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No Cash? Digital Tip Jar Allows You To Tip With Your Credit, Debit Card

By Tim Jimenez

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- In a growing "cashless economy," technology is changing the way some of us are tipping, even for that morning cup of coffee.

No cash, usually not a problem these days.

"It's becoming more of a credit card kind of world," says Matt from Chestnut Hill.

He is a part-time bar back and says he understands how critical tips are for some worker's income.

And so a New York-based company called DipJar is looking to change tipping. Instead of putting cash in a DipJar, you swipe your card and you're charged a buck. Founded by Ryder and Judd Kessler, Judd is a Penn professor. They're expanding in the Big Apple, and Ryder says he hopes Philly is in its future. But in the meantime, similar technology is already used here.

"It is an option that's available to us," says Holly Neckermann with Joe Coffee in Rittenhouse.

They turn iPads into cash registers with an app called Square Stand.

"You can give your signature to authorize. It asks if you want to tip and you can set it as either a percentage or a dollar amount - $1, $2, or $3 - and also a button that says 'other amount.' You can also set it to not do the tip option," says Neckermann.

A huge help for their employees, she says.

"If we did not have that then we would not have half of the tips we do, that's a good estimate. They would be cut in half - or less," says Neckermann.

You can still tip the old-fashioned way and she says those cash jars aren't going anywhere, anytime soon.

As for security concerns with this growing technology, Ryder says they're working with credit card experts to protect consumers.

"We've designed the units to be as secure as possible: they don't store card information, and data is encrypted on swipe and securely passed to the servers. We also flag any suspicious activity," says Ryder.

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