[Tagging] Rehabilitate payment:cards=yes?

[Matija Nalis]

On Sat, 2 Apr 2022 13:35:51 +0200 (CEST), Mateusz Konieczny via Tagging <tagging at openstreetmap.org> wrote:
> In which regions/countries one may encounter situation of being able to pay with
> debit card and unable to pay with credit card? Or reverse?

I have few examples - all dating few years before COVID19 strike, though, 
so situations might have changed by now (I personally have since given up 
and got myself credit card which I don't want and use as a prepaid card only,
rather then continue being stressed that way):

- Hotel in Germany refusing to admit me unless I could produce credit card. 
  (neither cash nor debit card was acceptable to them. Not that I wanted to stay at that hotel
  anyway or needed to pay for it at all - or I would've informed myself in advance; but I was forced 
  there due to airline error who was paying for it. They still insisted on credit card in my name
  in order to admit me)
- Several rent-a-cars in Canada refusing to rent a car unless credit card in 
  drivers name was produced. They didn't want to accept debit card in drivers name, 
  nor credit card in passenger name (who was present and willing), nor cash deposit;
  citing goverment regulations.
- shops in various countries having a minimum spend limit to be able to use 
  credit card (or accepting it at all?). They didn't seem to have a problem with 
  me paying with debit card (or cash) for same amounts, though.

> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:payment claims that one should use
> payment:debit_cards=yes + payment:credit_cards=yes instead of
> payment:cards=yes
>
> Is there a valid reason for that?

You mean, beside being more precise and removing doubts? 

Sure, there are even more precise values for various cards, but if debit cards are accepted, it is all but certain that
"VISA debit card" will be accepted. Same with credit cards, if accepted, I'd be hugely surprised if they refused for
example "Mastercard credit card".)
But as shown above, if they only accept credit cards I'm busted if I only have popular "VISA debit card".

> I propose to start treating payment:cards=yes as acceptable (maybe only
> in regions where there is no real difference between them as far as 
> acceptance in shops is concerned).

Well, IMO it is as acceptable as marking a node as "shop=yes": which is "not really, unless you really must"
(and even then, preferably only for a short period of time until user can populate it more correctly).

Do note that "payment:cards=yes" is defined as "Payment by card (of any type)". So it (in my opinion) includes
*not only* credit and debit cards, but also special prepaid/gift cards valid only for that shop/cinema/fuel station/whatever. 
So some facility can conceiveably accept only their own card or cash, and be (correctly) marked with 
"payment:cash=yes" + "payment:cards=yes", yet the visitor (even one having both debit and credit cards) would be misled.

Thus "payment:cards=yes" seems to me to be functional equivalent of "payment:debit_cards=maybe" +
"payment:credit_cards=maybe" (which is again the same as having those values undefined; e.g. having
no payment:* tag mapped at all)


TL;DR: it *may* (or may not) be better than nothing, but it can be quite *misleading*, and is a *huge* missed opportunity 
that it wasn't more precisly mapped. (e.g. imaging if you'd hopefully went to shop wanting to buy something to eat, 
and located only nearby "shop=yes", and it happened to be florist or hardware store instead)

So I'd personally prefer it if using "payment:cards=yes" was not encouraged; and potential mappers time not wasted with
with mostly-worthless and potentialy misleading yes/no question "Can you pay here by some card (of *ANY* type)?"

Instead please offer a four-answer question like "What type of card is accepted here?" with answers "both debit and credit
cards", "credit cards only", "debit cards only", "neither credit nor debit cards"; and mark payment:debit_cards + 
payment:credit_cards accordingly.

-- 
Opinions above are GNU-copylefted.