Cash Payments

 For some reason I had a hard time coming up with a topic for this week’s post. I figured if I just started typing, something would come to me eventually – and it finally did (I’ll spare you the rambling that got me to the final topic). Our assignments have focused on the restaurant chain of Harry and Mae’s and the breach they experienced in their payment processing system. Even though this is a fictional company, the situation could very well be real. I got to thinking about the protection of my information whenever I pay after eating in a restaurant. I generally tend to fall on the side of paranoid, which means I never pay with my debit card when the waitstaff takes the card from the table to go pay at a terminal. I just use my credit card or pay in cash in the situations because I refuse to let someone walk away with access to my checking account. However, I willingly handover my debit card whenever I’m paying at the register. Because of our Harry and Mae’s case study, I’m starting to rethink this habit. Granted, the person behind the counter that I’m handing my card to isn’t going to have time to steal my information while I’m watching them, but I really don’t know what their payment processing system is like or how well protected my information is. Going forward I think I’m going to start using my credit card or cash in these instances as well. It’s not that I really want my credit card information taken, but with the ever increasing number of breaches lately, I expect it is likely at some point. No loss of information is pleasant to deal with, but I really don’t want  my checking account compromised along with everything else. This happened to a friend of mine, and it was months before she got everything straightened out. I just don’t have the patience to deal with that kind of a mess.