Michael There are some peculiarities to report from the Canadian gastronomy scene. Apparently, when the guest wants to pay his bill, the server no longer takes the guest's credit card and disappears to authorize the payment behind the scenes, as is customary in the USA (Rundbrief 08/2000). Insteat, the guest gets up from their table and approaches the counter on foot to pay. In fine establishments, the server sometimes brings what I call a 'tip machine' to the table, where the guest swipes their card and enters the tip amount in a dialogue that requires pressing an absurd number of buttons. The small device then noisily prints out a receipt, which the guest signs with a pen. Fortunately, I have a high school diploma and only needed about two minutes to give a tip, with a brief interruption when the server had to reset the machine because I pressed the wrong button.
The American credit card industry has been resisting the introduction of chip cards for years in order to delay the costly upgrade of card readers. In the USA, people still pay with magnetic stripe cards, but Canada seems to prefer the security aspects of chip cards and looks incredulously at the outdated cards of American tourists.
At gas stations, Canadians do not accept American credit cards at the pumps. I was informed twice over the loudspeaker that with "Foreign Credit Cards," you need to go inside the cashier's booth to pre-pay an amount with a US credit card. If you fill up less, the gas station will only charge you for the fuel you actually pumped, not the amount previously authorized by signature on the receipt.