7 ms·

> swipe your card Sadly swiping is being replaced by chipcard.

by coin 10y ago

Markoff 10y ago
is it really that difficult to touch terminal with your card and put it away? much faster than cash or entering PIN
- rconti 10y ago
  Parent said "chip card" not "contactless". And the requirement for a PIN (or signature, depending on region) has more to do with amount than with method.
  - Markoff 10y ago
    it's pretty much synonym in Europe, it would be very odd bank which would not issue contactless chip cards nowadays
jwilk 10y ago
Why sadly?
- douche 10y ago
  Because it takes five times as long[1] to process in the reader, and adoption for register terminals is spotty. EDIT: add reference [1] https://www.quora.com/Why-are-chip-payments-so-slow-in-the-US?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Why-are-chip-payments-so-slow-in-the-U...
- coin 10y ago
  Because swiping is so much more convenient. With a magnetic transaction I can just swipe and put my card away. Most of the time I swipe at the beginning of a long checkout (grocery store). With a chip transaction, I need to leave the card in until the very end. I now need to leave my wallet out, or put the wallet away and then remember to take the card back. More card readers are optimized for swiping with card insertion as an afterthought. Inserting a chipcard is usually at some awkward angle. As a consumer, chipcard provides no benefit. Yes fraud is theoretically lower, yet the banks aren't passing any of these savings to me (I'm still waiting for lower rates or higher paybacks).
  - leeoniya 10y ago
    yes, the chips protect banks from fraud. your contract with the credit card already protects you from fraud as long as you report it in a timely fashion.
  - chrisseaton 10y ago
    Why do you want to put your card in at the start? Why not put it in at the end when it's time to pay?
    - coin 10y ago
      It's faster that way.
    - ghaff 10y ago
      He says why. With swiping, you can often do the swipe while the clerk is ringing up your groceries and put your wallet away as opposed to having to do the transaction at the end (as you also need to do if you use your phone). He's not wrong although this is pretty far down my list of life's annoyances :-)
      - chrisseaton 10y ago
        What happens if you get to the end and you want to dispute the cost and you've already swiped your card? Is it too late?
        vertex-four 10y ago
        The swipe transaction system doesn't provide a mechanism to authorize a transaction for a specific amount, unlike the chip system. That is - you swipe, and the merchant uses the details on the magstripe to make some arbitrary transaction later on - potentially weeks or months later as I've found out in the very few places in the UK that still run offline transaction systems. With a chip system, you authorize a specific amount and no more within a dedicated machine, and the merchant doesn't get a hold of all the details necessary to make another transaction.
chrisseaton 10y ago
Chip cards replaced swiping over a decade ago, and a couple of years ago contactless replaced chip cards for most purposes. Does anyone literally swipe a credit card any more? I can't remember seeing it done in years except in some parts of Europe.
- irishcoffee 10y ago
  Yup.
- leeoniya 10y ago
  well, there's the rest of the world, and there's the US, where chip cards are recent and still lack chip+pin requirement for now. we still use imperial units, too! not to mention the worst (read: non-existent) maternity-leave laws on earth - worse than many less developed countries.
  - stephenhuey 10y ago
    Exactly! He said that with such authority, didn't he? :) Chase just issued me a chip card in the last couple of years, and every time I check out of a store equipped with a terminal that can do both, it's still pretty much a 50/50 chance they'll tell me the chip reader doesn't work yet and I need to swipe.
    - ghaff 10y ago
      In my experience most stores are pretty good at this point about having some sort of sign or label if their chip reader isn't working. But I'm sure it's not always the case and there was certainly a lot of confusion a year or so ago when they were first phased in.
      - mikestew 10y ago
        Well, now they would do well to put a sign up if the chip reader is working. Because now I by default assume the terminal vendor is lazy and won't implement it until they have a financial incentive to do so.
ithinkso 10y ago
Wow, that took me back. I don't remember seeing anyone swiping their card in recent years, even chipcards are becoming more and more uncommon - contact-less payment leads the way now.
- vinceguidry 10y ago
  Where do you live?
  - JshWright 10y ago
    Outside the United States.
    - vinceguidry 10y ago
      That was easy enough to infer, what wasn't was where in the world contact-less payment systems came to dominate. Even in Europe chip appears to be the norm. China? Japan?
      - umeshunni 10y ago
        In UK and AU, contactless payments dominate, particularly for low value transactions. I suspect that's the case in Japan too. China has a mishmash of system from in-app payments (a la WeChat) to QR-code based systems.
  - ithinkso 10y ago
    Poland. In one of the top5 cities here but nevertheless, even if I'm visiting much smaller ones it's hard to find a place where you cannot pay in a contactless fashion. This PayPass, or whatever is called, technology really took off here in the last 5 years.
GrinningFool 10y ago
> Sadly swiping is being replaced by chipcard. I see this being downvoted, and I'm wondering if it's not simply just misinterpreted. Most places in the US I've used chip&pin, the process goes like this: - arrive at merchant, select goods, get total. - look for a sign that says chip is not enabled. - failing that, move assuredly towards the chip reader and keep an eye on the cashier to ensure he or she doesn't move to stop you. - put card in reader (if enabled you can do this at any time - but doing it earlier won't save you time) - wait 2-10s while the reader figures out what to do - approve whatever you need to when it pops up. - wait 30-60 seconds for the transaction to go through, then find out you miskeyed your pin. - Repeat previous steps and associated waiting. Ignore eye-rolling of others in line. - walk out a satisfied customer. Obviously I drew it out as long as possible there for effect, but I've only ever seen very slow C&P implementations here. I am usually spending up to a minute waiting for the transaction to clear. By way of comparison, swipe cards take about 3-4 seconds to process. Debit cards with pins take 3-4 seconds + however long it takes you to type in the pin. So I full understand the "sadly" prepended to the statement.
- adanto6840 10y ago
  There are a few local B&M merchants here that are using a specific model of chip readers, if recollection serves me correctly they're all readers from First Data, that are astonishingly fast -- at least compared to the all the others, which you've quite-accurately described. Every time I go to the local mom-and-pop butcher shop I commend them on their chip reader's super fast processing speed -- and each time they comment that "Thanks, everyone says that!". I find it incredibly funny and frustrating that their card reader is so fast, enough so that others have noticed & commented on it too, while everywhere else -- the local chain grocery stores for instance -- consistently have roughly >=1 minute processing times. Also frustrating? The cashier has finished ringing my items up. I put my card in, select "No cash back", type in my PIN number, it thinks for a bit ... and then, it asks me if I want to confirm the charges?! No, I don't, I just typed in my PIN for kicks! I get it, it's to verify the amount, but I'd love to know what percent of the time a user [intentionally] selects "No" at that screen -- I probably _accidentally_ select "No" about 5% of the time, and roughly 0% of the time have I ever intended to select "No". Small things, but annoying UX overall. I'd think that many larger chain retailers are working on this. Some may have it solved w/ more "proprietary" systems; I don't shop at Target much lately, but I recall their payment UX being superior to most, unsure if their chip system is too though. I'd love to get the speed of swiping back! :-)

> swipe your card Sadly swiping is being replaced by chipcard.

by coin 10y ago

> swipe your card Sadly swiping is being replaced by chipcard.

Markoff 10y ago

is it really that difficult to touch terminal with your card and put it away? much faster than cash or entering PIN

rconti 10y ago
Parent said "chip card" not "contactless". And the requirement for a PIN (or signature, depending on region) has more to do with amount than with method.
- Markoff 10y ago
  it's pretty much synonym in Europe, it would be very odd bank which would not issue contactless chip cards nowadays

jwilk 10y ago

Why sadly?

douche 10y ago
Because it takes five times as long[1] to process in the reader, and adoption for register terminals is spotty. EDIT: add reference [1] https://www.quora.com/Why-are-chip-payments-so-slow-in-the-US?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Why-are-chip-payments-so-slow-in-the-U...
coin 10y ago
Because swiping is so much more convenient. With a magnetic transaction I can just swipe and put my card away. Most of the time I swipe at the beginning of a long checkout (grocery store). With a chip transaction, I need to leave the card in until the very end. I now need to leave my wallet out, or put the wallet away and then remember to take the card back. More card readers are optimized for swiping with card insertion as an afterthought. Inserting a chipcard is usually at some awkward angle. As a consumer, chipcard provides no benefit. Yes fraud is theoretically lower, yet the banks aren't passing any of these savings to me (I'm still waiting for lower rates or higher paybacks).
- leeoniya 10y ago
  yes, the chips protect banks from fraud. your contract with the credit card already protects you from fraud as long as you report it in a timely fashion.
- chrisseaton 10y ago
  Why do you want to put your card in at the start? Why not put it in at the end when it's time to pay?
  - coin 10y ago
    It's faster that way.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    He says why. With swiping, you can often do the swipe while the clerk is ringing up your groceries and put your wallet away as opposed to having to do the transaction at the end (as you also need to do if you use your phone). He's not wrong although this is pretty far down my list of life's annoyances :-)
    - chrisseaton 10y ago
      What happens if you get to the end and you want to dispute the cost and you've already swiped your card? Is it too late?
      - vertex-four 10y ago
        The swipe transaction system doesn't provide a mechanism to authorize a transaction for a specific amount, unlike the chip system. That is - you swipe, and the merchant uses the details on the magstripe to make some arbitrary transaction later on - potentially weeks or months later as I've found out in the very few places in the UK that still run offline transaction systems. With a chip system, you authorize a specific amount and no more within a dedicated machine, and the merchant doesn't get a hold of all the details necessary to make another transaction.

chrisseaton 10y ago

Chip cards replaced swiping over a decade ago, and a couple of years ago contactless replaced chip cards for most purposes. Does anyone literally swipe a credit card any more? I can't remember seeing it done in years except in some parts of Europe.

irishcoffee 10y ago
Yup.
leeoniya 10y ago
well, there's the rest of the world, and there's the US, where chip cards are recent and still lack chip+pin requirement for now. we still use imperial units, too! not to mention the worst (read: non-existent) maternity-leave laws on earth - worse than many less developed countries.
- stephenhuey 10y ago
  Exactly! He said that with such authority, didn't he? :) Chase just issued me a chip card in the last couple of years, and every time I check out of a store equipped with a terminal that can do both, it's still pretty much a 50/50 chance they'll tell me the chip reader doesn't work yet and I need to swipe.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    In my experience most stores are pretty good at this point about having some sort of sign or label if their chip reader isn't working. But I'm sure it's not always the case and there was certainly a lot of confusion a year or so ago when they were first phased in.
    - mikestew 10y ago
      Well, now they would do well to put a sign up if the chip reader is working. Because now I by default assume the terminal vendor is lazy and won't implement it until they have a financial incentive to do so.

ithinkso 10y ago

Wow, that took me back. I don't remember seeing anyone swiping their card in recent years, even chipcards are becoming more and more uncommon - contact-less payment leads the way now.

vinceguidry 10y ago
Where do you live?
- JshWright 10y ago
  Outside the United States.
  - vinceguidry 10y ago
    That was easy enough to infer, what wasn't was where in the world contact-less payment systems came to dominate. Even in Europe chip appears to be the norm. China? Japan?
    - umeshunni 10y ago
      In UK and AU, contactless payments dominate, particularly for low value transactions. I suspect that's the case in Japan too. China has a mishmash of system from in-app payments (a la WeChat) to QR-code based systems.
- ithinkso 10y ago
  Poland. In one of the top5 cities here but nevertheless, even if I'm visiting much smaller ones it's hard to find a place where you cannot pay in a contactless fashion. This PayPass, or whatever is called, technology really took off here in the last 5 years.

GrinningFool 10y ago

> Sadly swiping is being replaced by chipcard. I see this being downvoted, and I'm wondering if it's not simply just misinterpreted. Most places in the US I've used chip&pin, the process goes like this: - arrive at merchant, select goods, get total. - look for a sign that says chip is not enabled. - failing that, move assuredly towards the chip reader and keep an eye on the cashier to ensure he or she doesn't move to stop you. - put card in reader (if enabled you can do this at any time - but doing it earlier won't save you time) - wait 2-10s while the reader figures out what to do - approve whatever you need to when it pops up. - wait 30-60 seconds for the transaction to go through, then find out you miskeyed your pin. - Repeat previous steps and associated waiting. Ignore eye-rolling of others in line. - walk out a satisfied customer. Obviously I drew it out as long as possible there for effect, but I've only ever seen very slow C&P implementations here. I am usually spending up to a minute waiting for the transaction to clear. By way of comparison, swipe cards take about 3-4 seconds to process. Debit cards with pins take 3-4 seconds + however long it takes you to type in the pin. So I full understand the "sadly" prepended to the statement.

adanto6840 10y ago
There are a few local B&M merchants here that are using a specific model of chip readers, if recollection serves me correctly they're all readers from First Data, that are astonishingly fast -- at least compared to the all the others, which you've quite-accurately described. Every time I go to the local mom-and-pop butcher shop I commend them on their chip reader's super fast processing speed -- and each time they comment that "Thanks, everyone says that!". I find it incredibly funny and frustrating that their card reader is so fast, enough so that others have noticed & commented on it too, while everywhere else -- the local chain grocery stores for instance -- consistently have roughly >=1 minute processing times. Also frustrating? The cashier has finished ringing my items up. I put my card in, select "No cash back", type in my PIN number, it thinks for a bit ... and then, it asks me if I want to confirm the charges?! No, I don't, I just typed in my PIN for kicks! I get it, it's to verify the amount, but I'd love to know what percent of the time a user [intentionally] selects "No" at that screen -- I probably _accidentally_ select "No" about 5% of the time, and roughly 0% of the time have I ever intended to select "No". Small things, but annoying UX overall. I'd think that many larger chain retailers are working on this. Some may have it solved w/ more "proprietary" systems; I don't shop at Target much lately, but I recall their payment UX being superior to most, unsure if their chip system is too though. I'd love to get the speed of swiping back! :-)