4 ms·

"Gas pumps are going to be among the last places to use mag stripes because they might not have network connectivity." Again, that's US-centric thing. Here in

by kbart 9y ago

"Gas pumps are going to be among the last places to use mag stripes because they might not have network connectivity." Again, that's US-centric thing. Here in Europe, there's >99% cellular coverage (the remaining 1% is usually deep woods and mountains), so it's not a problem. What I don't get is why the rest of the world must still have magstrip and be open to the related risks, when virtually nobody uses it. I've never seen anyone using magstripe over here or see a place accepting it, but I hear about skimmed/cloned cards and emptied banks accounts regularly.

amenghra 9y ago
I don't have an answer to that. If you are really concerned about having your card skimmed, you can take any simple magnet and erase/scramble the data by waving it over the mag tape. You can check that things worked by swiping before and after at some place where they'll let you swipe (or by making/buying a reader).
kelnos 9y ago
> What I don't get is why the rest of the world must still have magstrip and be open to the related risks Because, like it or not, it doesn't make economic sense for the issuers to remove them. The US is still a place where a lot of transactions are done, and despite the last 10-15 years of immigration bullshit, a ton of people still visit the US from abroad. A non-US card issuer isn't going to spend money to get a custom card without a mag stripe in the first place, and also then be at risk of losing customers who do travel to the US. Offering a special mag-stripe-free version of the card for an extra fee likely isn't worth it to them either, especially when they're fine eating the cost of fraud, and don't care that canceling your card is an inconvenience to you.
reaperducer 9y ago
Again that Euro-centric thing. Remember that Europe is a very small place. There are gas stations in places with spotty or no cellular coverage not only in the United States, but all across Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America.
- kbart 9y ago
  By all means, yes! That's where I'm getting -- there's no "one size fits all" solution and there's no point of carrying easily cloned magstripe in places where it is not used.

by kbart 9y ago

amenghra 9y ago

I don't have an answer to that. If you are really concerned about having your card skimmed, you can take any simple magnet and erase/scramble the data by waving it over the mag tape. You can check that things worked by swiping before and after at some place where they'll let you swipe (or by making/buying a reader).

kelnos 9y ago

> What I don't get is why the rest of the world must still have magstrip and be open to the related risks Because, like it or not, it doesn't make economic sense for the issuers to remove them. The US is still a place where a lot of transactions are done, and despite the last 10-15 years of immigration bullshit, a ton of people still visit the US from abroad. A non-US card issuer isn't going to spend money to get a custom card without a mag stripe in the first place, and also then be at risk of losing customers who do travel to the US. Offering a special mag-stripe-free version of the card for an extra fee likely isn't worth it to them either, especially when they're fine eating the cost of fraud, and don't care that canceling your card is an inconvenience to you.

reaperducer 9y ago

Again that Euro-centric thing. Remember that Europe is a very small place. There are gas stations in places with spotty or no cellular coverage not only in the United States, but all across Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America.

kbart 9y ago
By all means, yes! That's where I'm getting -- there's no "one size fits all" solution and there's no point of carrying easily cloned magstripe in places where it is not used.