Pay the Taxi Driver

Please ask a friend to help you ,go shopping with your friend and ask them to show you how to use it. Clearly you are unfamiliar with using your card. Perhaps your best plan is to pay with cash.

If you use your card for a taxi or if you do go shopping, make sure you can remember your pin because, as others have said, sometimes you do have to insert the card into the machine and use the pin as there are random checks by the card companies.
We use the pin so seldom now it's easy to forget it.

Otherwise, if you're concerned, make sure you carry enough cash with you just in case.

If you can find your PIN number that would be useful. Sometimes if the card hasn’t been used for a long time the bank card is blocked until the pin goes in. Anyway have enough money to pay and you don’t have to worry.

I have every sympathy with those who aren't familiar with technology. I worked all my life with technology so am not scared of it and thought I was pretty well up with it, but it changes so often that nowadays I am getting behind. My DH has done our grocery shopping for some years, so it was only fairly recently that I needed to pay for something in a shop using "chip and pin". I told the cashier that I'd never done it before and she kindly showed me how to do it. Of course next time I had to do it I used a different card and the symbol was in a different place! But now I have the confidence to do it again.

I'm very active in our local u3a and believe me, many of the members don't have credit cards, don't use online banking, don't have smartphones and have never bought goods online.

I've yet to try using apps on my phone, though. Next job!

Caleo, as someone here has already suggested, why not get your sons to start up an Uber account for you? They are clean and normally dont take too long.

We use taxi to airport and return. Over £100 so can't tap. Have to insert pin

Oh, for goodness sake use a contactless what's the problem.

mabon2

Oh, for goodness sake use a contactless what's the problem.

Obviously the OP does not understand contactless or she would not have asked not everyone is completely confident with technology. I even had to explain contactless to my DH who had a high powered computer based job

JennyCee

Caleo, as someone here has already suggested, why not get your sons to start up an Uber account for you? They are clean and normally dont take too long.

I don't even know what an Uber is, but thanks. Really I have no need to go out and my enquiry was because I like to know what I should do if and when.

rosie1959

mabon2

Oh, for goodness sake use a contactless what's the problem.

Obviously the OP does not understand contactless or she would not have asked not everyone is completely confident with technology. I even had to explain contactless to my DH who had a high powered computer based job

Thanks for sticking up for me! I make no excuse for my ignorance and have always found people who are happy to inform me.

Just check the amount before you tap, Caleo!

Check prices Uber and some others have surge pricing so the price changes depending on demand and time. I prefer to support local companies.
No extra charge for in car card readers (goes to the drivers own account usually not the company so it’s the same as a cash payment in that respect)but the driver may try to ask for more if he prefers you to pay in cash, but the price is what is displayed on the screen that’s what you have to pay unless you wish to pay more to the driver and he can take that with the card reader also but only the agreed price not a made up one. Pay what’s on the screen. Check what is being charged on the reader before you present your card and say something if it is not the price on the screen as the driver may have made a mistake inputting the amount as it’s not automated.

By screen I mean taximeter usually displayed on a mobile device or meter and displays along with your trip’s pickup and drop off details during the trip.

mabon2

Oh, for goodness sake use a contactless what's the problem.

Rude and unthinking yet again.

It really does not help the OP.

My dh is still a cabbie and he prefers that he’s paid in cash unless it’s a regular account job .
A few of the other cabbies have card readers where you tap and go . But the charges the cabbies pay for using them are extortionate.
Most fares are usually cash only .

Aldom

mabon2

Oh, for goodness sake use a contactless what's the problem.

Rude and unthinking yet again.

It really does not help the OP.

To be fair to mabon contactless card payment has been generally available in the UK for over 10 years.
During the pandemic, several banks raised their contactless payment limits.In the United Kingdom, the limit was increased from £30 to £45 in March 2020.
Contactless payments were recommended as a safer payment method compared to Chip and PIN card payments and cash transactions.
It was later raised to £100.
So I can see why she might be surprised that OP has had no experience of it.

I hate using taxis mainly because you never know nowadays where I live if you will get a local as all the taxis have merged into something called Nearby. If you phone you can find that you’ve been allocated someone who has come from a distance ,say an airport, and doesn’t know the locality,then you have to explain how to get where you are going.

If you give them your postcode they all have satnav.

I would phone taxi company and ask what they take. Ours do all including online prior to journey

Caleo
If this request is personal just ignore me 😊
But I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering how this technology passed you by.
I think you mentioned that you didn’t go shopping. Is it as simple as that?

I think you do need to use the PIN the first time the card is used?

I suggest that Mabon reads my post earlier and learns something that might prevent her/him from being so critical.

As for the suggestions about Uber, never ever seen one in my country town or any nearby. If you need a taxi here you need to book it well in advance from a private local firm. There are no taxi ranks at local stations waiting for three passengers to alight, none of whom want a taxi.

In Bristol and Sheffield, where my two DDs live, Ubers are everywhere.

Also, a bit of advice to the OP - use your new-found skill of paying by card cos the world is getting to be more and more automated, and in a very short time cards will be "old hat" and something else will become the norm.

If you are simply looking at local use, why not open an account with a mini cab firm. We have an excellent one locally with all lady drivers which some people find reassuring.

RosieandherMaw

If you give them your postcode they all have satnav.

wait for the next innocent question..

"What's satnav? "

Rosieandhermaw it's not the surprise element of Mabon's comment that bothers me it's the rude way in which she addresses the OP. Not for the first time I might add.