, these magstripe readers weren't qualified for the actual transaction, just for checking if the card had expired or been stolen. These magstripe readers replaced those rolodex's that the cashier's would use to check if the card had been stolen against the lists of numbers published and distributed by the credit card companies. As always, the credit card companies had to support the previous methods of recording a transaction and even today, an imprinter is still a legal way of processing a credit card transaction which is why the numbers, name and expiration date are still raised on modern cards. The Bank of Montreal even has a prepaid travel card that only has the raised embossed account number/name/expiration with a magstripe and printed SVC code in the back, but no SIM module and no RFID module. Their argument is that the embosser and magstripe are really the only processing methods that are consistent throughout the world especially in undeveloped nations, note that the US did not have SIM modules despite Europe and Canada having them for quite some time, it was only when RFID modules and both Apple and Google pay came about that they considered using SIM modules but more to make it obvious that they had technology in their cards. The BOM travel card is a bit of a pain as you can't register the card on Google Pay as the bank servers just flat out refuse wireless transactions, but is also an advantage because when you swipe the card through the magnetic reader, the machine often doesn't ask for a pin code, the clerk often fails to have you sign the receipt and most pay machines no longer have the signature stylus. If you've forgotten your PIN code, just swipe your normal chipped card instead of inserting it for the SIM module to be ready (mind you, you should probably first try just using the wireless RFID which also does not require a pin but the wireless has a set transaction limit which used to be $50 but was extended to $200 through negotiations with Google and Apple). The old imprinter and magstripe transactions are still supported.

[@jesusrodriguez915]

I used the machine and imprinter as a cashier in 1994, when I was 16 years old.

[@KneeBenderservant]

“…the man’s name is Cheryl.” 1981: Hold Card 2024: Enjoy your lunch, mam.

[@TomKnoll]

I really wonder how the computer was able to catch this...

[@Bada_Boom78]

Exactly

[@skeetrix5577]

that's too funny sad but true

[@wsol80]

@@TomKnoll I'm assuming Cheryl reported her card was missing. I wonder if this guy really didn't notice the mixup or if he just decided Cheryl was going to buy his upscale lunch?

[@BQD_Central]

Modern day weakening payment security for about 5 people and 200.000 perverts.

[@zcorpalpha2462]

$ 20 for lunch 🥗 🤣 Oh I miss those days

[@boink800]

But I had only $5 back then.

[@deskubrir]

@@zcorpalpha2462 The U.S. can easily get rid of 1 zero in all prices since cents are useless at this point. A bill in an upscale today is easily $100 and rents/mortgages are $3,000… would be easier to say $10 for a meal, $300 for rent.

[@zcorpalpha2462]

@@boink800 True 😊

[@gotacallfromvishal]

if you miss those days why did you vote for high spending, high taation, anti-small business, tax-the-food, $15/minimum wage socialists who took those days away from you?

[@boink800]

@@gotacallfromvishal We will vote for those who want to give money to the rich.

[@4tarsus]

00:32 -- "First, the card is swished through." How did we get from swish to swipe, and can we go back?

[@james_giant_peach]

Well now with the chip we have insert or tap. I guess there’s really no going back

[@Furious321]

Swish is strictly for basketball environments.

[@3ffrige]

You know what is amazing about this? This was 40 years ago! It is still amazing for what it is. Nowadays, everyone has credit card and debit cards and use them every single day, without thinking about the infrastructure required to make all of this magic work. And they needed a literal computer in the card itself for the smart chip! Nowdays, it’s just some sort of ROM memory that is accessed by RFID or the metal contact strips on the card. And funnily enough, with the advancement of technology, fraud is still very much a thing. All this technology still circumvented with social engineering. Answering the wrong call and giving them the wrong information is all that’s needed for someone to take over your account. Neat!

[@jul1440]

Yet, it was a low level of advancement, more like applying existing tech to new ideas, which is just as good! The banks were already obviously using networked mainframes, the smart chip has been used in corporate smart cards since the '90s and SIM cards since the '00s, and RFID is just a reimplementation of Near Field Communication (NFC). Not sure about the magnetic strip; I'd have to look that one up, but I imagine it is not all that dissimilar from the then-ubiquitous magnetic tape.

[@sonhuynh8222]

Watching videos clips like this is like traveling back in time ….. miss my childhood years 😢

[@briandeschene8424]

The other reason fraud continues less abated is the U.S. corporate and banking industries insisting on cards continuing to need to support the outdated magnetic strip. If only chip cards were in use there would be no ability for a card to be skimmed and its data lifted/duplicated. Greed of those in the industry and the willingness of US government representatives to be bought to not legislate change (as was done in Europe and Asia) have artificially prolonged this state of affairs.

[@johnwang9914]

@@3ffrige Well the SIM chip which is the gold coloured contacts that you see on your card is a SIM module which was first produced in 1991 (first production run was 300 units for a Finnish wireless company to provide the first 2G GSM cell phone service), the RFID for wireless transactions is a separate embedded chip with a loop of wire as an antenna. What this video shows is a magnetic stripe on the back of the card which just records data in the same way as a magnetic tape. In all cases, it's only memory and gives you the account number, name and a security code similar to the SVC code that's printed on the back but obviously a different code. None of this requires a computer on the card even though we call the SIM and RFID modules, chips, they are really no different than having the account number and name embossed on the card and SVC code printed on the back except that it takes specific equipment to read them (though some smartphones now have NFC and hence might be able to read and write to the RFID). Now, if they did put a computer into the chip (first proposed in 1960) which is quite possible, they could use a challenge response protocol hence prevent skimmers from duplicating the card but the credit card companies don't see improving the security to be an advantage and such a chip would have to be custom produced rather than just using the SIM modules produced for GSM phones or the RFID module which are made for retail, neither the SIM nor the RFID are computers, they are just memory and obviously the magstripe shown in this video is just memory. An example of a challenge response system would be if the hypothetical computer on the card (which doesn't yet exist) had a secret account identifier and the pay machines gave the card a code randomly generated by the central server and asked the card to produce a checksum of it's secret identifier with the randomly generated code appended hence not revealing the secret code at all. In practice, you would just have a public/private encryption code and just ask the card to encrypt the provided challenge code which could then be checked with the public code recorded in the server for the card rather than have the server know the actual code (password) in the card so that a data breach of the servers wouldn't matter. It is notable that they never went with barcodes even though polarized film and filters could be used with barcodes to prevent copying without additional equipment (though some driver licenses such as Alberta went with barcodes for awhile but most such as Texas went with magstripes during the 90's). Another similar technology was that cards could be hole punched with the Hollerith code just like those old paper hole punch cards, my first University student ID was hole punched and the Hilton in Caracas back in 1992 used hole punched cards for door access (most hotels went with magstripes so the cards could be rewritten and hence reused). The TV show Starlost during the 70's used the same magnetic tape cassettes used by Dictaphones for door access on the generational interstellar starship and this is also a thoroughly practical application of this concept. It's all just a way of printing numbers and text on the card, they just needed different equipment to read and write them.

[@3ffrige]

@@johnwang9914 appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us! At first, I thought it was just some basic read only memory in the card, until 4:13 in the video stated that it had the same processing power as an Apple IIe. Unless that’s all marketing fluff back in the day lol

[@Sjalabais]

Remember for future time travel: Do the card fraud before 1984. Also: Look at those Coke bottle glasses...

[@jul1440]

It wasn't that they are immune from being caught, just that it was more work to catch you, having to call the bank instead of a computer doing it.

[@greggv8]

The time before higher refractive index glass and plastic was invented to make thinner lenses.

[@Sjalabais]

@@jul1440 And in the meantime...you're long gone.

[@lemagreengreen]

Nah they quickly adapted to this system, if anything it became easier because vendors were far more trusting of this tech and the risk was perceived to be much lower. Cloning cards started happening almost immediately.

[@okitasan]

1:36 he sounds like professor Frink from the Simpsons lol

[@decebaltrandafir]

@@okitasan He looks like a serial killer. Lol

[@numberwunsaifu2575]

@@okitasan perfect 😄 🤣

[@kulera]

Lmao omg 😆

[@CEverett55]

Totally... Lol.

[@bb-gc2tx]

he sounds just like ted cruz

[@DeEmperor1]

"And fraud is almost impossible" 😂😂😂 I can't wait to speak with this narrator.

[@AudieHolland]

Fraud will always be _almost_ impossible.

[@ronrichards6653]

With chip and pin, fraud is impossible. The problem is the card issuers don't want to require the PIN like they do in other countries. They want it to be so easy to spend, people run up the charges. They'd rather pay the fraud as the cost of doing business.

[@cool_dude1988]

For me the most impressive thing was the fact that “the upper class restaurant” charged about $20 a person. That’s how much I spent today at Burger King for 2 burger and fries…

[@gandalf0987]

@@cool_dude1988 it's called inflation.

[@UncleDavesKitchen]

$20 then is $58 today.

[@Solo407]

I prepare my own food, you’ll be surprised on how much you can save

[@Solo407]

Don’t give in to the system and you won’t have to be too concerned on this type of money issue

[@avengemybreath3084]

@@cool_dude1988 $20 a person would be a cheap lunch today, but plenty of upscale restaurant lunches are still $35-40. Not bad actually. Housing and gas prices are up way more.

[@ebradley2357]

I worked for a major retailer back in the 90's. If the card didn't work or the machine was down, you would simply call the company and get a voice authorization. Today, same thing happens and the cashier gives you a blank stare back. I guess they don't or can't do voice authorization anymore.

[@cardboardboxification]

doing service calls , I would call to verify checks and get a number to write down on the check

[@bengt_axle]

In the 70's department stores like Simpson's and Eaton's issued credit cards that worked entirely on an honour system. You had a card that had your name on it and an embossed number, but there was never any verification done at the point of purchase. It was not uncommon for spouses to use each other's card or for a parent to give one to their child for a shopping trip. A lot of these stores served "bedroom" communities, so the issuing store knew from the address and name that there was a person paying a mortgage, and therefore likely had a solid job. Writing a personal check was also possible and again, there was no verification at point of purchase.

[@joewoodchuck3824]

It was like that with bank credit cards too. There was a manual machine that made an impression of the embossed card and the slips were mailed in to the banks for processing. There were printed look up books for cashiers to check for fraudulent/delinquent accounts but they weren't universally used by the stores. They came out monthly or so and were probably all but obsolete by the time the stores got them anyway.

[@bengt_axle]

@@joewoodchuck3824 I do remember those lists of fraudulent cards with their tiny numbers!

[@kbtred51]

The 'honour' system relied upon you being known to the store and opening a charge account. Cheques always required a DL id.

[@chriselving]

Those store-specific cards were "charge cards", not "credit cards".

[@joewoodchuck3824]

@@chriselving Ok, but semantics really. A distinction without a difference.

[@GankTown]

i cant wait to get my hands on this technology

[@haweater1555]

My moms newest card is flat -- no embossed numbers. Makes the "imprinter" obselete as all transactions are expected to be electronic.

[@firestarter1888]

Its been like that in the UK for about 10 years now

[@GarethFairclough]

​@firestarter1888 some banks still emboss their cards, like Lloyd's, but I haven't seen the embossing being used in a shop for at least 15 years.

[@DST.73]

Apple Card doesn't even have numbers on it. Just a flat piece of metal etched with the Apple logo, your name, Goldman Sachs, and Mastercard. No signature line either.

[@jessihawkins9116]

@@DST.73no

[@BCMikuFan]

Not all banks do this. Currently it's mostly credit cards first. I think CIBC did this to their debit first then RBC.

[@ThinkLascivious]

$20 for lunch was expensive when regular jobs were paying only $3 per hour.

[@phidip2328]

Notice how in this video, almost every single man is wearing a tie.

[@mackisbrocklesnar]

@@phidip2328 thankgod that trend is dead

[@johnjones393]

From a time when most people didn't want to walk around looking like a bum or thug.

[@heavykingfox9164]

@@johnjones393 So if you don't wear a tie, that equates to a bum or a thug? Why you care so much about what another wears as long as they're covered up and don't look like an idiot is beyond me..

[@UncleDavesKitchen]

and no one screaming because they can't control their rage, they are clean, shaven, dressed nicely, not falling down on meth, no facial tattoos, paying for their food than expecting tax payers to afford their SNAP cards. We have not progressed well as a society.

[@heavykingfox9164]

@@UncleDavesKitchen god forbid a man wants to grow his beard out. And what is all this yapping about Snap benefits? Are people not allowed assistance when it's needed?

[@markh.6687]

I remember using the card embossers and forms, as well as the lookup books to check card numbers. The new credit card machines were much easier to use. I ran a card from an Australian bank at the US hobby shop I worked at, got my approval number, and sold over $1,000 (US) of train merchandise to the Aussies shopping during their trip to the 'States. It would have cost them much more to buy it in Australia. Everybody was happy.

[@losttimes8581]

@@markh.6687 as an Aussie who has done similar in the US , all very good.

[@JeremeyHowlett]

It would be amazing if cell phones and the internet stopped working. Everyone would be start coming out of their houses and looking around for something to do. People would go to malls to shop, on the weekends the city streets and nightlife would be out of this world fun and everyone would be living in the the real world.

[@ladyruler9585]

Back in 2016, I went to Myrtle Beach right after a bad storm. When I got to the hotel to check in, they actually manually copied my credit card just like that 0:02.

[@dadevi]

@@ladyruler9585 South Carolina is in the stone age. I'm not surprised.

[@stevencooper4422]

@@dadevi LOL true but the BBQ there is amazing. Love that mustard sauce they use

[@GankTown]

@@dadevi nahh not in the upstate maybe down bottom

[@dmitriibrasil]

I met that thing in Wyoming in 2017

[@NYG5]

@@dadevi every store worth something has this as a backup system in case the power goes out so they can still run sales without looking like peasants who have to close.

[@derrickbeaubearic4100]

"Fraud is almost impossible" 🤣

[@darkpixel2k]

@@derrickbeaubearic4100 fortunately we stopped them from embedding chips in our hands like they wanted. So yeah fraud is still possible because they didn't get what they wanted.

[@robertknight4672]

In the early 2000s I work at a supermarket and every once in a while a credit card wouldn't read often a simple trick would be to put the card inside a plastic bag and then swipe it and it would usually work. I don't know exactly what that accomplished.

[@jimmyjohnn19]

nasty

[@mRahman92]

Or use receipt paper 📃 That worked at the filling station I used to work at.

[@krissp8712]

Low friction smooth swipe, maybe? The magnet can float a tiny bit so at least that shouldn't have interfered with the reading.

[@jessihawkins9116]

@@krissp8712no that’s not it

[@tookitogo]

@@krissp8712What magnet? The magnetic head reads magnetic fields in the card. It’s a coil of wire on an armature.

[@CopeMasterFlexx]

using a card for daily purchases used to be weird. it was something youd use at a department store a few times a year.

[@control4230]

Around 2007 I was working in a supermarket and the chip and pin systems went down, every checkout had a "Crash Pack" which included a box of paper dockets and what we called Whim Wams for manual card payments. I still remember the utter confusion from some of the younger colleagues who had no idea what those clunky things were.

[@someguy4911]

My father is a retired telecomm engineer with AT&T. When ATMs first came onto the scene, they had a telephone handset attached to it so you could call a hotline if there were any issues. My father tells stories of many banks having AT&T constantly sending out techs to repair those broken telephone handsets on ATMs (which were AT&T products). He said the reason they constantly broke is that customers used them when there was an issue so of course the customers were always upset. Out of anger, many customers would slam the handsets back down breaking them. Finally the makers of the ATMs stopped making them to include the telephone handsets.

[@PlasticCant]

0:13 The card is upside down.

[@PlasticCant]

@@leeDs718 lol

[@jameskelso5311]

Despite the now-archaic technology, it seems that the people who invented it still knew some important things: a simplicity that was beautiful, and treated the customer with a product that was able to be understood, and tended to their needs.

[@TransitAndTeslas]

$20 Meals? What a world! :D

[@JASONHJEFFERSON]

@@TransitAndTeslas McDonald's cost more than that now

[@calvinnickel9995]

Minimum wage was $4/hr

[@4seeableTV]

Adjusted for inflation, that would be a $58 meal today.

[@DST.73]

@@calvinnickel9995 In Massachusetts it was $3.35.

[@nathanventura548]

That $20.00 CAD in 1985 is roughly equivalent to $51.22 CAD today.

[@LW7333LW]

Love these comments! So new talking about something old school. Refreshing!

[@mathgasm8484]

I think I used the manual credit card machine once or twice. I worked at a fuel station in high school and it was the emergency back up.

[@tommyfu9271]

my friend managaged a bike shop in Manhattan that still used them until the early 2000s. Most stores did have them as a backup for a while.

[@kidkique]

Food has gotten a lot more expensive but drugs still cost the same

[@alanjrobertson]

Haha spotted the Scottish accents on the original inventor and the Philips employee 😜

[@royjones8312]

Everything about this video is solid gold.

[@Hermes11332]

$20 in 1985 is almost $60 in today’s (2024) money

[@karimylahlou]

The restaurant owner being more eloquent than most people today really goes to show you how far down to tubes our education system has gone.

[@antobyn869]

What the hell is wrong with everyones eyesight in the 80's man?!

[@BryceLovesTech]

@@antobyn869 coke bottles

[@MusicmyZombie]

@@antobyn869 cocaine

[@ajspice]

Soft contacts and Lasic were stupid expensive.

[@IngoPagels]

@@ajspice no soft contact leneses in the 80s. fist inventet in the 90s. And SLIM plastic glases were expensive? Many used glas.

[@IngoPagels]

@@ajspice and NO lasic during the 80s! Invented during the 90s? Sure they could performe surgery but at high risk...

[@John-ct9zs]

Even the upper class restaurants today don't have people "dress up" as formally as people did in 1985. Yes the occasional suit and tie guy is still around during office break lunch hour, but not EVERYWHERE like in the 80s. Casual workforce attire has really taken off. Wearing jeans used to be casual, but now wearing jeans is thought of as more dressing up than wearing pajamas or shorts in public. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, so I do remember this era well, and now it's strange looking back.

[@daveb2280]

I remember when machines and inter-state banking started. It was impressive technology at the time.

[@TimewornUncle]

Got my first job when I was 16 years old about 5 years after this video was made. Credit cards were 75% instantaneous swipe by the time started in the world of credit.

[@118Columbus]

@4:27 “Fraud is almost impossible..” International thieves: “Hold my beer!”

[@Logan_Woods-zd2zi]

I worked at a Canada Trust branch in '84 and used to sign up new merchants for Mastercard. We had to order the little copper plate with the merchants name and merchant number and screw it on to the manual credit card imprinter. We were actually very modern at CT. We had email back then for use within the organization called EMC2. It was a Fischer product I believe.

[@daveb2280]

I also remember the time when you could deduct credit card interest on your federal tax return.

[@Anurania]

Restaurants should charge everyone when they place the order. It would eliminate dine and dash and it would be the perfect opportunity to eliminate tipping too.

[@monopolisticfox]

Can't wait for this new tech to catch on

[@wlukemeyer]

Dude that restaurant owner speaks in an incredibly unique way!

[@Pl4gue.D0ctor]

3:20 probably the easiest and fastest ATM machine I have seen in all my life.

[@GiulianoScocozza]

Same. I want it back.

[@whatsadog2445]

tbf ATMs can do a lot more than withdraw cash nowadays, but yeah they suck because people are dumb and need to be asked one thing at a time.

[@GiulianoScocozza]

@@whatsadog2445 but I just need them to withdraw cash. All other stuff I can do on my bank's app/website

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

Holy cow, how old is this video? How would they have had that sort of miniaturizing technology clear back then, especially affordable enough to just hand out in these everyday banking cards?

[@MoyoGaming]

I was born in the 2000s so the thought that these cards ever existed before they were widely used for automatic electronic payments is baffling to me.

[@tookitogo]

The history of the credit card is fascinating. Store-specific lines of credit came first. Then travel-focused charge cards (where you were expected to pay in full every month - which is still the case for many AmEx cards today). And then came revolving-credit cards like we mostly use today. Debit cards, as I understand it, evolved from ATM cards, and were entirely separate from the credit cards. Their transaction networks are still separate today. (Hence why some cards can be “run as credit or debit?” as you have probably seen or been asked.)

[@RK831]

1:31 receding hairline, mullet, coke-bottle glasses.

[@belizarius_997]

"This is that machine again - you won't believe what's going to happen". Frustrated waitress - "Why it's doing this to me?"... "Anyway"

[@thomas-wd3cn]

Thank goodness credit card fraud was stopped in 1985.

[@Whiskey_Wisdom]

2:28 - Poor Canadians. This is now a hate crime with jail time.

[@mackdregaming9170]

2:40 buddy tried to scam Apple bees 😂😂😂😂

[@Nova-m8d]

This was high-tech in 1990 for most of the US.

[@RogueGhost24]

Electronic CARd readers will never take off. How would you make a purchase during a power outage?

[@brenthazel]

Watching in 2024 hearing about fancy $20 lunches.. lol

[@zcorpalpha2462]

Just thinking same thing 😂

[@Crazy-Clown-In-Town]

@L-S-001$80 meal will be cheap in 2064.

[@qv81]

Imagine telling them we'll be able to pay with our pocket phone or a ring.

[@trainer9527]

holy forehead 1:41

[@p.w.5199]

lol

[@jonblablabla1014]

😂😂😂

[@chief-beef]

Heretofore? More like here two foreheads

[@Yodaddynyomama]

😂 i thought the same way

[@iantheman8332]

I saw that too wtf

[@NY_7]

$20 a person for lunch at an upscale restaurant! Ahhhh the good old days in the 80's. I was born in 84 and missed out on spending money back then.

[@Jeff-cn9up]

Due to inflation, that $20 lunch at an upscale restaurant in 1985 costs at least $50 in late 2024.

[@Pallethands]

@@Jeff-cn9up that lunch in 1985 has surely gone off by 2024

[@Professor_Utonium_]

finally a sensible comment

[@colt-_-jonson1743]

Where the heck are you eating at

[@NineteenEightyFive]

@@colt-_-jonson1743 huh? They're just saying what the price is adjusted for inflation

[@PauloHernandezXD]

$50? That's cute Try $60 to $80,... and that doesn't include drinks, lol

[@TonyMontana-mv9ez]

1:28 Beavis in real life? That head is not normal.

[@Rotund_Panda_Pants]

lmao…. No way 🤣

[@zachlafond2652]

I remember using my mom's Tyme card in the 1980s. Thought it was so cool.

[@kingech_B15]

Scammers had no chance back then.

[@sorsun46]

a card that keeps record of its own balance and a POS machine that trusts the card? i can only imagine the paradise it would've been to anyone able to crack its storage

[@arasf5236]

@@sorsun46 till this day you can do offline purchase, which means your CC balance is not checked with your issuer

[@gentuxable]

I call BS on this, just because the masses wouldn't understand the concepts. Surely they didn't want to explain that the storage chip just holds the signing keys and the processor checks the PIN and signs a withdrawal request which then the POS can send to the bank over a phone connection so the bank knows the card was really there and accept the signed request. Before that anyone that just had a copy and a signature could just withdraw, with the chip you can sign exactly one transaction and that's it.

[@Kw1161]

Thanks for the blast from the past…still waiting for my “Fraud-Proof “ card…😂! Have a great day!

[@jazzmusicfan]

Credit card company: Fraud is impossible! Kevin McAllister: We’ll see about that. 😂

[@cedarbrake4844]

@@jazzmusicfan Credit card? You got it.

[@DaBoaringDragon]

Wow, didn't realize chip and pin tech was that old. I always assumed it was developed in the 2000s.

[@James_Bowie]

1:31 ... nerd running a restaurant.

[@mutestingray]

Gottem

[@swordandscale]

John Maxwell was a huge dork, but probably very rich nowadays.

[@bhojjadamotabanda]

What I find interesting here is that in 1985, North America was kinda pioneering these payment systems, and now they probably have the most backward banking and payment systems in the world. And countries where majority of people didn't even have bank accounts till 2010 are now miles ahead in digital payments and almost skipped the whole credit card and debit card revolution. The next generation of the pioneers became stuck to the old ways.

[@yumishindou5705]

I mean...Japan still uses fax machines and bosses still typically pay their workers in cash 😊

[@Hester721]

When travelling through SE Asia, I actually find it easier to pay by tapping my credit card to the reader, than having to unlock my phone, open an app, click to scan. Credit card NFC always works. Phones can be out of battery, apps crash or require login, and mobile data may be needed. WeChat and Alipay are convenient, but I don't think they are easier than a credit card.

[@yumishindou5705]

Correction: they just started dabbling with direct deposit a few years ago

[@tookitogo]

The effect described is often referred to as the “second-mover advantage”, where latecomers get a better version of a thing (or some other advantage) by letting others be the guinea pigs, so to speak. In the case of North America, it didn’t help that it’s a huge market, so shifting that market once it’s gained speed is like steering a supertanker ship with a kitchen spatula.

[@Gotuber126]

there is actually no big difference in convenience. North American payment systems are useful enough that minor differences do not require replacement of the entire system.

[@bjdon99]

I remember soon after this banks started mailing people live cards they hadn’t applied for as a marketing effort. You could call and activate it and don’t need to apply. What could go wrong with that? 🧐

[@Terry-x2n8s]

And in 2024, my entire block was down for one Internet provider and I literally watched a queue of people in the local shop who had money in the bank, unable to buy simple essentials like milk or bread. Ain't progress great!

[@omerd5147]

@@Terry-x2n8s the predicted "Collapse" in the video game series "Deus Ex" is a real incident that will happen in the future and it's a much bigger "version" of the problem that you have described.

[@joewoodchuck3824]

It's still good to keep some cash around.

[@tommyfu9271]

cash is king

[@wesfudge]

Its why I keep cash in my wallet. Its gotten me out of so many jams when other were standing there like idiots.

[@peter5.056]

It's very funny, they say fraud will be impossible, while simultaneously witnessing fraud.

[@bender9000]

that wasn't fraud. that was a mistake. Fraud requires purposeful deception.

[@peter5.056]

@@bender9000 It could have been deception, we'll never really know;) I don't buy his story for a second, lol.

[@alexl1251]

A man with the name Sheryl was unheard of in the 1980s

[@Tarapatil2023]

lol

[@r3allyr3agan]

So we had chip cards in the 80s but we didnt get them until the 2010s??

[@PlayingwithPawz]

@@r3allyr3agan 99% of things were thought of and implemented already just never gained popularity.

[@HunterB738]

It always takes 20-30 years for things to trickle down to the general public.

[@TransitAndTeslas]

At least we have tap now in the US lol.

[@TransitAndTeslas]

Wait til you see how long it took this new fangled "internet" thing to take off. And then after that this whole "watching videos on your computer" thing too.

[@atomstarfireproductions8695]

Back then they were more complex and expensive to produce, so they never gained major presence until about 15 years ago. Nowadays, the chip cards can be produced for pennies each.

[@44Bigs]

“Electronic wizardry catches up with the modern deadbeat” wow this guy doesn’t mince words, does he

[@NYG5]

we were an honest people then and allowed to call a spade a spade

[@Edgeofdavid]

20$ now gets you McDonald’s lol.

[@Jen-jo5qu]

I literally remember in the 80's when sales clerks in clothing stores, for example, called credit card companies on the telephone to get approval on customer purchases. What an ancient era that seems like now! 😂

[@riggs20]

3:13 - “The object is to get tellers off the payroll.” What a sad but true statement. Oh, and customer service jobs? Those will all be in India now where workers are paid $1.50 an hour.

[@kxmode]

If there’s one thing that sparks innovation, it’s greed.

[@zjones9876]

I like how they just assume anytime a charge is not approve it means the person is a deadbeat when it can happen for any number of reasons.

[@starguard4122]

I can still remember these machines

[@frothe42]

Now we have skimmers that read the card and drain the account. Even with embedded chips fraud is possible. We here in the US could have had chipped cards close to forty years ago, but banks were opposed to them until forced by regulators, and even then fraud is problematic.

[@chrisstromberg6527]

It's business 101 and it comes down to cost, it's always cost. You run a cost benefit analysis, is it more costly to install chip readers vs paying off fraud or vice versa. Think of it this way, you could go out and spend $4000 or $8000 more on bullet proof glass for your car, would you be safer driving, absolutely, but is your risk so high of being shot that it would be worth spending that much money? Credit card companies make money, they make billions of dollars each year, if the impact of fraud is not great enough, they don't move on adapting this type of technology.

[@rick_terscale1111]

Skimmers only work when you insert or swipe a card. But who does that in this day and age. We've been tap n go for well over a decade now.