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I live in Massachusetts, and the stores near me have recently switched from accepting swipe cards to using chips (in the same cards). It's worse, for silly reas
by jimrandomh 10y ago
I live in Massachusetts, and the stores near me have recently switched from accepting swipe cards to using chips (in the same cards). It's worse, for silly reasons. With a swipe card, you can swipe any time while the cashier is scanning your items, then after they finish scanning they indicate they're done and then it asks you to confirm the result. With a chip card, if you insert the card before the cashier is done scanning, it won't work; it'll give an error and you have to take it out and reinsert it after they finish. On top of which there's also a ~20% read error rate.
- woliveirajr 10y agoHave to wait to finish to insert the card and type the pin is just a matter of design of the equipment: you can insert it as any time of the supplier designs it that way.
- Tibbes 10y agoInsert it any time, yes, possibly. Remove it at any time, no. The chip on the card is cryptographically signing the transaction, which includes the total. It can't sign it until the total is known. In practice, I suspect the equipment is designed not to allow you to insert the card early so that you check the total first.
- foepys 10y agoWhy would you want to confirm a transaction before you know how high it is? Maybe the cashier made a mistake and scanned your milk 20 times.
- erikpukinskis 10y agoEfficiency. You can finish payment while the cashier is ringing you up, and then you can bag groceries while the cashier is finishing the transaction and moving on to the next customer. If you have to wait for the total before entering your PIN and accepting the transaction, you hold up the line. Some people might want to wait for the number, but why force me to? If the cashier made a mistake, you can say something to the cashier before they confirm. Worst case you can always reverse it.