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Smart cards or Stupid?

Scoop

Scoop

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The first week of November 2016 I received my first "Smart Card" or "Chipped Card" in the mail.
The chip in the card is supposed to make CC fraud more difficult.
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At this time only about half of the merchants around here have chip reading terminals and the chip processing software working at the same time. Every time I charge a purchase I must use the correct slot to complete the transaction.

I really dislike the chip reader making me wait before I am allowed to remove the card. I don't want to be held hostage even for 3 to 10 seconds while some machine is struggling with binary math.

The question in my mind was "what happens if I pull my chipped credit card out too soon" which I typed into the Google entry box. In 0.99 seconds Google found ~246,000,000 sites with answers.

The following site contained a paragraph that totally surprised me:
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2015/07/credit_and_debit_cards_with_em.html


What if people take their chip cards out of a payment terminal too soon?

Best case, the transaction won't go through and they'll have to try again. Worst case, if the transaction is already in process and the card is removed, it could damage the chip in the card or the card reader in the payment terminal.
​
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
The banking system can be damaged by pulling my credit card too early????!
Already I've done two premature retrievals because out of habit I used the same cadence that works fine for my cards in ATMs. No apparent problem except for a scolding prompt from the machine and clerk.

I just can't believe this "damage" thing is true. I've got to check this out w/ some of my friendly experts.
If you have any experience or knowledge on this, please pipe up.
 
If it can damage it that easily, I hope it does.

That's all I can say.
 
You Colonials are so behind the times :p

The UK has had the "Chip and PIN" cards for several years now, and the system works well.

It seems very strange when i'm in the US and use a card and "sign" the screen....or just swipe a card and thats it...
The chip does cut down on fraud.... if someone steals your card, they can't use it without the PIN number, (unless you've written it on the card, as some people did when they were first introduced!!).
 
My "chip" only worked for about three weeks. Then started giving errors. Most machines will give there cosecutive tries, and with three failures, then you just swipe the card as before, and all is good. I've not bothered to replace the card due to the defective chip. I say eff 'em. I've got plenty of time to waste.
 
People also tend to walk off and leave then in machines. I do not want a chipped card.
 
They sent me a chip card. I used my old one till they cancelled it on me....then I had to use it. I hate it.
It takes waaaay too long....
 
Well face it guys they're not spending all this money and effort for our benefit. They're doing it so the credit card company doesn't get ripped off.

I don't think they really care how long a transaction takes.

But actually Bluetooth was supposed to make this all go away.

You just link your device to the cash register, transfer the funds and unlink.

It was supposed to be fast because your phone would be linking up with the system while you are standing in line and all it needed to complete the process was the total from the cash register.

But I think they figured out the system was going to be way too easy to hack, and prone to problems from the "technology challenged."

Anyhow, a similar Bluetooth payment system is in beta test right now.
 
CaddmannQ said:
...
But actually Bluetooth was supposed to make this all go away.
You just link your device to the cash register, transfer the funds and unlink.
Click to expand...

Another trend I'll have to withhold from participating. I'm just not a sharing type of person.

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...and old people hate change.
 
I received a chip debit card about 2 months ago. I've maybe inserted it into a chip reader 100 times since then and the last the I used it, it wouldn't read the chip! The lady had to manually enter the info for the transaction to go through. Haven't used it since then so I wonder if it is still F-ed...
 
Apparently the premature removal of a chipped card can bring the local system to its knees. I was reading a gripe-site [retail clerk] and there were several comments similar to this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/451r9l/that_darned_chip_reader/

Oh, it's awful. I don't know if this is true just at my drugstore or other businesses have this issue, but the chip reader is so god damn slow. Every single time I have to say "insert the card and DO NOT REMOVE IT until it beeps annoyingly at you."

I always have one moron who doesn't know how to listen, sit there and jab the card in over and over wondering why it won't work.

Bonus: if they pull it out at just the right moment, our archaic computers crash and I have to redo everything.
​
I can't believe they have not solved this problem.
 
I'm gettingberrors on my card. It tells me the chip is damaged and the process freezes. The only recourse is to remove the card midstream and start over.

I get on screen messages like error in reading chip, chip malfunction, chip damaged, cannot process chip, or the never ending "processing... processing... processing..."
 
I've just realised where the problem is, and why the UK and US is different.

Reading the above reminded me that even your ATM's just expect you to swipe your card quickly.... no, you can't do that with a chip.
Here in the Uk we put our card in, the ATM machine swallows it, we do the transaction and then the machine (hopefully!) spits your card out, so we're used to transactions taking up to a minute.
 
ATMs still mostly work that way here. They take the card.

The big problem, as I understand it, is that of getting all the stores on any particular network to pay up for the new terminals to be installed.

Even though they may be mandated, getting everyone to cough up thousands of bucks to buy and install one new terminal is tough.

So you have systems where some stores have the new terminals and some have the old. That makes the system slower. There are "workarounds" in place to get things linked up.

Of course this tech is all for the security of the banks and credit card institutions (not for us, as they say) but they still want someone else to help pay for the new technology.
 
My bank's ATMs (or at least some of them) have what looks like the same old vertical reader they always had. Now though if it detects the chip, it gets a death grip on the card and I'm not sure it's possible to pull it back out until the machine is finished with it.

It really surprised me the first time. I stuck the card in and tried to yank it out quickly, as always, but it wouldn't budge.
 
I went to a local place yesterday that just recently switched to a chip reader. Since my chip is bad, it wouldn't read the card and now they have no way to read the card otherwise. I had to go the ATM down the road and get cash and then go back.

Some places have means of reading the card both ways.
 
Pawpaw said:
... Now though if it detects the chip, it gets a death grip on the card and I'm not sure it's possible to pull it back out until the machine is finished with it.
It really surprised me the first time. I stuck the card in and tried to yank it out quickly, as always, but it wouldn't budge.
Click to expand...
That is one I never heard of before. Now I am more nervous than ever.

I don't use ATMs unless they have an "open" slot so I can slide in/out under my control. Now you have given me pause about the safety of open readers that cover both edges. Dammit!
 
The big issue for retailers is the expense involved with not using chip readers. Credit card companies changed their policies at the beginning of the year and began issuing charge backs to retailers who did not use chip readers. Our company got hit with over $300k in fines in the first half of the year before we were able to roll out the new hardware to all locations. They charge you for the new hardware, charge you for the new software, and still found a way to charge you for choosing not to "upgrade"...
 
Rossignol said:
I'm gettingberrors on my card. It tells me the chip is damaged and the process freezes. The only recourse is to remove the card midstream and start over.

I get on screen messages like error in reading chip, chip malfunction, chip damaged, cannot process chip, or the never ending "processing... processing... processing..."
Click to expand...
Could it be when you were welding, it may have had some effect on it?
 
Scoop said:
The question in my mind was "what happens if I pull my chipped credit card out too soon" which I typed into the Google entry box.
The following site contained a paragraph that totally surprised me:
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2015/07/credit_and_debit_cards_with_em.html
What if people take their chip cards out of a payment terminal too soon?
Best case, the transaction won't go through and they'll have to try again. Worst case, if the transaction is already in process and the card is removed, it could damage the chip in the card or the card reader in the payment terminal.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?​
The banking system can be damaged by pulling my credit card too early????!
Click to expand...

Today I pulled my chipped card out too early at a grocery store.
As soon as I saw the screen with the letters "APPROV..." on it I pulled it out.

Then the clerk told me my card was rejected and to try it again. So back into the slot it went. I watched the screens carefully this time and the screen actually said "APPROVAL IN PROGRESS" followed by "REMOVE YOUR CARD"

I told the clerk that as soon as I saw the "APPROV..." letters I thought it was done with me.

Unfortunately this didn't crash the whole US banking system. Maybe later. Wish me luck.
 
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