Why are we still touching customer cards?

I was always amazed when I travelled to the USA, that no one touched your credit card. It was almost like they were afraid to touch it. When I moved to London for a short while it was more of the same, as a customer I had to insert my card in the terminals and enter my PIN on my own.

Fast forward to 2021 and in the deep grasp of a global pandemic, these practices should be even more prevalent, but for some reason we here in Barbados still are obsessed with handling customer cards. An otherwise contactless interaction is ruined at the end when people handle your credit/debit card, and in some cases your ID card as well. And we don't normally sanitize the cards, or terminals so where does that leave us?

Photo by energepic.com from Pexels

Most Financial Institutions are now issuing dual interface (Contactless) enabled cards which reduces the need for touch even further but we still can't break the tradition.

Is it seen as good customer service to tap the customer's card to reduce the work they have to do?

I've now been in a number of uncomfortable stand offs when I refuse to hand over my card and we stand in a stalemate waiting to see who breaks first.

Who should lead this education drive? The acquiring banks issuing terminals to merchants? The issuing banks issuing the cards (especially contactless)? Or is it just not that big a consideration?