4 ms·

> The package wouldn’t be complete without the entire process being much slower than the old card swipe. What took a second or two before now seems to take mill

by devy 10y ago

> The package wouldn’t be complete without the entire process being much slower than the old card swipe. What took a second or two before now seems to take millennia. Now that I recalled, most of my chipped POS transactions have been indeed a few seconds slower than swipes. I wonder if that's caused by the data encryption/decryption? Embedded hardwares are very capable theses days, I am surprised to see that's the case though. Can someone with expertise on this issue explain?

byoung2 10y ago
Before, swipe to approved was 2-3 seconds at most. The chip takes 15-30 seconds with no indication of the breakdown of time (e.g. connecting, transmitting, encrypting, etc). I'd like to know what takes the bulk of the time.
- MasterPI 10y ago
  It takes considerably more time than simply swiping because chip payment transactions ivolve much more communications between the card the POS terminal, the bank entity, payment provider, etc... Encyption/Decription times are neglible.
  - byoung2 10y ago
    Yeah I found this description of the process: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-how-chip-cards-work-htmlstory.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-how-chip-cards-wor... Do the systems in Europe take the same amount of time, and have the same amount of communication? I can't imagine passing a JSON object back and forth could take that long.
    - MasterPI 10y ago
      I was referring to how the system works here in Europe. I suppose there is no much of a difference in the US. On each step in the chain (credit card, POS, bank entity, etc.) you have lots of verification and error control each one adding more and more overheadeing. And let's not forget times regarding the user - pin request, payment type which the user has to select if it is necessary.
    - pixel_fcker 10y ago
      The USA is definitely slower than everywhere that's been using the system for more than a decade now. No idea why though as some of the slowest connections I've experienced have been in LA. In the UK transactions typically take less than 5 seconds with more than 10 seconds usually prompting a response from the owner that it's "playing up today". In New Zealand it's quicker still, and contactless payments seem to get processed slightly quicker as well, although that could just be psychological because it removes the whole insert-wait-enter pin part.
  - soylentcola 10y ago
    Right. And if I remember correctly, a swipe is almost exactly the same as typing in the numbers on the card. Not sure if it's still the case but years ago I had a job where we had some "swipe" devices which hooked up to a standard PS/2 keyboard port (to give an idea of when I'm talking about). If you opened Notepad on a PC and swiped a card it just typed out the relevant digits as if you'd keyed them in.
- starshadowx2 10y ago
  But now with tap-enabled cards it's back to a couple seconds.

by devy 10y ago

byoung2 10y ago

Before, swipe to approved was 2-3 seconds at most. The chip takes 15-30 seconds with no indication of the breakdown of time (e.g. connecting, transmitting, encrypting, etc). I'd like to know what takes the bulk of the time.

MasterPI 10y ago
It takes considerably more time than simply swiping because chip payment transactions ivolve much more communications between the card the POS terminal, the bank entity, payment provider, etc... Encyption/Decription times are neglible.
- byoung2 10y ago
  Yeah I found this description of the process: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-how-chip-cards-work-htmlstory.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-how-chip-cards-wor... Do the systems in Europe take the same amount of time, and have the same amount of communication? I can't imagine passing a JSON object back and forth could take that long.
  - MasterPI 10y ago
    I was referring to how the system works here in Europe. I suppose there is no much of a difference in the US. On each step in the chain (credit card, POS, bank entity, etc.) you have lots of verification and error control each one adding more and more overheadeing. And let's not forget times regarding the user - pin request, payment type which the user has to select if it is necessary.
  - pixel_fcker 10y ago
    The USA is definitely slower than everywhere that's been using the system for more than a decade now. No idea why though as some of the slowest connections I've experienced have been in LA. In the UK transactions typically take less than 5 seconds with more than 10 seconds usually prompting a response from the owner that it's "playing up today". In New Zealand it's quicker still, and contactless payments seem to get processed slightly quicker as well, although that could just be psychological because it removes the whole insert-wait-enter pin part.
- soylentcola 10y ago
  Right. And if I remember correctly, a swipe is almost exactly the same as typing in the numbers on the card. Not sure if it's still the case but years ago I had a job where we had some "swipe" devices which hooked up to a standard PS/2 keyboard port (to give an idea of when I'm talking about). If you opened Notepad on a PC and swiped a card it just typed out the relevant digits as if you'd keyed them in.
starshadowx2 10y ago
But now with tap-enabled cards it's back to a couple seconds.