4 ms·

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 alterna

by 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?

by Macha 4y ago

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?