Splitting the check can cause headaches. Here’s a neat idea for a device that makes it simple. [via K]
Ever found yourself in a situation where you want to split the restaurant bill with your buddies, and all want pay by Credit Card. Like you want to get the calculations down to the last penny, or sip of Apple juice? Fret Not, if the Piece of Cake ever comes into existence, it’ll give going Dutch with friends a whole new meaning. By using this device each one can pay for just what they ate using their CC. The screen displays the total items consumed and you select your share to be automatically calculated.
‘Till then, another way out: credit card roulette.
When the bill comes, instead of dividing it up everyone drops their credit card into a folded up napkin. The cards are mixed and someone pulls one out at random. The unlucky person whose card is drawn pays for the entire meal; everyone else gets off scot free.
Bad news for one person, good news for the rest.
Kevin B
on 30 Nov 09An easier way to solve this problem: pay with cash.
I always despise the asshole who’s like “hurrr-durr I have to use a card”
Lubo
on 30 Nov 09Cash? What’s cash? LOL. All I know is that I use this small rectangular piece of plastic with a stripe on one wide and numbers on the other. It’s all about portability and convenience.
But I agree, bring enough small bills and pay with that…less hassle.
Mike
on 30 Nov 09If the waiter/tress can’t split the bill itself, have one person pay and split the bill afterwards using billmonk.
Dave Mermelstein
on 30 Nov 09If you ask, most good pos systems will have a way of breaking the check up.
Ragnar Freyr
on 30 Nov 09In Iceland the restaurants just do the splitting for you. In other words you just pay for what you eat. No need for fancy gadgets that are destined to end in a landfill. :)
Ryan J Naylor
on 30 Nov 09Plan ahead.
Mike
on 30 Nov 09Uh – in Canada, most debit/cc machines can split it for you.
sfmitch
on 30 Nov 09I haven’t played Credit Card roulette in years.
Last time was at a Sushi restaurant with about 8 people. Bill was $200 or $300. HUGE rush while the waitress was picking a single credit card out of a bag. Great meal, huge rush and I didn’t have to pay anything.
Paul Hart
on 30 Nov 09Alternative version of Credit Card Roulette:
Each person at the table has a choice. They can put their card in, or they can “buy out” their participation for their simplified fraction of the bill (no fancy calculations, just 1/people) or some slightly larger amount to offset their reduced risk.
The “losers”, those whose cards weren’t picked, split the cash from the non-players. The “winner” is as screwed as before.
Only participated in this kind of thing once. I chose the buy-out, the “losers” grouped together and bought a bottle of Dom Perignon with the proceeds and shared with the table :)
Cade Roux
on 30 Nov 09We always just used buxfer to keep track of where everyone was on the IOU front.
Michael Wales
on 30 Nov 09Most of your chain restaurants and any well established local restaurant can assign items to a specific seat position within their POS system. When it comes time to print the check, they can then be split up by seats or assigning multiple seats to a bill.
If that fails, a calculator or some good old common sense/rounding, usually works.
Anthony
on 30 Nov 09I’ve been saying there should be a device like this at every restaurant for years, since I routinely eat out with 6-12 people, some of which are couple and some which are not. I think it would save waitstaff so much time it would be worth it any expense.
EH
on 30 Nov 09My rule is that if the people at the table are all adults, the bill gets split evenly.
zephyr
on 30 Nov 09But without bistromath, what will power our space ships???
Josh Santangelo
on 30 Nov 09If you all have iPhones, there’s a Paypal app for that.
Or, if you happen to be dining at a restaurant with a multitouch table, there are other clever options: http://endquote.com/projects/surface/restaurant/
Josh Santangelo
on 30 Nov 09Also don’t forget the credit card roulette iPhone app.
Matt Lackey
on 30 Nov 09When ever there are more than a few people, payment always ends up $10 – 20bucks short. This would solve that. Also, you don’t have to wait so long for your next beer since your waitress will no longer be splitting a check for 23 ways.
Mikey Donuts
on 30 Nov 09CC Roullette is correctly played by placing all cards in a hat and having the server draw them out one at a time. Last card standing is the ‘loser’. It makes for much more drama when there’s only 2 or 3 cards left.
Having said all that, I always carry cash if I know I’m going to be sharing a table with a group. Cash is king for a reason.
Dan Boland
on 30 Nov 09Not every problem needs a technological solution.
Elliot Harmon
on 30 Nov 09Interesting factoid: people who “don’t want to bother” tallying up everyone’s orders and would rather split a bill up evenly drink lots of expensive alcohol.
Mark
on 30 Nov 09I agree with Dan, it’s cool and all, but it comes off being a solution in search of a problem.
Kyle
on 01 Dec 09I find it funny that this was invented in Korea, which is a country where people rarely go Dutch. Typically, the host or the elder pays.
In that light, it definitely comes off as a solution in search of a problem.
Michael Troy
on 01 Dec 09I like it.
Some UX questions though. - How do you assign what you order? - How does the restaurant know you haven’t cheated them? - Does it interact with a “mothership”?
rabidgremlin
on 01 Dec 09If you are the sucker stuck with paying the bill and then trying to get everyone to pay you back then I’ve been working on an app to you might like: http://split-the-bill.com/
:)
rabidgremlin
on 01 Dec 09My bad (should have previewed): http://split-the-bill.com/
DRoss
on 01 Dec 09Credit card roulette works best when the last person drawn is the one who pays. Makes it a more exciting game.
Jorn Mineur (Dutch)
on 01 Dec 09If friends go Dutch, they are not real friends. Among friends, you fuss over whose treat it is.
Roger Smith
on 01 Dec 09I hate being with a a group where people fuss over individual items. It’s so stingy. Just enjoy the company and stop grumbling when it’s time to pay.
Charlie Park
on 01 Dec 09What Elliot said. Inevitably, people who “don’t want to bother” with accounting for what they consumed also generally “don’t want to bother” with ordering a reasonable (read: not excessive) amount of food / alcohol.
Paul Stadig
on 02 Dec 09$12 for Tomato Soup?
Anonymous Coward
on 03 Dec 09How did they invent a machine to solve UNKNOWABLE DARK MAGICK?
This discussion is closed.