It is nothing new that people go dinner and split the bill on multiple credit cards. However, it takes much more time for the cashier to process the separate payments than it used to do, especially after the retail industry shifting to use chip card reader. In the past, it took a few second for cashier to swipe a card and print out the receipt. To combat fraudulent transactions and get rid of the liability of payment paid by a counterfeit credit card, many retailers have upgrade their equipment with stronger security chip reader, replacing the easy-to-forge magnetic stripe. Thus, the second difference of waiting time can be enormous for booming restaurants and retail stores.
As a quicker alternative, mobile payments have pouring into the market. A test shows that it takes about 9 seconds from inserting a chip card to printing a receipt, while it takes about 4 seconds for mobile wallets. But the actual transaction time behind is the same for chip card as mobile payment, which can be partly explained by, most chip reader terminals have an extra screen procedure telling you the payment is approved and you can remove the card.
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