PLeblond

I seriously doubt any merchant that works with tourists will decline selling you goods because the card doesn't have a ship. They may have to manually enter card numbers, though...

As for US issuing banks... I suggest you tell them that the world is no longer flat, the earth does indeed go around the sun and that they make a small effort to catch up to the rest of the world.

tmiw

The problem is that some US chip cards DO have a PIN, but signature is higher priority. To my knowledge there's no way to have the terminal try PIN next if the merchant doesn't like the signature or the fact that a slip printed out in the first place.

PLeblond

Every merchant asked me my preference before putting the card in. I assume their machines require them to chose the method before inserting the card.

Christopher

No, although jobsworth employees might be less clued-up, particularly if one strays away from tourist areas or tourist shops.

BadgerBoi

The advertising you saw was directed at Australians, not foreigners. If you have a foreign card and need to sign you won't have any problems.

JAldrich73

US issuing banks do have the Chip & Sign cards. I asked Citibank about the Chip & PIN cards like they have in Australia, and they stated they are awaiting Congressional approval (which we all know what that means).

The issue is right now, under current US banking laws, credit card companies make less money on PIN-based transactions than standard signature-based credit transactions. So, credit card companies will not make the Chip & PIN cards in the US until Congress directs them.

I think the government will get around to it about the same time they switch to the metric system and they switch to the dollar coin!

PLeblond

Do you have a source or explanation for this? Every business I have worked in had percentage rates per transaction, regardless of method of entry.

tmiw

I thought that only applied to debit cards, not credit cards.

PLeblond

Indeed, I can't say this information is current, but the last time I analyzed it for a previous employer, Interac (the Canadian debit card system) charged a flat fee per transaction and not a percentage of the amount.

JAldrich73

Before I went to Australia back in February, I had called Citibank to see if I could get a Chip & PIN credit card. I told them when I would visit people in Australia, with their cards they could punch a PIN number instead of a signature. The Citibank rep told me they could give me a card that had a Chip, but it would still require me to fill out a signature. I asked why I couldn't get a Chip and PIN card, the Citibank rep informed me that due to current US banking regulations, it is not available in the United States. She told me that under current US regulations, all PIN-based transactions are classified as Debit transactions, so until Congress changes the rule to allow PIN-based credit transactions, credit card companies are not eager to create Chip & PIN credit cards in the US as they do for Canada, Australia, and Europe. I have done work with PCI compliance, and it is a complicated mess. The closest thing they have right now on Credit transactions is they can ask for your ZIP code.

Here is a link to a Bankrate article that best explains the mess in the US. It basically boils down to who would pay for a mass rollout and who would be liable for fraud:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/cred...-coming-1.aspx

PLeblond

Thanks for the article. It follows pretty much what i had read. I'm still fuzzy about the debit cart rate because its a pin & chip though. It is still a credit card, so replacing a signature with a pin doesn't change the mechanism, in my Opinion.

When reading between the lines, it seems the lawyers are mucking it up. If all of Europe and most of Asia has moved to the technology, the overall savings must be there somewhere...

AA_EXP09

Example: Paypal Here (UK)
Link
Under Fees:
'There are no monthly fees or hidden costs. Getting the card reader is a one-off purchase of £69.95 (incl. VAT and free delivery). Then you just pay 2.75% for every payment you accept with Chip and PIN cards and/or PayPal check-in*.

* Terms and conditions apply. Subject to application approval. Other fees: 3.40% + 20p for card payments made by swiping the magnetic strip or manually entering the card details. These fees apply to domestic transactions. If the payer’s card or PayPal account is from outside the United Kingdom, our standard cross-border fees also apply. PayPal Business account fees apply to all other payments received using PayPal Here.

Delivery: Delivery of the PayPal Here card reader is free to all UK addresses.'

(though this is not a great solution as I know a UK merchant who has a globalpayments system that pays lower interchange. Also from what I know merchants who must use magnetic stripe as a result of EMV failure are charged standard interchange as if the chip was working.)

PLeblond

So in your example, fees are lower when chip & pin are used? Also, debit & credit transactions are the same rate?

tmiw

That article seems to be more about why the US hasn't switched to EMV rather than why we've chosen signature as the authentication method for it. Also, the UK had to add liability laws similar to the US precisely because the banks there weren't covering people for fraud.

Speaking of signature, the media should be more honest/knowledgeable and say we're adopting chip and signature instead of confusing it with chip and PiN.

PLeblond

How is a signature better than a PIN? My debit card was cloned (pre-PIN) and all I had to do was change the PIN and all was good.

You can't suddenly call your bank to change your signature....