In message , at 17:49:25 on Sun, 26 Feb
2012, John Levine remarked:
In places with chip+pin it's much more common to arrange payments so
they can be done in one transaction. At restaurants, for example,
they typically hand you the card terminal so you can stick your card
in, enter a tip if you want, then your pin, then it says yes or no and
you take your card out.

Exactly. I don't know how a restaurant could do an earlier estimated
reservation of funds, when the only time you give the server your card
is either at the till on the way out, or at the table when he brings the
wireless terminal to you.
--
Roland Perry