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October 9th, 2009
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Credit Card Receipt Preferences

Nate Weiner - Posted in Blog, ,

receiptsAs I watch the receipt start printing, I always have the same thought in the checkout lane: “Why?”

That piece of paper the clerk is about to hand me is going to get shoved into my pocket and is going to end up god knows where.  My desk, in my mail stack, in the lint trap, or discovered next winter when I pull my jacket from the closet again.  No matter it’s destination, it will have lived a fruitless life,  serving no purpose but to clutter my life.

A growing number of stores are beginning to ask the question: “Would you like your receipt?”  But the overwhelming majority still happily prints you this waste of paper.

Though these point of sale encounters vary, there is generally one common element: a place to run your credit card.

I rarely carry cash with me anymore, paying with a credit card is far more convenient.  And generally I am only using one card for all of these different stores.  What I’d like to see is either on the store side or ideally at the credit card level, a way to set your preferences for receipts and even bags.

What if the system knew when I swiped my card that I did not want a receipt?  I would not have to wait for it to print and I could be on my way with one less thing to throw away.

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Comments (4)


  1. Apparently Apple has started emailing receipts, and Redbox does this as there is no other way to get one. Especially when we use store cards at supermarkets and drug stores where they already have our email address and know everything else about us, why not this.

    You can tie your Staples Rewards card number to a credit card - why not go one extra step and email you the receipt?

    The why is probably consumer laws around pricing, and the lack of desire for stores to implement such technology.

    mp/m

    October 9th, 2009 Mike Maddaloni - @thehotiron

  2. Been wondering if someone has an app that will scan my grocery receipts into a spreadsheet so I can figure out which store really has the best prices consistently. And also to make out a list of where hard-to-find items are available. For example, BallPark Brand fat-free hot dogs @ Safeway on Mill Plain.
    This is a project you might consider… if there is a market (pun intended) for it.

    Anyway, back to your receipt situation. Wal-Mart (and others) put a bar code on your receipt which is scanned when returning an item. That bar code accesses the total order. How about just printing a bar code instead of the receipt? Access to the info by the consumer might be a bit tricky but is a step in the process.

    December 25th, 2009 Shirley

  3. Ah, but sometimes you want a receipt and sometimes you don’t. For example, you may want a receipt for expense reporting, or for tax purposes. A global preference would not do in this case. The solution would have to be more refined.

    January 3rd, 2010 BitMask

  4. And as soon as I hit ’submit’ I realized that a monthly banking statement might do for these purposes. This begs the question of whether the receipts are completely redundant to a banking statement. Perhaps….

    January 3rd, 2010 BitMask

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