Originally Posted by
diburning
They can't. Depending on how the chip is processed, the card number may or may not be transmitted at all, and if it is, it's encrypted so that RN can't see it. Rewards Network used to operate by being a man-in-the-middle where they check for registered card numbers when the charge is transmitted. With chip cards where the chip is processed (and not swiped), the actual card number is either not transmitted, or is encrypted, there's no way for them to tell.
Sending in receipts is a better than not having a program at all, because unless RN comes out with their own card processing system that they force the restaurants to use (which means chains will never join), there's no way around it.
Except there are some RN restaurants where I have been inserting the chip card (
not swiping) for a while and yet still every dine at those restaurants posts automatically just as fast as at swiping restaurants. (Though I still have to sign a receipt after using the chip feature of the card, and in fact I write in a tip, and the total with tip is the amount that posts.) So it is not as simple a problem as "read chip, cannot auto post".
What did you mean by "how the chip is processed"? Were you referring to signature vs offline PIN vs online PIN verification, or were you referring to card reader machines, or what?