@Kanye-Qwest Fair enough. Tipping has changed a lot since back in the day. I wasn't giving you advice per se. Fact is that if any one wants to support (over 20%)the tip-based service industry your best options are still to tip cash or 20%+cash extra.
The card payment industry can get pretty complex in terms of how money shuffles around.
Example: All transactions on credit cards are ultimately ranked by risk. The higher the risk, the more the credit card company charges the merchant to process the transaction. This is why merchants and card issuers push for use of in-person transactions with verified ID and chip readers. MOTO (mail order/telephone order) transactions are higher risk since the merchant can't see the person making the purchase, so those typically cost more. This is why they want to verify address, zip, cvv code, etc. Each one of those verified lowers the % of the transaction the merchant has to pay to run the card.
MOTO is the main source of fraudulent/ID theft-based transactions.
Credit card with tip is considered somewhat risky because typically the card is run and pre-authorized for a 20% tip, but then later someone has to go and enter the tips data-entry style. If it's risky enough, the server might not actually get the tip until it clears the bank. If your card issuer refuses the transaction, they might not get the tip at all.
9/10 times everything works out fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if sometimes those reddit threads where someone posts a pic of someone giving them a $1000 tip on Christmas Eve end in a bunch of bank calls, a hold on the transaction, etc.
Restaurants and servers don't mention this, but behind the scenes, caaaaaash.