Post #4166573

Has anyone ever researched why check (cheque) (bill) splitting at restaurants is so weird in the USA compared to everywhere else with digitised payments? In the USA my experience has been that any non-trivial check splitting is refused by the server. Split two ways evenly, sure. Maybe as high as 4 ways. But itemised? Refused. 8-way split? Refused. Meanwhile in Europe and the UK I have never had an issue with arbitrary splits. The server has a payment device that can recalculate the bill arbitrarily. What is the source of this difference? (I understand why this would be refused without a computer to help. A paper check which forces the server to manually recalculate is a burden, but in such a place I expect to pay by cash anyway so my party can do the splitting.)