Two years ago I had dinner in a sushi restaurant: the server takes my credit card on a plastic tray, brings me my receipt — to which I add gratuity — then my card and final receipt are left for me on the tray. The following afternoon, I get a call from my credit card company asking me about several charges to online sites, iTunes, Amazon, etc. They were comparing my purchases to my purchasing history and, seeing discrepancies, called for verification. Together we determined the legitimate charges I had made ending at the sushi house and the card company I assume wrote off the false charges.

I have traveled in Europe for a decade and just returned from Canada, where the servers bring a wireless credit card reader and printer to your table, the reader is given to the patron who places the card in the reader where the charge is processed in plain view, the tip percentage or amount is added and the server never touches the card. Europe has had this technology for at least 10 years.

Come on, U.S., get with it. Everyone has to combat fraud, and that means you restaurants, bars and anywhere else my credit cards are taken out of sight.The U.S. has every cell phone option known to man. How about keeping up with ancient technology options in other customer service areas?

Tom Ridge

Layton