11 ms·

Something I was thinking about the other day is how some modern credit cards technically have four different ways to pay. Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over

Something I was thinking about the other day is how some modern credit cards technically have four different ways to pay. Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible, though I haven't seen a merchant actually do this since maybe the mid-2000's. Then you have magstripe, chip, and RFID all in the same card. Pretty impressive backwards compatibility, although I think the original copy-to-paper mechanism is finally being phased out, since some new credit cards no longer have raised digits. (My new Visa from Chase has the digits on the back, and they're only slightly embossed and not in the same place. Probably wouldn't work with the old swipers.) I wonder how long until magstripe is phased out?

toufka 5y ago
And the numbers themselves that can be entered manually. 5 payment modalities with a thin piece of plastic.
- Twisell 5y ago
  And what really make this a 5th modality is the required CVV (card verification value) printed on the backside of the card.
  - denimnerd42 5y ago
    From what I know is CVV isn't required if the card is presented in person. The card processor will revoke your agreement if you verify the card is present and it's actually not however.
    - jalk 5y ago
      Which is why I have a habit of removing the cvv from the card(scratching the numbers off) and just remember those 3 digits like an extra pin. This practice is becoming obsolete with MFA solutions like 3Dsecure
    - el-salvador 5y ago
      I'm not sure if this is still the case. But some years ago when paying with a mag stripe card in two South American countries seemed to type the CVV code on the POS terminal. This was different from other countries where they type the last four digits of the card number.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
rustyminnow 5y ago
I had my card taken that way five-ish years ago. It was on a ferry where presumably there wasn't enough service to use a digital reader. Or maybe the system was just down. I never knew that was an option until then!
- tialaramex 5y ago
  One of the hotels I used to stay at did this too, they had a modern card terminal when you checked out, but they took impressions of cards during check-in. It doesn't really do much of anything in the modern era, but you felt like it was doing something and that's enough. Card payments have two separate uncorrelated steps. Authorisation and Settlement. In the Authorisation step, the merchant on behalf of the network can decide whether you, the supposed card holder, are authorised to make this payment. For example if you have Chip-and-PIN this is the step where a PIN failure means they won't give you the bottle of whiskey you just pointed at through the glass. To be effective Authorisation must happen up front. With Chip cards, (and also contactless payment) this can happen even offline, because the Chip can carry policy decisions like "Offline payment of up to $10 each time, $100 total before I talk to the network is OK, after that No more until I see a network" inside it. Impression machines were the very most rudimentary type of "Authorisation", the impression recorded is some evidence they actually saw your card. Or a card embossed with the same numbers, at some point. Modern networks don't want the useless paper trail which results, but some impression machines are still out there and hey, it felt like a "real" card payment. The fact they're essentially useless doesn't matter because... The Settlement step is separate, and often happens hours, or even days later. In this step the Merchant says, hey Payment Network, I'm Some Big Merchant and I want $123 from your customer #9876. You might think, aha, and now they provide details from that authorisation right? Right? Nope. It's totally unauthenticated, subject to all manner of glitches and mistakes, and it is based entirely on trust. The big merchants are rich, so, if they sometimes lie and steal that's OK. Whereas if you, Mr Wage Earner, don't pay for that can of Pepsi, you're a criminal and you're going to jail. If some merchant in say, Spain decides you just spend €546 on a TV with your card, even though you've never visited Europe, that just works. Left to itself, €546 plus conversion costs goes on your card account. To reverse that you'd have to notice the €546 charge, call your bank and complain about this clearly fraudulent card transaction. They're not always going to magically detect it, they should have some anti-fraud pattern matching e.g. if that store suddenly claims everybody living in your town in Ohio bought a TV from them, that's suspicious, it probably doesn't go through, and hey if you never visited Europe maybe that's enough to block it, but not necessarily. The responsibility sadly always stays with you to report any bogus transactions that get through even though the Card Networks made barely any effort to prevent fraud. So, read your card statements.
seanmcdirmid 5y ago
A lot of credit cards (Apple...) no longer have raised numbers, or a number on the front at all.
- bdamm 5y ago
  Or even, in Apple's case, a consistent "card" attached number at all.
  - mehrdada 5y ago
    Is that right? My understanding is the physical AppleCard has a fixed number that is simply not printed and relies on rotating CVV via the standard chip reading like most standard chip cards. The device-based ApplePay can rotate its number but that too only rotates CVV by default.
    - bdamm 5y ago
      My point was only that the card-chip associated number, the ApplePay associated number, and the number the user hands out to web sites, are not correlated. The user could choose to change their CC number every day when they wake up if they want, and the physical card does not change in any way as a result. Nor does it need to, since you cannot use it outside of the card.
jermaustin1 5y ago
Only one of my cards actually has raised numbers and its about to expire, so will probably get a completely flat one that replaces it as well. 2 of my cards are tap only, the mag stripe is gone - they are also store-specific cards, so that might have something to do with it. Master card said they will start phasing out mag strip in 2024. Soon enough tap/dip will be the only way.
- Pxtl 5y ago
  Yeah, here in Canada the magstrip has all but gone the way of the dodo - it's chip-and-pin or tap everywhere here. IIRC vendors here stopped taking magstrips before the Americans even. Cards still have magstrips on them but I can't remember the last time one got used. Maybe a gas station.
  - josephg 5y ago
    Same in Aus. I think banking innovation like this is way easier in smaller countries like australia because there’s way fewer banks. The USA has hundreds of banks - so getting them to all agree on a standard is near impossible. It’s no wonder America still uses ACH and cheques. Australia has just 6 banks. And they have a history of collaborating on things like this - since a fluid economy raises all boats, and fraud hurts them all. All Australian cards and point of sale systems support chips and taps. And have for nearly a decade.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 5y ago
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    - vinay427 5y ago
      There's a similar situation in Switzerland, where a handful of banks dominate the national market despite some smaller (cantonal) options that mostly have their own consortium anyway. The larger banks cooperated on creating a mobile payments platform known as TWINT [1], which allows for fast and free individual payments for splitting the cost of a meal, private sales, or even many in-store transactions. This allows them a competitive advantage over alternatives such as small Swiss banks or foreign banks that the many non-Swiss residents in Switzerland may otherwise continue using. These other options are relegated to IBAN transfers which are notably less convenient. [1] https://www.twint.ch/en/ https://www.twint.ch/en/
jon-wood 5y ago
On at least one of my cards magstripe is officially considered a legacy feature, I have to explicitly request that it's enabled if I'm travelling to a place likely to make use of magstripe payments, and it will only remain enabled for one or two weeks.
- munk-a 5y ago
  Just don't assume that's to do you any favors - credit card fraud is 100% on them, the removal of features is to minimize fraud and if it's a feature you still occasionally need it's being done at your expense.
  - blowski 5y ago
    Sure it’s 100% on the credit card company, but it’s still very inconvenient for the cardholder.
- josephg 5y ago
  I had no idea if the magnetic stripe on my (australian) credit card worked until a recent trip to the USA. I’ve had that card for years and I don’t think I’ve ever swiped it before. Australian POS terminals won’t let you use the magnetic strip on a card when chip & pin is available. Even inserting your card seems old fashioned now - PayPass (contactless payment) is by far the most common way to pay in australia. Each year there seems to be fewer reasons to carry a wallet around. Cash? Killed by covid. Card? Apple Pay. Drivers licence? There’s an app for that. It won’t be long before wallets are entirely useless.
  - HWR_14 5y ago
    I'm far more likely to have my wallet on me than my phone. Credit cards have infinite battery life, 100% waterproofing, no real-time tracking/spying and low to no cost to lose. Cash trades out the low cost to lose for anonymity.
    - kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
Tempest1981 5y ago
> original copy-to-paper mechanism And when the pressure-stamp machine broke, the merchant would use a pen, and write the card number by hand. No problem.
- jalk 5y ago
  Or just drag the length of the pen over the paper while card is underneath. Repeat a couple of times to get a good imprint while making sure to keep paper/card alignment
  - el-salvador 5y ago
    I've had this happen in 2018/2019 in a Central American country.
emteycz 5y ago
I had a merchant use the numbers on paper method in 2017.
- np- 5y ago
  I rented a bicycle in Florida a few days ago where the merchant took an imprint of my card (yeah, in February 2022). I'm not even sure how that can possibly be cheaper than one of those Square devices at this point.
munk-a 5y ago
> Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible I've seen this still happen occasionally in taxis - or rather I saw it happen within the past decade. When I last lived in the states I'd bump into it especially with rural taxis - I assume it's dying quickly though because it's incredibly inconvenient when compared to paying via an app or tapping. The lack of raised digits is actually a serious issue for legibility, I've had the digits fully rub off on some flat-printed cards - this may have been a low quality printing issue but either way I wouldn't applaud it being adopted since the raised numbers make it easier to read by eye.
- scrollaway 5y ago
  Cards are slowly moving towards not having printed numbers at all, and having the numbers only available via the issuer's app or website. This allows for rotating numbers.
  - munk-a 5y ago
    Rotating numbers are still extremely viable with fixed card numbers - it's possible to issue a set of semi-permenant printed numbers and also offer a tool that can issue additional digits for untrustworthy retailers or strange one-off payments. The removal of digits from the card itself is a cost being levied on the customer and it provides no real benefit.
    - scrollaway 5y ago
      Removal of digits reduces reissuances which are annoying for both issuer and customer.
      - thasaleni 5y ago
        Cards are moving towards no card at all i.e. virtual cards. USA is very slow in adopting new payment technology compared to the rest of the world. I live in South Africa and tap to pay is so much of a thing that you do not have to worry if you leave your card at home as you can tap at like 80% of the merchants, and if you can't they will have a fall back like QR code etc, NFC enabled cards have been around for years and all the merchants are really quick in adopting them.
queuebert 5y ago
Of all of these, which is the most secure?
dathinab 5y ago
> is still possible Wait what? I think in many parts of the world that isn't possible anymore for a long long time. Like all of EU.
- mercutio2 5y ago
  Europe had dramatically more credit card fraud than the US, so Europe mandated EMV decades before the US. It will be many years before US merchants truly phase out accepting magnetic strips.
samstave 5y ago
I wonder how many trillions of credit cards have become microplastics in our oceans over the many decades...
- profmonocle 5y ago
  It's probably trivial to other sources of plastic pollution. Most people get what, maybe one new credit card and one new debit card every 4-5 years? By volume it's nothing compared to the average person's consumption of single-use plastics like packaging, etc.
Reason077 5y ago
> "Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible, though I haven't seen a merchant actually do this since maybe the mid-2000's." I've noticed all the UK-issued cards I've received in the last year or two no longer have the raised numbers. Just the same details printed in ink on the card. Quite an improvement as the card details are easier to read now! Still seem to have the traditional (but almost never used) magnetic stripe, however.
- labster 5y ago
  The numbers are no longer raised on my US Amazon card, but due to gray-on-gray the numbers are much harder to read. Smaller numbers give more white space for a very clean design. So I get to see much better modern UX as I squint to read my card.
- profmonocle 5y ago
  Not sure about Europe, but here in the US you can use the magstripe if your chip is broken. After three failed scans with the chip it lets you use the magstripe. I've always felt like it defeats the purpose - if the idea is that the chip is harder to clone, couldn't scammers just make fake cards with phony chips, and do that when they use it? I'd say maybe it raises fraud alerts faster, but I had a friend who did this for every credit payment for like two months before she finally had them replace her broken card. (No idea why, since it was free.)
  - Reason077 5y ago
    > "Not sure about Europe, but here in the US you can use the magstripe if your chip is broken." Yeah, this used to be the case (years ago) in the UK too. But now days, most card readers no longer have magstripe readers on them. The chip is the backup now in case contactless fails!
hoten 5y ago
> Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible I actually had to do this in 2013! Working as a waiter at Chili's, whenever the power went out (happened once or twice the year I worked there) we'd dig out a quite heavy apparatus and make carbon copies of the credit cards. Every time I used it, my customers commented they'd never seen such a thing before (I suppose the clientele was either too young or had bad memories). Earlier last year, I was at Shake Shack when their online payment system went down. They decided to just stop charging people (even if they had cash!) and gave out free meals. I much prefer that system.
stephen_g 5y ago
The magnetic stripe is basically phased out in Australia. Sometimes readers let you swipe if the chip doesn’t read after the second try, but the terminals actually don’t let you swipe otherwise and tell you to insert the card if you try! It’s been like this for several years now - and tap to pay has basically been the default (for purchases under $100) for even longer.
- anitil 5y ago
  I think the limit has been raised now? I bought something for around $130 and tapped for it the other day
  - 78zeros 5y ago
    It was raised to $200 when the pandemic went into full swing, for 3 months initially and was extended. Most recent thing I found about it is from Sept last year - https://www.auspaynet.com.au/resources/ContactlessLimits https://www.auspaynet.com.au/resources/ContactlessLimits

toufka 5y ago

And the numbers themselves that can be entered manually. 5 payment modalities with a thin piece of plastic.

Twisell 5y ago
And what really make this a 5th modality is the required CVV (card verification value) printed on the backside of the card.
- denimnerd42 5y ago
  From what I know is CVV isn't required if the card is presented in person. The card processor will revoke your agreement if you verify the card is present and it's actually not however.
  - jalk 5y ago
    Which is why I have a habit of removing the cvv from the card(scratching the numbers off) and just remember those 3 digits like an extra pin. This practice is becoming obsolete with MFA solutions like 3Dsecure
  - el-salvador 5y ago
    I'm not sure if this is still the case. But some years ago when paying with a mag stripe card in two South American countries seemed to type the CVV code on the POS terminal. This was different from other countries where they type the last four digits of the card number.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

rustyminnow 5y ago

I had my card taken that way five-ish years ago. It was on a ferry where presumably there wasn't enough service to use a digital reader. Or maybe the system was just down. I never knew that was an option until then!

tialaramex 5y ago
One of the hotels I used to stay at did this too, they had a modern card terminal when you checked out, but they took impressions of cards during check-in. It doesn't really do much of anything in the modern era, but you felt like it was doing something and that's enough. Card payments have two separate uncorrelated steps. Authorisation and Settlement. In the Authorisation step, the merchant on behalf of the network can decide whether you, the supposed card holder, are authorised to make this payment. For example if you have Chip-and-PIN this is the step where a PIN failure means they won't give you the bottle of whiskey you just pointed at through the glass. To be effective Authorisation must happen up front. With Chip cards, (and also contactless payment) this can happen even offline, because the Chip can carry policy decisions like "Offline payment of up to $10 each time, $100 total before I talk to the network is OK, after that No more until I see a network" inside it. Impression machines were the very most rudimentary type of "Authorisation", the impression recorded is some evidence they actually saw your card. Or a card embossed with the same numbers, at some point. Modern networks don't want the useless paper trail which results, but some impression machines are still out there and hey, it felt like a "real" card payment. The fact they're essentially useless doesn't matter because... The Settlement step is separate, and often happens hours, or even days later. In this step the Merchant says, hey Payment Network, I'm Some Big Merchant and I want $123 from your customer #9876. You might think, aha, and now they provide details from that authorisation right? Right? Nope. It's totally unauthenticated, subject to all manner of glitches and mistakes, and it is based entirely on trust. The big merchants are rich, so, if they sometimes lie and steal that's OK. Whereas if you, Mr Wage Earner, don't pay for that can of Pepsi, you're a criminal and you're going to jail. If some merchant in say, Spain decides you just spend €546 on a TV with your card, even though you've never visited Europe, that just works. Left to itself, €546 plus conversion costs goes on your card account. To reverse that you'd have to notice the €546 charge, call your bank and complain about this clearly fraudulent card transaction. They're not always going to magically detect it, they should have some anti-fraud pattern matching e.g. if that store suddenly claims everybody living in your town in Ohio bought a TV from them, that's suspicious, it probably doesn't go through, and hey if you never visited Europe maybe that's enough to block it, but not necessarily. The responsibility sadly always stays with you to report any bogus transactions that get through even though the Card Networks made barely any effort to prevent fraud. So, read your card statements.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

A lot of credit cards (Apple...) no longer have raised numbers, or a number on the front at all.

bdamm 5y ago
Or even, in Apple's case, a consistent "card" attached number at all.
- mehrdada 5y ago
  Is that right? My understanding is the physical AppleCard has a fixed number that is simply not printed and relies on rotating CVV via the standard chip reading like most standard chip cards. The device-based ApplePay can rotate its number but that too only rotates CVV by default.
  - bdamm 5y ago
    My point was only that the card-chip associated number, the ApplePay associated number, and the number the user hands out to web sites, are not correlated. The user could choose to change their CC number every day when they wake up if they want, and the physical card does not change in any way as a result. Nor does it need to, since you cannot use it outside of the card.

jermaustin1 5y ago

Only one of my cards actually has raised numbers and its about to expire, so will probably get a completely flat one that replaces it as well. 2 of my cards are tap only, the mag stripe is gone - they are also store-specific cards, so that might have something to do with it. Master card said they will start phasing out mag strip in 2024. Soon enough tap/dip will be the only way.

Pxtl 5y ago
Yeah, here in Canada the magstrip has all but gone the way of the dodo - it's chip-and-pin or tap everywhere here. IIRC vendors here stopped taking magstrips before the Americans even. Cards still have magstrips on them but I can't remember the last time one got used. Maybe a gas station.
- josephg 5y ago
  Same in Aus. I think banking innovation like this is way easier in smaller countries like australia because there’s way fewer banks. The USA has hundreds of banks - so getting them to all agree on a standard is near impossible. It’s no wonder America still uses ACH and cheques. Australia has just 6 banks. And they have a history of collaborating on things like this - since a fluid economy raises all boats, and fraud hurts them all. All Australian cards and point of sale systems support chips and taps. And have for nearly a decade.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - vinay427 5y ago
    There's a similar situation in Switzerland, where a handful of banks dominate the national market despite some smaller (cantonal) options that mostly have their own consortium anyway. The larger banks cooperated on creating a mobile payments platform known as TWINT [1], which allows for fast and free individual payments for splitting the cost of a meal, private sales, or even many in-store transactions. This allows them a competitive advantage over alternatives such as small Swiss banks or foreign banks that the many non-Swiss residents in Switzerland may otherwise continue using. These other options are relegated to IBAN transfers which are notably less convenient. [1] https://www.twint.ch/en/ https://www.twint.ch/en/

jon-wood 5y ago

On at least one of my cards magstripe is officially considered a legacy feature, I have to explicitly request that it's enabled if I'm travelling to a place likely to make use of magstripe payments, and it will only remain enabled for one or two weeks.

munk-a 5y ago
Just don't assume that's to do you any favors - credit card fraud is 100% on them, the removal of features is to minimize fraud and if it's a feature you still occasionally need it's being done at your expense.
- blowski 5y ago
  Sure it’s 100% on the credit card company, but it’s still very inconvenient for the cardholder.
josephg 5y ago
I had no idea if the magnetic stripe on my (australian) credit card worked until a recent trip to the USA. I’ve had that card for years and I don’t think I’ve ever swiped it before. Australian POS terminals won’t let you use the magnetic strip on a card when chip & pin is available. Even inserting your card seems old fashioned now - PayPass (contactless payment) is by far the most common way to pay in australia. Each year there seems to be fewer reasons to carry a wallet around. Cash? Killed by covid. Card? Apple Pay. Drivers licence? There’s an app for that. It won’t be long before wallets are entirely useless.
- HWR_14 5y ago
  I'm far more likely to have my wallet on me than my phone. Credit cards have infinite battery life, 100% waterproofing, no real-time tracking/spying and low to no cost to lose. Cash trades out the low cost to lose for anonymity.
  - kevin_thibedeau 5y ago

Tempest1981 5y ago

> original copy-to-paper mechanism And when the pressure-stamp machine broke, the merchant would use a pen, and write the card number by hand. No problem.

jalk 5y ago
Or just drag the length of the pen over the paper while card is underneath. Repeat a couple of times to get a good imprint while making sure to keep paper/card alignment
- el-salvador 5y ago
  I've had this happen in 2018/2019 in a Central American country.

emteycz 5y ago

I had a merchant use the numbers on paper method in 2017.

np- 5y ago
I rented a bicycle in Florida a few days ago where the merchant took an imprint of my card (yeah, in February 2022). I'm not even sure how that can possibly be cheaper than one of those Square devices at this point.

munk-a 5y ago

> Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible I've seen this still happen occasionally in taxis - or rather I saw it happen within the past decade. When I last lived in the states I'd bump into it especially with rural taxis - I assume it's dying quickly though because it's incredibly inconvenient when compared to paying via an app or tapping. The lack of raised digits is actually a serious issue for legibility, I've had the digits fully rub off on some flat-printed cards - this may have been a low quality printing issue but either way I wouldn't applaud it being adopted since the raised numbers make it easier to read by eye.

scrollaway 5y ago
Cards are slowly moving towards not having printed numbers at all, and having the numbers only available via the issuer's app or website. This allows for rotating numbers.
- munk-a 5y ago
  Rotating numbers are still extremely viable with fixed card numbers - it's possible to issue a set of semi-permenant printed numbers and also offer a tool that can issue additional digits for untrustworthy retailers or strange one-off payments. The removal of digits from the card itself is a cost being levied on the customer and it provides no real benefit.
  - scrollaway 5y ago
    Removal of digits reduces reissuances which are annoying for both issuer and customer.
    - thasaleni 5y ago
      Cards are moving towards no card at all i.e. virtual cards. USA is very slow in adopting new payment technology compared to the rest of the world. I live in South Africa and tap to pay is so much of a thing that you do not have to worry if you leave your card at home as you can tap at like 80% of the merchants, and if you can't they will have a fall back like QR code etc, NFC enabled cards have been around for years and all the merchants are really quick in adopting them.

queuebert 5y ago

Of all of these, which is the most secure?

dathinab 5y ago

> is still possible Wait what? I think in many parts of the world that isn't possible anymore for a long long time. Like all of EU.

mercutio2 5y ago
Europe had dramatically more credit card fraud than the US, so Europe mandated EMV decades before the US. It will be many years before US merchants truly phase out accepting magnetic strips.

samstave 5y ago

I wonder how many trillions of credit cards have become microplastics in our oceans over the many decades...

profmonocle 5y ago
It's probably trivial to other sources of plastic pollution. Most people get what, maybe one new credit card and one new debit card every 4-5 years? By volume it's nothing compared to the average person's consumption of single-use plastics like packaging, etc.

Reason077 5y ago

> "Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible, though I haven't seen a merchant actually do this since maybe the mid-2000's." I've noticed all the UK-issued cards I've received in the last year or two no longer have the raised numbers. Just the same details printed in ink on the card. Quite an improvement as the card details are easier to read now! Still seem to have the traditional (but almost never used) magnetic stripe, however.

labster 5y ago
The numbers are no longer raised on my US Amazon card, but due to gray-on-gray the numbers are much harder to read. Smaller numbers give more white space for a very clean design. So I get to see much better modern UX as I squint to read my card.
profmonocle 5y ago
Not sure about Europe, but here in the US you can use the magstripe if your chip is broken. After three failed scans with the chip it lets you use the magstripe. I've always felt like it defeats the purpose - if the idea is that the chip is harder to clone, couldn't scammers just make fake cards with phony chips, and do that when they use it? I'd say maybe it raises fraud alerts faster, but I had a friend who did this for every credit payment for like two months before she finally had them replace her broken card. (No idea why, since it was free.)
- Reason077 5y ago
  > "Not sure about Europe, but here in the US you can use the magstripe if your chip is broken." Yeah, this used to be the case (years ago) in the UK too. But now days, most card readers no longer have magstripe readers on them. The chip is the backup now in case contactless fails!

hoten 5y ago

> Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible I actually had to do this in 2013! Working as a waiter at Chili's, whenever the power went out (happened once or twice the year I worked there) we'd dig out a quite heavy apparatus and make carbon copies of the credit cards. Every time I used it, my customers commented they'd never seen such a thing before (I suppose the clientele was either too young or had bad memories). Earlier last year, I was at Shake Shack when their online payment system went down. They decided to just stop charging people (even if they had cash!) and gave out free meals. I much prefer that system.

stephen_g 5y ago

The magnetic stripe is basically phased out in Australia. Sometimes readers let you swipe if the chip doesn’t read after the second try, but the terminals actually don’t let you swipe otherwise and tell you to insert the card if you try! It’s been like this for several years now - and tap to pay has basically been the default (for purchases under $100) for even longer.

anitil 5y ago
I think the limit has been raised now? I bought something for around $130 and tapped for it the other day
- 78zeros 5y ago
  It was raised to $200 when the pandemic went into full swing, for 3 months initially and was extended. Most recent thing I found about it is from Sept last year - https://www.auspaynet.com.au/resources/ContactlessLimits https://www.auspaynet.com.au/resources/ContactlessLimits