Credit Cards with the New Chip?

[Surfd]

If someone physically steals a card here it is still possible for them to easily use it because we don't require pins.

Which strikes me as kind of odd, because that kind of defeats the purpose of the chips in the first place, which was to offer a more secure version of the Mag Strip. It is quite possible that your bank likely has an option to enable a pin for transactions, and has just decided to leave it turned off maybe?

[uxzuigal]

Well Sweden has you beat by 5 years then, and Canada according one person. Yeah, I don't like it, and this is what I am going to do about it.

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Ehh... congratulations to Sweden, I guess?

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

I really don't want to activate this new Credit Card from my bank and this stupid chip, sorry but I find it annoying, I actually enjoy the swipe and go.

Anyone else holding out to the last minute to activate their new card, or have you already done it, what is your opinion and review?

"New chip"?


Welcome to the 21st Century, you're only 17 and a half years late to the party.

Our area got the chip readers about 2 years ago. We don't have the "wave the card" method of payment here, so we have to insert the card into the reader. It definitely takes longer than "swipe and go," so I find the chip to be a nuisance. I've started carrying cash.

Didn't you have to sign when you swiped your card?

[Ivanstone]

I really don't want to activate this new Credit Card from my bank and this stupid chip, sorry but I find it annoying, I actually enjoy the swipe and go.

Anyone else holding out to the last minute to activate their new card, or have you already done it, what is your opinion and review?

1. You're not swiping and going if your retailer doesn't have their machine directly hooked to the internet. Even then the machine isn't guaranteed to process it quickly.

2. Most modern machines allow tap. You tap your card or cellphone to the machine and it instantly processes. No pin, no confirmation needed. See above for additional speed problems.

3. Man up and join the modern age.

[Deleted]

New card? That's old lol we're on to contactless cards now, so much quicker and more convenient.

[Ivanstone]

Canadian here in montreal and toronto area i dont have any swip cards for a good 10 years. Barely any store takes them anyway.

A certain amount of redundancy is needed. Sometimes the chips break and you can use swipe as a back up. This normally only works with credit cards though. Broken chips seem to happen a lot but pre-chip peoples stripes would get worn out instead.

I've yet to see a gift card with a chip in it, so swipe is needed for that as well.

[Thetruth1400]

Anyone else holding out to the last minute to activate their new card

No, because I'm not stupid.

The old swipe version is running on 1960's tech. The chip tech is much newer and safer. The old version, is magnetic and static, tied to your account. The new version's information is constantly changing, so it's extremely hard to clone.

A magnetic clone machine can be bought for $20. To do the same with the new chip cards, the clone machines cost upwards of $1M.

Swipe cards are literally just your bank account and as soon as you swipe it appears to the terminal exactly as is; John Smith / Address / Etc.
The chip cards literally encrypt the information as soon as it shows it's really you in a secret language that only the card and reader can understand.

The only thing that could make things more secure is if they all required pin codes and signatures with each transaction as well. Some do one or the other, most do none. They also need to force the users of POS (Point of Sale) machines to actually upgrade their machines to chip machines instead of the old swipe machines and ditch the swipe strip on card entirely.

Also, your poll is 100% biased; The machines don't just feel more secure they 100% are.

[Shakadam]

I've never had a swipe-only card. The first debit card I got when I was 14-15 years or so, had a chip. I'm 29 now.

This ain't exactly new tech lol. The new thing around here would be contactless payments and mobilepay.

[Moozart]

I really don't want to activate this new Credit Card from my bank and this stupid chip, sorry but I find it annoying, I actually enjoy the swipe and go.

Anyone else holding out to the last minute to activate their new card, or have you already done it, what is your opinion and review?

You are a bit late but chances are you wont have a choice. Many of the chip machines know when the banks/CC companies have issues a new card with a chip. I had a card not to long ago and when i swiped it the machine kept saying to do the chip, it knew that i had an unactivated chip version at home and the machine would not take my old card at all. Mine was not on purpose, i just had not activated that card yet.2

[Deleted]

A certain amount of redundancy is needed. Sometimes the chips break and you can use swipe as a back up. This normally only works with credit cards though. Broken chips seem to happen a lot but pre-chip peoples stripes would get worn out instead.

I've yet to see a gift card with a chip in it, so swipe is needed for that as well.

A lot of retailers here no longer accept swipe credit / debit cards if they have a chip. When I worked in a shop I was told by my manager that if the card has a chip, we're not allowed to swipe it, incase its a stolen card or something. Though now we have the contactless cards so they can just tap a stolen card and not need the pin, so it sort of defeats the point of not accepting swipe cards.

[Moozart]

You can still swipe the new chip cards. All of mine can be. I prefer to use the chip readers however, as they are more secure.

Depends on where you go, some places the machines are hard coded to not accept swipes on chip cards.

[minteK917]

A certain amount of redundancy is needed. Sometimes the chips break and you can use swipe as a back up. This normally only works with credit cards though. Broken chips seem to happen a lot but pre-chip peoples stripes would get worn out instead.

I've yet to see a gift card with a chip in it, so swipe is needed for that as well.

Ive yet to see the chip break. Comes to worse, enable the card with your cellphone and use your phone like a chip. Its unlikely you are gona break your $900 phone as easily as a card i guess lol. Fuck the cards anyway. Now i can just use my phone over the machine and it instant pay anything $100 or under. Anything over $100 i need to input the password on my phone then it will pay.

[Kyr]

you really don't have a choice, I am fairly certain you can't even get a credit/debit card anymore without it. Once the slow rollout of these chips finishes the cards are most likely no longer going to even have the magnetic stripe.

Doesn't matter to me either way because I use samsung pay for like 99% of my purchases now anyway.

2. Most modern machines allow tap. You tap your card or cellphone to the machine and it instantly processes. No pin, no confirmation needed. See above for additional speed problems.

sadly this is not true in the US. most places do not accept NFC payments yet, it is rolling out even slower than the chip cards. samsung pay only works most places because it cheats and uses the card swipe. apple/android pay sucks, and cards don't have the option at all in most cases.

[Ivanstone]

Pretty much the only thing that pisses me off more is places that charge you an additional service charge for transactions under a specific amount. Like, there are a few restaurants in my area that will charge you a 50 or 75 cent fee if you want to use debit or credit and your transaction is under 10 dollars. Which as far as i know, is actually against the terms of their usage agreement with their debit / credit terminal company, and could probably cost them their contract if I ever bothered to find the right person to bring the complaint to. The banks look very poorly on any retailer who tries to straight up pass their transaction costs on to the consumer.

It depends on their provider. I normally assume American debit providers screw retailers on swipe fees so I can't blame them for charging extra. Go yell at your local congressman and tell them to put a better leash on the banks.

In Canada, where we don't hate small business, debit charges are $0.05 and credit charges are 1.5-1.8% for Visa and Mastercard.

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Ive yet to see the chip break.

Your not a retailer. I see it happen all the time.

[minteK917]

A lot of retailers here no longer accept swipe credit / debit cards if they have a chip. When I worked in a shop I was told by my manager that if the card has a chip, we're not allowed to swipe it, incase its a stolen card or something. Though now we have the contactless cards so they can just tap a stolen card and not need the pin, so it sort of defeats the point of not accepting swipe cards.

Not exactly. Transaction in the chips are encrypted, also contactless payment are limited to $100 without a pin. Swipe has no limit and has no form of digital protection what so ever.

[Independent voter]

CVV number that changes periodically.

In the US for the longest time we allowed credit card transactions to be done with a paper form that had copy paper in it. The clerk would fill out the form with a pen and then use this little hand operated machine to impress your credit card on the form. They would mail in these forms via snail mail. No electricity needed.

This way very small business owners, like a small restaurant had access to the credit card system, apparently most businesses have modernized and so that source of revenue has dried up and the cc companies have decided to ditch it.

[Surfd]

It depends on their provider. I normally assume American debit providers screw retailers on swipe fees so I can't blame them for charging extra. Go yell at your local congressman and tell them to put a better leash on the banks.

In Canada, where we don't hate small business, debit charges are $0.05 and credit charges are 1.5-1.8% for Visa and Mastercard.

No no. I am not talking about bank fees. Bank fees are part of your account package. Most good banks these days no longer charge you for debit or credit transactions. I am talking about the retailer charging you a processing fee at the register. Ie, I buy food for 20 dollars, it costs me 20 dollars. I buy food for 8 dollars, they charge me 8.75 if i want to pay by debit or credit, but only 8 dollars if I pay by cash. Far as i know, that is flat out against the merchant terms of service of pretty much ANY debit or credit company, and if the credit card company found out they were frontloading transaction fees onto the consumer, they could lose their right to use that brand of card.

[Schmeebs]

Right. Except there are plenty of businesses that do this currently. They're known as gas stations and you'll often see a lower advertised price when paying with cash.

the rules for charging surcharges is they cant charge more than their actual merchant fees (which will only be 3% or more if their businesses credit rating is horrific or they are extremely high risk) and they are supposed to clearly label that there is a surcharge, and the surcharge has to be on the receipt.

[Shadowferal]

Considering the trail credit cards leave, I prefer to pay cash.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Right. Except there are plenty of businesses that do this currently. They're known as gas stations and you'll often see a lower advertised price when paying with cash.

10 cents on the gallon cheaper with cash.