6 ms·

With just about everything either chip or tap now, is there any danger in just scratching out the mag stripe of my cards?

giantg2 4y ago
The small number of places with older swipe only terminals. Or when the chip isn't working (Lowes has a stripe reader on the register if the main terminal isn't working; mainly used for gift cards though). And finally, an alert employee might not accept a damaged card.
- Macha 4y ago
  I've seen a few people in the US mention "when the chip isn't working". I don't think I've encountered this... ever? Of course, when the merchant's only alternative is handling cash, maybe there's more incentive to keep the card machine in order
  - giantg2 4y ago
    I have chip malfunctions at least once per month. I assume there is dirt or debris in the terminal or on the chip.
    - Macha 4y ago
      I find it odd that they're so unreliable in the US given they're neither new nor complicated technology and have a decade of use in Europe before they even started gaining adoption in the US, but I'll take your word for it. I wonder what US card or terminal manufacturers are doing wrong for such a reliability difference
      - Reason077 4y ago
        Chip payments occasionally had problems in Europe too. The chips on the cards, or the contacts on the terminals would get dirty or wear out or whatever. Contactless is much more reliable.
    - girvo 4y ago
      That's wild. We've had chips on our cards in Australia for gosh-knows how long at this point, and I honestly cannot remember the last time it failed. Not that they're even used that often these days either: everything is just tap-and-go NFC payment now. And I do mean everything!
      - mrguyorama 4y ago
        Remember that the US is huge, diverse, and opinionated, and really struggles to realize "My experience isn't everyone's experience" I've had the chip struggle like once in my life. That was on a card very near it's expiration date. Most people I see in the store have no problems with their payment method, and when I was a cashier in 2012, people seemed to have significantly more problems getting their magstripes to scan. All of this is SUPER dependent on which flavor/brand of POS is popular around you, the effort your bank put into making a good implementation, and whether your local merchants actually put effort into running their business and keeping equipment maintained. Pretty much nothing in this discussion is generalizeable to all of the US other than "We were late to the party of chip cards"
  - adventured 4y ago
    When it comes to dipping the chip, it can wear down after a lot of use and stop functioning. I've never run into a problem with tapping however. Here's an example image from a NY Times story about chips wearing down: https://i.imgur.com/XlKEBsc.jpg https://i.imgur.com/XlKEBsc.jpg The last card I replaced due to chip wear, the chip looked even worse than that.
    - ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
      That is a totally acceptable amount of wear.
  - mindcrime 4y ago
    At best I've found chip reading to work about 60% of the time across a range of local merchants here. And now the debit card I have, which is less than a year old, has a chip which has completely quit working. Making it totally useless for the (thankfully small) number of merchants whose POS systems won't let you fall back to mag-stripe when the chip fails. As far as I'm concerned, chip cards can get stuffed. They're utter shit in my experience.
    - Semaphor 4y ago
      That sounds like you are somehow mistreating them, or your local merchants use "special" terminals (or maybe your bank is just using crappy materials). I can’t even remember how long ago it was that swiping worked, but chips have never broken until I cut them for the replacement card, this is over 3 different banks.
      - mindcrime 4y ago
        That sounds like you are somehow mistreating them, I don't think I am. All I do is take it out of my wallet, put in the reader, take it out, put it back in my wallet, lather, rinse, repeat. or your local merchants use "special" terminals That would make sense if we were talking about one merchant, or even just two. But I can go to Barnes & Noble, Lowes, Food Lion, the local corner gas station, Ace Hardware, it doesn't matter, I routinely find the chip readers less reliable than the magstripe reader. I can't explain it, but chips are tainted in my worldview at this point.
    - Reason077 4y ago
      > "At best I've found chip reading to work about 60% of the time ... Making it totally useless for the (thankfully small) number of merchants whose POS systems won't let you fall back to mag-stripe" Here in the UK, many (most?) new payment terminals don't have mag-stripe readers at all. And I expect banks will start issuing new cards without a magnetic strip in the near future, if they haven't done so already. I agree that chip & pin isn't ideal, not just because of reliability issues but also because of the security risk of PIN disclosure. But thankfully contactless (incl. Apple Pay/Android Pay) has already replaced it for 99% of daily transactions. But if your card's chip is broken, can't you just get your bank to send out a new one?
- tzs 4y ago
  I’ve had the readers at Home Depot occasionally fail to read my chip card. The last time it happened an employee told me that the readers were designed for slightly thicker cards than some banks are using and so don’t always make contact but if you lightly press down on the exposed end after you insert it that lifts the chip end up enough to be read. I’ve had no problems with their readers since I started doing that.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  Also, when you use self check in terminals at the airport, if you use your credit card for ID, it only works via swipe.
  - ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
    Credit card for ID? This explains a lot.
    - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
      It’s easy so people go with it. Otherwise you have to type things.
noirbot 4y ago
If you go anywhere where they hold a tab open, such as a bar, you can't do that with tap/chip. Not that that's a blocker, since worst case you do a bunch of single transactions, but it's an annoyance.
- krzyk 4y ago
  Every time I'm in the US I'm amazed that I have give my card to the waiter who gets the card to some place and gets its back after few mins. Don't people have wireless terminals in the US like the rest of the world?
- mbreese 4y ago
  Originally I was thinking they could handle an open tab like a gas station — place a hold on the card for $X for an open tab. But then, the more I thought about it, I’m not sure I want to be the bartender that has to explain why there was a hold of $100 on a college kid’s debit card. Sorry you can’t buy lunch, but the hold will get released in a few days, so it’s ok! There’s got to be a better way…
  - 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
    You could just prepay $X. Then extend it every so often. Any remainder gets refunded at the end. Honestly, in Australia I have not swiped my CC in over a decade.
    - girvo 4y ago
      In some ways we are pretty spoiled here in Australia, with regards to fintech adoption. The local farmers markets either take cash or contactless (or both depending on the stall). Its the literal only remaining place that I visit that takes cash-only at some stalls. Everywhere else is all contactless, all the time.
      - 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
        I suppose so. But it still blows me away that doing basic everyday payments in the largest economy in the world is still so poor and their physical money is terrible.
iglio 4y ago
Some banks even disable the mag strip by default [1], in the UK at least, allowing you to turn it back on temporarily if you need to. [1] https://monzo.com/help/monzo-card-pin/what-is-magstripe https://monzo.com/help/monzo-card-pin/what-is-magstripe
krzyk 4y ago
Adding to that: do people use physical cards? (except older generation) I don't remember when I last saw a person not taping with phone or watch.
- JohnTHaller 4y ago
  Lots of smaller stores have readers where either the tap or the chip is broken. I just went to one today and took out my card to insert the chip instead of using Google Pay.
  - krzyk 4y ago
    Wow it never happened to me, then the reader is broken no cards worked one time it was and by a pure chance I had cash (which I don't carry normally).
    - JohnTHaller 4y ago
      One of the shops near me can only do tap reading on their reader as the chip isn't working. My debit card only has chip, no tap. But I can pay with Google Pay via my phone. The CVS near me the tap readers in the pharmacy don't work. But the chip readers do.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  Fred Myers (a grocery store) where I live doesn’t have NFC POSes in their self checkout kiosks, so I have to whip out my card to chip there. But otherwise I don’t usually use it (though I bring it just in case).

giantg2 4y ago

The small number of places with older swipe only terminals. Or when the chip isn't working (Lowes has a stripe reader on the register if the main terminal isn't working; mainly used for gift cards though). And finally, an alert employee might not accept a damaged card.

Macha 4y ago
I've seen a few people in the US mention "when the chip isn't working". I don't think I've encountered this... ever? Of course, when the merchant's only alternative is handling cash, maybe there's more incentive to keep the card machine in order
- giantg2 4y ago
  I have chip malfunctions at least once per month. I assume there is dirt or debris in the terminal or on the chip.
  - Macha 4y ago
    I find it odd that they're so unreliable in the US given they're neither new nor complicated technology and have a decade of use in Europe before they even started gaining adoption in the US, but I'll take your word for it. I wonder what US card or terminal manufacturers are doing wrong for such a reliability difference
    - Reason077 4y ago
      Chip payments occasionally had problems in Europe too. The chips on the cards, or the contacts on the terminals would get dirty or wear out or whatever. Contactless is much more reliable.
  - girvo 4y ago
    That's wild. We've had chips on our cards in Australia for gosh-knows how long at this point, and I honestly cannot remember the last time it failed. Not that they're even used that often these days either: everything is just tap-and-go NFC payment now. And I do mean everything!
    - mrguyorama 4y ago
      Remember that the US is huge, diverse, and opinionated, and really struggles to realize "My experience isn't everyone's experience" I've had the chip struggle like once in my life. That was on a card very near it's expiration date. Most people I see in the store have no problems with their payment method, and when I was a cashier in 2012, people seemed to have significantly more problems getting their magstripes to scan. All of this is SUPER dependent on which flavor/brand of POS is popular around you, the effort your bank put into making a good implementation, and whether your local merchants actually put effort into running their business and keeping equipment maintained. Pretty much nothing in this discussion is generalizeable to all of the US other than "We were late to the party of chip cards"
- adventured 4y ago
  When it comes to dipping the chip, it can wear down after a lot of use and stop functioning. I've never run into a problem with tapping however. Here's an example image from a NY Times story about chips wearing down: https://i.imgur.com/XlKEBsc.jpg https://i.imgur.com/XlKEBsc.jpg The last card I replaced due to chip wear, the chip looked even worse than that.
  - ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
    That is a totally acceptable amount of wear.
- mindcrime 4y ago
  At best I've found chip reading to work about 60% of the time across a range of local merchants here. And now the debit card I have, which is less than a year old, has a chip which has completely quit working. Making it totally useless for the (thankfully small) number of merchants whose POS systems won't let you fall back to mag-stripe when the chip fails. As far as I'm concerned, chip cards can get stuffed. They're utter shit in my experience.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    That sounds like you are somehow mistreating them, or your local merchants use "special" terminals (or maybe your bank is just using crappy materials). I can’t even remember how long ago it was that swiping worked, but chips have never broken until I cut them for the replacement card, this is over 3 different banks.
    - mindcrime 4y ago
      That sounds like you are somehow mistreating them, I don't think I am. All I do is take it out of my wallet, put in the reader, take it out, put it back in my wallet, lather, rinse, repeat. or your local merchants use "special" terminals That would make sense if we were talking about one merchant, or even just two. But I can go to Barnes & Noble, Lowes, Food Lion, the local corner gas station, Ace Hardware, it doesn't matter, I routinely find the chip readers less reliable than the magstripe reader. I can't explain it, but chips are tainted in my worldview at this point.
  - Reason077 4y ago
    > "At best I've found chip reading to work about 60% of the time ... Making it totally useless for the (thankfully small) number of merchants whose POS systems won't let you fall back to mag-stripe" Here in the UK, many (most?) new payment terminals don't have mag-stripe readers at all. And I expect banks will start issuing new cards without a magnetic strip in the near future, if they haven't done so already. I agree that chip & pin isn't ideal, not just because of reliability issues but also because of the security risk of PIN disclosure. But thankfully contactless (incl. Apple Pay/Android Pay) has already replaced it for 99% of daily transactions. But if your card's chip is broken, can't you just get your bank to send out a new one?
tzs 4y ago
I’ve had the readers at Home Depot occasionally fail to read my chip card. The last time it happened an employee told me that the readers were designed for slightly thicker cards than some banks are using and so don’t always make contact but if you lightly press down on the exposed end after you insert it that lifts the chip end up enough to be read. I’ve had no problems with their readers since I started doing that.
seanmcdirmid 4y ago
Also, when you use self check in terminals at the airport, if you use your credit card for ID, it only works via swipe.
- ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
  Credit card for ID? This explains a lot.
  - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
    It’s easy so people go with it. Otherwise you have to type things.

noirbot 4y ago

If you go anywhere where they hold a tab open, such as a bar, you can't do that with tap/chip. Not that that's a blocker, since worst case you do a bunch of single transactions, but it's an annoyance.

krzyk 4y ago
Every time I'm in the US I'm amazed that I have give my card to the waiter who gets the card to some place and gets its back after few mins. Don't people have wireless terminals in the US like the rest of the world?
mbreese 4y ago
Originally I was thinking they could handle an open tab like a gas station — place a hold on the card for $X for an open tab. But then, the more I thought about it, I’m not sure I want to be the bartender that has to explain why there was a hold of $100 on a college kid’s debit card. Sorry you can’t buy lunch, but the hold will get released in a few days, so it’s ok! There’s got to be a better way…
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
  You could just prepay $X. Then extend it every so often. Any remainder gets refunded at the end. Honestly, in Australia I have not swiped my CC in over a decade.
  - girvo 4y ago
    In some ways we are pretty spoiled here in Australia, with regards to fintech adoption. The local farmers markets either take cash or contactless (or both depending on the stall). Its the literal only remaining place that I visit that takes cash-only at some stalls. Everywhere else is all contactless, all the time.
    - 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
      I suppose so. But it still blows me away that doing basic everyday payments in the largest economy in the world is still so poor and their physical money is terrible.

iglio 4y ago

Some banks even disable the mag strip by default [1], in the UK at least, allowing you to turn it back on temporarily if you need to. [1] https://monzo.com/help/monzo-card-pin/what-is-magstripe https://monzo.com/help/monzo-card-pin/what-is-magstripe

krzyk 4y ago

Adding to that: do people use physical cards? (except older generation) I don't remember when I last saw a person not taping with phone or watch.

JohnTHaller 4y ago
Lots of smaller stores have readers where either the tap or the chip is broken. I just went to one today and took out my card to insert the chip instead of using Google Pay.
- krzyk 4y ago
  Wow it never happened to me, then the reader is broken no cards worked one time it was and by a pure chance I had cash (which I don't carry normally).
  - JohnTHaller 4y ago
    One of the shops near me can only do tap reading on their reader as the chip isn't working. My debit card only has chip, no tap. But I can pay with Google Pay via my phone. The CVS near me the tap readers in the pharmacy don't work. But the chip readers do.
seanmcdirmid 4y ago
Fred Myers (a grocery store) where I live doesn’t have NFC POSes in their self checkout kiosks, so I have to whip out my card to chip there. But otherwise I don’t usually use it (though I bring it just in case).