Update: Credit Cards in NYC Taxis

By Maria Bruno-Britz, Bank Systems & Technology

I knew it wouldn't take long.

A few weeks ago, I posted about an initiative by New York City and Visa to install credit card readers with contactless capabilities in all NYC cabs. Knowing how averse cabbies tend to be toward their fares paying by card, I was a little skeptical as to the success of this plan.Recently, I heard on the radio that the cabbies were prepared to strike because of a proposal to install television monitors with global positioning systems (GPS) in taxies. I read more about it on the site of a local newspaper. The monitor will also contain a card reading device. Although the biggest fuss the drivers made was about the perceived invasion of privacy from the GPS devices, they also remarked that they didn't want credit card readers either because, according to the radio station, the fees would be too much.

Whether this GPS plan is tied at all to the one involving Visa, I've yet to find out. Still, this just goes one step further to illustrate the uphill battle around electronic payments acceptance in certain venues.

Then again, the City could simply force the cabbies to install the machines.