Chip and signature cards

[Dash man]

I should check out Target, then! I haven't been inside our Target lately, but maybe ours has a chip reading machine too. Given their stolen CC information scandal, I think that would be pretty cool.



Oh.... my understanding is that my debit card is strictly chip and pin. Oh well.

I don't use debit cards, so that may use a pin.


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[W2R]

I don't use debit cards, so that may use a pin.

My understanding (which may be incorrect!) is that both debit and credit cards are slowly going in that direction. But, my only CC is still back in the Dark Ages.

 

[braumeister]

My local grocery store has the chip reading machine - but it's still being used in swipe mode.

A great many stores around here have the new machines where you can either swipe it through the side slot or insert it in the chip reader at the bottom.

Some (e.g., Home Depot) have them working properly, so if you try to use a card the wrong way the machine will prompt you to do it correctly.

Others (the great majority) have the machines in place but only the swipe feature works. When I've asked why they can't use the chip reading slot, I've been told that their card processor hasn't worked out the mechanics of it yet.

So the transition is going to take far longer than we expected.

 

[Theseus]

My understanding (which may be incorrect!) is that both debit and credit cards are slowly going in that direction. But, my only CC is still back in the Dark Ages.

The CCs we use have updated to the C&P tech months ago. It was interesting reading, months ago also, about how the onus was being placed on vendors to install and adopt the hardware for this technology or bear the brunt of illicit charges made using the old methods. Given the slow pace of implementation of the C&P hardware (even in locations that already have installed the new hardware) and methods I wonder if there is some pushback from the vendors.

 

[jetpack]

After a few failures trying to use the chip cards, they seem to be working better lately.

It is slower than the swipe method. I do wish more places would enable the wireless NFC apple pay. That is so much faster for me.

 

[Meadbh]

Target's chip reading machines still require a signature. Until they implement the requirement to use a PIN, the chip is useless.

FWIW, I visited a Target in PA in October and their machine read my Canadian Chip & Pin card, PIN but no signature required. The clerk said the technology had just been installed.

 

[Alan]

After a few failures trying to use the chip cards, they seem to be working better lately.

It is slower than the swipe method. I do wish more places would enable the wireless NFC apple pay. That is so much faster for me.

I was listening to a BBC podcast this morning (Moneybox) and apparently virtually all the cards issued in the UK these days are the touchless variety which operate wirelessly. I believe ApplePay is also very common in the UK and cash transactions are becoming fewer and fewer every year.

The program went to a London Tube railway station to observe all the folks using touchless cards to pay for travel directly or use their credit/debit cards to top up a pre-paid touchless card to travel. They only saw one person actually using cash to top up her travel card, pumping pound coins into a machine. However, when they interviewed her she was an American tourist.

 

[Meadbh]

Sweden is now almost cashless.

Sweden is on track to become the world's first cashless society - ScienceAlert

 

[mpeirce]

It's been interesting to watch the roll out here. Mostly fits and starts.

I've been trying Apple Pay wherever I can use it. Walgreens, check. McDonalds, check. Both are Apple Pay "supporters". I tried Meijer since it had a "wireless symbol" on the terminal. Worked fine. Likewise at a dry cleaners, of course the clerk had no idea what I was doing until I explained it to her. Same at Skyline Chili - "we don't do Apple pay here", me: "I used it last time, let me try" - worked fine.

Walmart was the first place I encountered that forced the "insert the card" operation. Good for them. Off course they are actively against Apple Pay (and the like), so bad for them.

And I have yet to encounter a sit down restaurant that has moved beyond taking my card back into their catacombs. I'm really looking forward to that going away. Talk about insecure! Still waiting.

I'm sure we'll get there, but it's so slow going...

 

[mpeirce]

Sweden is now almost cashless.]

While I'm all for the convenience of wireless payments and secure cards and all, I really am a bit concerned about not having cash as a fall back.

Having every single purchase made tracked bothers me. The privacy implications are huge.