I won't be surprised. In Australia, no public transport system accepts the national payment system (EFTPOS) and instead it is either a public transport specific card or one of the 3 American rails. In NSW, there was promise of a second phase to support EFTPOS but that is hasn't happened yet.
From the Wikipedia article it sounds like these typically require PIN entry which is something that would make them less suitable to public transport applications. Normal credit cards and mobile wallets all have modes of operation that directly target the public transit use case and if EFTPOS does not then it may be excluded on that basis without imperialistic US interference.
Putting your card in, say, Apple Pay is equivalent. How do you think Apple Pay works? It’s tap-to-pay, equivalent to your credit card. That’s why you can use Apple Pay wherever you use tap-to-pay on your card. That’s why Apple Pay doesn’t work at Walmart and merchants need to do no work to support Apple Pay.
In the US you really have no options. It’s card, or card, or maybe even card. There’s Zelle, which is irreversible. PayPal and friends, which charge a fee, so no. And crypto, which is used for drugs.
In india, nobody cares about Apple Pay. We care about UPI. Every nook and corner, every person old or young, every chai wala, every kirana shop uses it. The constraints that plague the US is irrelevant for us.
Salesman can scream the amount, the customer can zoom and scan without meddling through the crowd and make the payment from a distance while the loudspeaker announces the payment.
Imagine using cards there, people will riot :)
Shops in general are wary of cards. Busy shops simply won't tolerate cards as they require someone to enter the figure.
Busy shops will shudder. Goto banglore, visit a busy street chai shop, ask him to accept cards, he will shudder.
Besides the whole Tap to Pay itself is problematic as it puts the customer at the mercy of the receiver and his device. UPI ensures customer controls how much money is being transferred. More secure. Less hassle. No physical cards. More modern
In 2026 "backward" is a dysphemism for "reliable".
Not sure what's making you shudder about carrying a payment instrument that doesn't need its batteries charged, doesn't need to run firmware or an OS, doesn't need a network connection independent of the payment terminal, and isn't simultaneously a surveillance device, but whatever floats your boat, I guess.
Sure. Just as the people walking away from the cliff edge are literally going "backwards" in relation to the folks whose trajectory will take them off the cliff.
You can make whatever comparison you want in terms of short-term convenience, but none of it addresses the inherent risk and diminished reliability of the solutions you're arguing for.
> If you insist on defending a relic from a bygone age, then by all means do it.
I'm not "defending a relic from a bygone age", but rather defending what actually works in the present-day status quo against idealized notions advancing a clearly inferior and more dangerous solution for the sake of pure novelty.
Clearly you have not been to India. I advise you visit a busy street chai shop in Banglore and see UPI in action.
If you still have the audacity to claim that cards, an inherently inferior payment method, as forward, then I have nothing else at my disposal.
Physically a hassle, technically inferior, putting customer at the mercy of the merchant device, unusable at busy merchants, etc... and the list goes on.
The American Empire is alive and well.