Originally Posted by
joshwex90
When using offline PIN, does the terminal still check the network to ensure you can make the purchase? (Sufficient credit) Or is processed as a purely offline transaction, like on a flight? I ask because I seem to recall that in France, the impetus for doing offline PIN was the high cost of connecting all these places to a network. But if that's the case, sounds like they can't communicate with anything...
Cardholder authentication (i.e. PIN) is not the same as transaction authorisation.
In Canada for example, we use offline PIN yet 99% of contact EMV transactions are authorised online.