The BA Chase card is available on a per request basis now. If you have it, call them up and have them issue you a card with the chip on it.

As for the second part, it's not like they're avoiding it. From the perspective of minimum wage earning cashiers who never been trained on it, less ever seen a card that only has a mag-stripe, nor even carry a card themselves that has only a mag-stripe, it is rocket science.

Put it this way: Most cashiers don't make a career out of being a cashier all their lives, most people there are for temporary jobs or something until they grab something better. It's the same in the US, Canada, Japan, the UK and pretty much any another country.

Maybe 10 years ago the cashiers would've known how to do it. But those who were cashiers 10 years ago probably would've moved up the food chain by now in other areas of work. By now cashiers have been replaced with the younger generation who are more acquainted with seeing people with chip-and-PIN cards. Understandable, by now 99% of their clientele uses chip-and-PIN, for the most part they probably never even had to do swipe-and-sign, more or less even seen one that only has the mag-stripe, and even more is that their own cards that the cashier use when they go buy groceries or whatever have the chip as well.

So what happens if a 1% American shows up? Maybe the older cashiers who've been at the job for 10 years because that's the only skill they have will know how to do it. But for the younger cashiers, those in their late teens or in their twenties who are only there part-time until they find something better or till they graduate college or some sort, they probably wouldn't know, they never seen one, likely don't even carry one themselves, and likewise never had to do it nor even given much thought about it either.

In the eyes of the younger generation, swipe-and-sign is rocket science since they never been trained on it. Sure it's easy, but stuff like that takes repetition, and repetition ain't happening because 99% of their clientele uses Chip-and-PIN.

Case in point: I was in Rosarito, Mexico last week. I used to go there every month ten years ago, and most of the cashiers at the supermarket (not where most Americans go) knew be my name and knew how to do swipe and sign. Like you said, it's not rocket science; swipe and sign was the norm for both US and Mexican VISA cards at the time.

Flash forward ten years later, I saw that the newer cashiers were stumped how to do swipe and sign. They were all young and most had to call a manager on how to do it. The manager was the cashier ten years ago and still remembered me by my name. He said that the younger cashiers don't know swipe-and-sign because all Mexican VISA cards have the chip on them these days so most people buy it through the chip now. And what's the likelihood of an American visiting a Mexican supermarket in this part of Rosarito? I understood and the next time around I just began paying in Mexican Pesos instead.

Now if you go to any tourist bar in Rosarito where they see lots of Americans, sure you'll have no problems doing swipe and sign. Swipe-and-sign is repetitious to the bartenders and workers there because in all likelihood 70-80% of their clientele are American tourists. But once you go off to the off beaten track where the locals hang around like the supermarket which rarely sees Americans, it becomes a hit-or-miss.

Heck, the same holds true for most things. Ever tried opening an European house door with multi-point turn locks or figure out how to use the bidet on Japanese toilets? For majority of Americans, even opening the door in Europe or flushing the toilet in Japan becomes rocket science because we're not accustomed to it; for them it's easy because they use it repetitiously.


Lesson here is that even if you think it ain't rocket science, that's because you're looking at from your own perspective. If you analyze the details, you'll learn that as time progresses and if it doesn't start to occur repetitiously, it does become rocket science. Hey, just look at how the younger kids these days don't even know how to write checks or send stuff by mail anymore and actually have to Google it or watch a youtube video on how to do them. I'M NOT JOKING, there actually is a youtube video on how to send a letter and how to write a check with comments saying "thanks, I never done this so it helped me a lot."

Surprised? But if you analyze it, it's understandable. Kids today haven't become dumber, it's just that with online billpay, easy to obtain credit and debit cards, e-mail, Facebook and Twitter, younger kids these days in all likelihood never even sent a letter or have written a check anymore; if writing a letter or a check doesn't happen repetitiously, it becomes rocket science to them.

If this rationale still doesn't seem to make sense, go visit your local supermarket and try to pay for your groceries with a check. In all likelihood, the younger cashiers would be puzzled on how to handle payment by a check these days because nowadays, most people just pay for their stuff with debit or credit cards. Paying for groceries with a check was the norm when we were kids; we saw our parents doing it, and the cashiers back then all knew how to do it. Nowadays, 99% of Americans pretty much pay for their groceries by cash, credit, or debit and the 1% who still writes checks tend to be the old-timer grandma and grandpas. Since it doesn't happen repetitiously, you'll likely see younger kids asking the manager or an older cashier for help, or even possibly to have them say "sorry, we don't take checks anymore" for the sake that they're more worried about getting through to the other customers standing behind the line faster.