I hate them, it is so silly.
it takes forever and fails all the time, you just sit there and keep trying.
and it is a waste, because when credit card info is stolen it is hacked from the banks or say target’s headquarters and they steal 100,200,300 million cards at a time. so the chip in the card to protect your credit card is silly. not to mention it does zero for all the online transactions and recurring charges say for your cable that are a super big chunk of credit card use.
ITA with @zobroward…i think they are a pain, and i fail to see the secureness of it…but maybe its me.
and evidently i AM the PoWM, because i DO need to be instructed at every stop…primarily because there is no standardization of card readers. do i hit green for credit? red? ooops did i cancel by mistake???
it takes an eternity. here half the places i shop in have the slot taped off due to it “not working”. everything about it is a hassle for me…i prefer to just swipe and go and the end.
but thats me.
The way the chip works is supposed to prevent the card number from being passed through the merchant that can be cracked; instead, a one time number for the transaction is used.
Obviously, this does not prevent fraud from cracking online merchants or banks, and chip+signature is less secure than chip+PIN. But it would have made the cracks at Target and other merchants’ point-of-sale systems more difficult.
Thanks to the new Costco Amex, I have my first chip credit card. Used it at Target last week and it was a minimum of 30 seconds while I waited for the machine to tell me I could remove my card AND I was told not to insert it until the cashier was done ringing things up. Used to be able to swipe my card while the cashier was ringing up my things and it was back in my purse before she was done. I’d say this transaction was at least a minute, maybe two, longer than it would have been before. So, I agree that I hope it all becomes more efficient as we (merchants and customers) transition. (I’m also not complaining about a 2 minute delay – just observing.)
filling out a check used to take longer too, I really don’t mind.
I am starting to see more places using the chip reader. If they are not yet ready it usually has tape over the slot. When Trader Joes first started using the chip reader it slowed down the line so much that the lines went to the back of the store. It now doesn’t seem to take as long. I don’t know if it is the software that has I proved or the learning curve of both cashier and customer has improved. The major drawback to me is having to keep my wallet out till the transaction is complete. Before I would swipe as they rang up my items and put my card in wallet and put in my bag. I could be on my way pretty quick. Now the putting away adds a few seconds onto the checkout time.
On our last trip to Europe not having a chip and pin was a problem at several sites and at the train station. In those cases I
I guess I’ve been really lucky. I’ve never had a chip fail or had to put it in twice. I do ask “chip or swipe?” but it seems that almost all of the places around me have gone to chip. Haven’t had to swipe my chip card in a while.
I pay while the person is bagging my stuff so I’m generally not staying any longer than I otherwise would.
The chips transactions seem to take longer, at the ATM’s for my bank (Chase) it takes a while before it gets to ask you for your pin, lot longer than using the magnetic strip. The reason for the chip is to prevent what can happen, where someone puts something on an atm machine or hacks into a credit card network, then uses the info to create a fake credit card (basically, it is the magnetic strip that has the information). The chip as far as I know is either very difficult or impossible to crack, so it would be difficult to make a fake card with them, from what I know.
The real void is online transactions, and merchants are to blame for that, they complain about fraud and what it costs them,but many of them are to blame. For example, when scammers steal card numbers, they won’t necessarily have the merchant code (the 3 or 4 digit number on the card), so if the online stores asked for that (and didn’t stupidly store it on their server), it would help bring down fraud…but a lot of sites don’t even ask for it. Plus credit card companies could also implement 2fa, where you get a code sent to your cell phone, and you need to put in that code when making online purchases or give it over the phone (the 2fa code is a pseudo random code, so even if someone was listening in, won’t matter). Without the code, they couldn’t do anything…but the bank card providers refuse to go that route, because “it is too expensive” (which is bs, we use 2fa with the users on our systems, it has become a corporate standard, and it is easy). No system is foolproof, but the reality is there is a lot of stupidity out there and the government can’t act because some boneheads think that 'that is too much of a burden" (then talk about how much fraud hurts). Friend of mine is in the computer security business, and you would be surprised how many banks have things like pins and card numbers in human readable formats on their system, have things like account passwords in human readable form, and also have communications into their server sites that can literally be tapped pretty easily…
Should we still keep these chip cards in RFID sleeves or wallets?
here is another angel to steal your info …
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2016/08/04/crooks-using-bluetooth-to-steal-at-gas-pumps/
@raclut a cashier at Costco told me to keep my Costco Citi Visa in a sleeve. I am not versed in this technology at all (so my terminology may be wrong), but there is a little “sound” icon on the right side of the chip that indicates that the credit card puts out a signal; I was told that the signal from the card helps make credit card transactions faster. Apparently the credit card’s signal can be electronically picked up by thieves when you are standing near them and they can steal your credit card number. I checked all of my credit cards and my Costco Citi Visa is the only one that has this little “sound” icon.
Hmmm, something I read said that all chip cards should be in those sleeves but now I can’t find the article. My DH heard the same thing and got a package of them. They are somewhat hard to use so I just put one in the first and last sleeve in my wallet so all the cards are between them. I don’t know if it’s necessary, but I doesn’t hurt anything.
I went to a breakfast and lunch place this morning, and they took my card and inserted it themselves. So I am seeing it fairly frequently.
Here’s a good article about RFIDs and the overblown fears about them.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3023422/security/why-you-dont-need-an-rfid-blocking-wallet.html