isn’t it like a debit card with extra steps? at a store I mean

  • Cheques were unpopular and the US was overly reliant on credit cards.

    US debit card usage in 2010 was at least 15 years behind Canada. We had tap and chip cards before you guys even accepted debit cards. E.g. San Francisco’s and Seattle’s transit systems didn’t even accept them at all until 2017. Vancouver accepted them some 20 years earlier.