Comment Re:Good Riddance (Score 1) 796
Here in Ireland (and I think most other European countries - certain UK and Germany in my experience) you have to wait till the transaction is completed, then insert the card, wait for a moment, enter your pin, press OK, wait again (even a moment before the receipts print) and then take your card and take the receipts.
If you are somewhere without broadband (countryside) you potentially have to wait for the dial-up modem to connect.
Every so often some bank's system goes down and you end up with people unable to pay by card for half a day or so.
Cash is fairly quick for most people as either they can make change fast, or they don't bother and just handover notes (check-out operators are fast at making change). I find most of my change is used paying for small-ticket items and even though I don't hoard change and prefer to use it, I can mostly just pay with notes of €10, €20, €50 for items above €5 and still get my loose change used up paying for coffee or whatnot. If I have too much loose change, I use it for a larger amount sometime when there is no queue.
I prefer card just for when I have little cash on me or would end up low on cash in my wallet and it's inconvenient to go to the ATM. Even abroad this is the case, as it costs me nothing to use my cash card in a UK or a Eurozone ATM and it can be inconvenient not to have cash on hand for small items.