Jan 16, 2017, 10:23 am
Last edit by: serpens
What is EMV?
EMV is a standard for smart (or integrated-circuit, or chip) cards and the devices that can accept them. The standards are maintained by EMVCo and based on ISO 7816 (or ISO 14443 for contactless).
These cards come in two flavours: contact and contactless. Examples below:
----------------------------------------------------------
Notice the contactless
indicator on the right-hand side (it looks like a sideways Wi-Fi symbol). It may also be found on the back of the card (for example, on the back of the new Costco credit card).Where can I get a chip card?
Hawaiian717 operates a website with crowd-sourced information about various cards. You can adjust the search parameters to see cards with contactless, have PIN-primary authentication, etc.
Which businesses accept chip cards?
tmiw operates a website, also primarily crowd-sourced, that tracks chip-enabled merchants on a map. You can see if a merchant supports PIN, contactless, Quick Chip, et al.
Why doesn't my chip card ask for a PIN?
This is likely because you have a signature-preferring card. At this time, PIN-preferring cards issued in the US are rare. Not many financial institutions offer them; most of them instead provide Chip-and-Signature cards, which are programmed to prefer signature over PIN, if the card supports PIN at all.
What is the difference between Chip-and-Signature and Chip-and-PIN?
To the cardholder, the only major difference is how they authenticate themselves at the point of sale. The cardholder inserts their card as normal; instead of signing a screen or receipt, they will be asked to enter their PIN on the keypad.
[spoiler]
A few financial institutions issue some form of Chip-and-PIN credit cards or prepaid cards. Prepaid EMV cards however are not recommended due to junk fees.
Why no PIN? (cont.)
American debit cards are unique because they are psuedo-PIN-preferring cards. which may work at many automated kiosks. However, bear in mind the word may is used above is a context where there is no absolute certainty of success for certain environments such as automated kiosks due to different natures of offline and online transactions.
What is the difference between Chip-and-Signature and Chip-and-PIN? (cont.)
Most cards issued in the US are programmed to prefer signature, so save very few instances, they will prompt for a signature (unless the merchant sets a signature waiver). A PIN may be necessary in countries with mostly PIN-preferring cards when using unattended terminals (such as pay-at-the-pump or mass transit). If the card has a PIN for backup verification or ATMs, then that PIN should work. Otherwise, the card will be rejected. If the card is rejected, then either a.) the transaction must be performed by an attendant or b.) an alternative payment method will be required.
Some credit union issued credit cards will have this CVM (Cardholder Verification Method) as secondary if Chip-and-Signature cannot be done. Chip-and-PIN is the more prevalent method of authentication used outside the US, especially in transaction environments where no human interaction is needed (i.e. automated gas pumps, toll roads, train kiosks, etc.).
One chip can hold a lot more data, therefore it is capable of doing multiple verification methods. That's one of the great things about EMV over the mag-stripe which can hold very little data.
I want to know for sure what my EMV chip does. Is there anyway I can test out my own EMV card to see what the CVM list is?
alexmt has written up a nice step-by-step procedure on Post #3615.
If most of the EMV cards in the US is the Chip-and-Signature type, doesn't that mean it's still useless abroad?
Depends if you see it as glass half empty or glass half full. See Post #3 for further details on how Chip-and-Signature has worked both successfully and unsuccessfully depending on the merchant transaction environment and use your best judgment whether which one is right for you.
I don't want a chip in my card. I heard horror stories all over the media saying hackers can steal my credit card info from a mile away.
There are two types of chips. One is contactless and the other is contact. Cards can be either one or the other, or both.
In the Google Docs spreadsheet, the cards that are capable of contactless payments are listed seperately under the "RFID or NFC contactless chip" column. If it says yes, then that means it has the ability to do contactless payments. If it says no, it doesn't have that feature.
The one that the media has overhyped about hackers "stealing your information wirelessly" was the contactless type like this:
You are worried about this happening, right?
You don't have to worry. EMV is a chip standard that can have both contact and contactless interfaces. With the traditional contact interface, this means you actually have to physically insert the chip into a POS terminal for it to be authorized, like this:
With the contact interface, nothing is wireless. No data is sent out in a stand-alone contact type EMV chip. With the EMV contactless interface, data is sent wirelessly.
Furthermore, contactless chip cards are required to show a symbol (looks like Wi-Fi symbol) somewhere on the card that to denote its capability as a contactless card. For example, here's an example of a Discover Card with contactless capability (in which Discover calls "Discover ZIP") showing the contactless symbol on the back of the card:
Don't believe everything that the media says. Besides, millions of people all over the world from London to Singapore, uses contactless payments daily in extremely crowded subways and mass transit with nary any problems. There are multiple layers of encrypted securities and keys that are needed to break the code.
Frankly, giving your physical card to a waiter/waitress who takes the card out of your view is much more susceptible to fraud than contactless payments.
Why should I care?
If you are an international traveler, you will want this because majority of the world has or in the process of converting to this payment format.
In fact, in 2012, even North Korea moved to the EMV format, leaving the US as one of the countries in the world that hasn't done so.
In addition, VISA, MC, AMEX, and Discover have all agreed to incentivize the USA shifting to EMV payments by 2015 by shifting liability for fraudulent transactions to merchants if they do not have EMV equipment and the cardholder has an EMV card. So if you travel internationally or would like to get one before the others, you might be interested in getting one.
BS! I had no problems using my card in [insert whereever country], [insert whatever point in time]
If you stick to the tourist path where they have lots of visitors from the US, you should have no problems using your mag-stripe only card in hotels and restaurants, at least for now. But as things can change as things go forward.
However, consider that once you start taking the off-beaten path, go to non-touristy places where they are not familiar with mag-stripes, rent a car and use toll roads, fill up gas, or try to buy train tickets you might end up into a trouble of the machine not recognizing your card because it lacks the chip. Furthermore, a lot of toll roads, gas pumps, and automated ticket machines lack any human assistance to help you when you need it the most.
But [insert credit card company] told me all merchants that display their logo must accept them! All I have to do is report them for violating their agreements, right?
There are several factors against this.
1. You can only speak English. The merchant representative, most likely a part-time clerk earning minimum wage, speaks in a different language, let's say French. If you have no French language skills, how are you going to get your point across? Are you going to whip out your cell phone at exorbitant int'l roaming charges and hope the customer service is going to translate it for you on the spot? Or maybe you might actually know French. But how about Swahili, Farsi, Balinese, or the multiple languages in mainland China?
2. Just like US, the rest of the world's businesses uses part-time minimum wage workers as cashiers to cut down on labor costs. Most of their SOP training manuals are written by MBA types to not to do anything they are not familiar with. Do not expect them to understand the intricate details of credit card mumbo jumbo. You don't expect Taco Bell employees to understand the minute details of Discover-JCB-Union Pay agreements, right? Same thing the other way around: be respectful as a guest in their country, prepare in advance in their ways, avoid being an "ugly American" stereotype.
3. You are a guest in their country. You are a minority. If 99.9% of their country's people and other tourists from around the world uses EMV, do you really think they are going to accomodate the 0.1% of American tourists who only have mag-stripes credit cards?
4. Again, you are a guest in their country. How would you, as an American standing in line, react if a Chinese tourist was clogging up the lines at a local Taco Bell because the clerk doesn't understand the Discover-Union Pay agreement and has trouble communicating between Mandarin spoken by the tourist and English spoken by the Taco Bell clerk? Same way the other way around. You do not want to clog up the lines for everyone. The less hassle, the better.
5. VISA and MC make tons of money from merchants in that country. Say SNCF French Rail. It's a billion dollar company in France. Do you think VISA is going to pull the plug of their relationship with SNCF because SNCF refuses to do mag-stripe processing at their unmanned train station kiosk? Of course not. Be realistic.
6. And lastly, if you're up against an unstaffed toll kiosk, gas pump or train ticket machine, are you going to yell curses at the machine?
But I want my credit card to be able to be used in the US too!
No worries. They have not gotten rid of the mag-stripe on the back of the card for backward compatibility reasons, just like we still have embossed numbers on our cards for backwards compatibility to using those old carbon copy imprinters.
[insert own Hyatt card image front and back together with red arrows pointing to all the backward compatibility features]
You use the chip on the front of the card abroad (for now), and the mag-stripe just like any other card for the US. Basically, you're increasing your credit card's acceptance rate by getting a card that both via the chip and the mag-stripe. You're getting a better deal for free.
And when 2015 comes along and US switches to EMV, you'll be way ahead of everyone else too!
So why did the rest of the world and the US moved/moving toward EMV?
Primarily, due to fraud concerns. You see, the mag-stripe has been with us since the 1950s. It may have been the most high tech thing back in the day, but with the technology that is available today, any shmo can pick up a $100 USB magnetic card skimming device off of eBay and get your credit card info.
And unlike skimming off contactless cards which actually need the person to have l33t programming skills, skimming off a magnetic stripe has become so ubiquitous that nary a day goes about skimming fraud going on somewhere in America, from gas pumps, Michael's stores (2011), Target breaches (2013), restaurant waiters/waitresses, to even McDonald's drive thrus.
https://www.google.com/search?q=skimming+fraud
These type of fraud used to be prevalent in Europe. But once they started switching over to EMV starting over 2 decades ago, this type of fraud went elsewhere. It went over to Asia, Canada and Mexico, Latin America, etc. etc. until they too began implementing EMV to combat skimming fraud. The US is practically the only country left that hasn't done so, therefore all the fraud that used to take place elsewhere is now happening here.
But EMV is old and it's not fool proof. Shouldn't we just skip over it and do something new instead?
Yes, EMV is old. It was developed in the 1990s, and its smart card payment predecessor was first introduced in France. But as of today, it has become the de-facto global standard of payments.
But then, what else is there? There is no other de facto global standard of payments alternative. For example, if we decide to skip over it and do something new, hypothetically like DNA matching technology, it still means US int'l travelers will continue to have problems abroad with useless plastic acceptance because no other country is using this DNA matching technology except the US.
Besides, nothing is fool proof. You can say that the bank vault isn't fool proof because you can crack it open if enough C4 is used. But your average low-life scumbag isn't likely to get military grade C4 easily either. But the bank vault does make it harder to get the bank's money over say a petty cash box. That's the point here. EMV is akin to a security tight bank vault, the old mag-stripe is akin to a petty cash box lying around inside the drawer.
I'm a business owner and I don't think EMV is going to take off. I'm not going to spend extra hundreds of dollars to upgrade my credit card machine. Convince me other wise why I should.
I can understand the added extra cost to your business once this switchover takes place. But before even saying that, look at your existing POS terminal. Does it have a slot somewhere to insert a card?
Most likely, if you had replaced your POS terminal within the past five years, you already have an EMV capable terminal. EMV is basically just not turned on yet from the processor and acquirer side.
If you have an EMV capable terminal, then a best bet would be to contact your acquirer to have the EMV feature turned on. You did your end of the deal already by having an EMV capable terminal, it is now the acquirers' responsibility to turn it on in accordance to the EMV switchover mandate.
And if you don't, you are going to replace your POS terminal anyway from common wear and tear. It isn't a hard switch-over. You can continue to use your POS terminal until it dies out because EMV cardholders will still have the mag-stripe on the back. And by the time your non-EMV capable POS terminal is up for replacement the market will be full with these newer POS terminals that can accept the mag-stripe, EMV, as well as contactless payments.
In addition, you may also want to check with your acquirer or processor about EMV capable terminals. Some of them are willing to replace your terminal for free in preparation for the US EMV switchover. Call and ask for details.
But what's in it for me? I'm the one that has to pay for the upgrade.
All the major card networks have given incentives for merchants for the upcoming EMV switchover.
If 75% or more of your credit card transactions are done on an EMV contact and contactless terminal, they are going to waive your annual PCI-DSS fees, which usually costs you around $5.00-$19.95/month per terminal. The overall long term cost savings of those compliance fees will be larger than the cost of an one time upgrade for the terminal.
The downside is that once EMV switchover happens and if you do not have a POS terminal that is able to accept EMV, the fraud liability shifts over to the merchant.
USA EMV cards: Availability, Q&A (Chip & PIN or Signature) [2017>]
May 14, 2017, 3:37 am
#1411
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,762
McDonald's works flawlessly. It's one of the few places in America I can use my MBNA card.
Isn't the whole point of this thread to push for global interoperability of cards. We travel. Our cards should work everywhere. So when shops like Wegmans decide to take shortcuts, ignore standards, and thus cause foreign cards to not work - that's an issue for me.
Isn't the whole point of this thread to push for global interoperability of cards. We travel. Our cards should work everywhere. So when shops like Wegmans decide to take shortcuts, ignore standards, and thus cause foreign cards to not work - that's an issue for me.
Of course the original purpose of these threads was to complain about the possibility of our chipless cards not being honored when travelling. And we clamored for chip and pin. And we indeed got the chip part but not always the pin. And that can become troubling from time to time and I am certainly not happy about that. And contactless has simply not caught on here. But the fact that many clerks do not know what to do is a function of just how few people have contactless and try to use it.
But strictly from the point of view of the overwhelming majority of commoners which the people here certainly aren't, who gives a damn? The cards always work here. They almost always work the few times they leave the country and travel. On rare occurrences, they may run into problems. The real purpose of this thread as originally set up was to point out just where and when there may be problems.
I travel but not as much as you and others do. I follow my own advice. I don't travel with just one card. Sometimes a perfectly valid card is declined because the link with the particular bank is down. It happens. Sometimes, in violation of visa/mc regs of course, a card is declined because of a lack of pin capabilities. The solution? Of course, nobody should travel with only one credit and one debit card for those reasons. Simply bring a couple of cards making sure at least one has pin capabilities. If you're really worried, bring one of the few (3 to be exact that we know of that are open to most everybody) pin preferred cards. Be prepared every so often when travelling to have some clerk mumble on his or her breath while searching frantically for a pen for you to sign to be slightly inconvenienced. But quite frankly, and this is not to demean anybody's sense of just what is important, in the end, the transaction will go through and life will go on. It's just, at least for now, not a big deal for me. What I want to know is where my card is going to work, where it isn't going to work and why should I care how the merchant decides to implement his business as long as he takes my card?
May 14, 2017, 3:46 am
#1412
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 3,537
EMV contact and contactless transactions work fine, of course. Shops NEED to upgrade. McDonald's did everything right. Others take lazy shortcuts that cause foreign cards to decline and result in decreased security for their own customers.
May 14, 2017, 9:39 am
#1413
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,592
You want to see a horrible payment system? Look at McDonalds and Rite Aid... Their EMV implementation is a big huge fail. Dumb cashiers that don't understand mobile payments... Slow chip reading process, EMV freezing the readers at Rite Aid (prompting signs to swipe your card first), swipe for debit and insert for credit (Rite Aid), contactless doesn't work at half of the terminals nationwide at McDonalds, and then in order for contactless to work, a cashier has to push a button first (yes I know I've said the last before, but really I'm allowed to have my opinion). I don't even think McDonalds allows debit with a PIN routing, which makes the pad worthless.
My card would decline if I tried it at Wegmans. Because they don't meet the standards and their insecure implementation will get declines from most non-US issuers.
Isn't the whole point of this thread to push for global interoperability of cards. We travel. Our cards should work everywhere. So when shops like Wegmans decide to take shortcuts, ignore standards, and thus cause foreign cards to not work - that's an issue for me.
Isn't the whole point of this thread to push for global interoperability of cards. We travel. Our cards should work everywhere. So when shops like Wegmans decide to take shortcuts, ignore standards, and thus cause foreign cards to not work - that's an issue for me.
Yes, it is actually failing with a decline if I use contactless (unless the shop has proper standards-compliant EMV contactless), and it declines about half the time when swiped - almost (but not quite) always at fuel pumps and occasionally at other shops as well (maybe 10-20% of the time).
May 14, 2017, 9:42 am
#1414
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,507
It may not be the most precise, but it still allows you to choose the card application instead of automatically selecting Debit and bypassing. More importantly, it's clearer for the general public. I personally couldn't care less how a retailer chooses to label their prompts; I care more about the overall flow/UX.
You want to see a horrible payment system? Look at McDonalds and Rite Aid... Their EMV implementation is a big huge fail. Dumb cashiers that don't understand mobile payments... Slow chip reading process, EMV freezing the readers at Rite Aid (prompting signs to swipe your card first), swipe for debit and insert for credit (Rite Aid), contactless doesn't work at half of the terminals nationwide at McDonalds, and then in order for contactless to work, a cashier has to push a button first (yes I know I've said the last before, but really I'm allowed to have my opinion). I don't even think McDonalds allows debit with a PIN routing, which makes the pad worthless.
Then again, I live in California, where mobile payment is probably more common in the first place.
May 14, 2017, 9:51 am
#1415
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,592
They likely wouldn't had to do that if the AID labels weren't so non-obvious. We know what "Visa Debit" and "US Debit" stand for, for instance, but the average person doesn't. Even auto-selecting the common AID and implementing customer choice via PIN bypass would be better.
May 14, 2017, 9:56 am
#1416
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,507
Another reason why we probably need Quick Chip: the liability shift simply isn't a big enough motivator. A lot of stores are perfectly fine with eating the fraud because EMV is seen as "too slow". If having it gets the holdouts to upgrade, that's probably a good thing overall.
On the other hand, the "need" for it probably would be much less if stores in general had better connectivity. Or if Visa/MC wasn't so hellbent against offline transactions for (most) small purchases. The latter would also have helped with standalone terminals that aren't allowed to have Quick Chip, too.
Ideally. If we're going to allow Quick Chip though, it makes sense to allow pre-tap too. Otherwise, contactless isn't nearly as worthwhile even if EMV still takes a few seconds. (Hell, contactless is kinda questionable now what with all the businesses that support EMV contactless still requiring signature for extremely small transactions even if a mobile device is used. Never mind the MSD only places.)
May 14, 2017, 10:00 am
#1417
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,507
That's exactly my point. ^ Wegmans and other retailers have to make things usable for the typical customer and not just people like ourselves. I personally don't like automatic Common AID selection, but again, it is better for the typical customer than the two somewhat-cryptic app labels.
May 14, 2017, 10:01 am
#1418
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: Skymiles
Posts: 3,251
It's a gimmick that a lot of Americans apparently want. Might as well give it to them if it doesn't significantly impact security, especially if it means that some will use cash more often otherwise.
Another reason why we probably need Quick Chip: the liability shift simply isn't a big enough motivator. A lot of stores are perfectly fine with eating the fraud because EMV is seen as "too slow". If having it gets the holdouts to upgrade, that's probably a good thing overall.
On the other hand, the "need" for it probably would be much less if stores in general had better connectivity. Or if Visa/MC wasn't so hellbent against offline transactions for (most) small purchases. The latter would also have helped with standalone terminals that aren't allowed to have Quick Chip, too.
Ideally. If we're going to allow Quick Chip though, it makes sense to allow pre-tap too. Otherwise, contactless isn't nearly as worthwhile even if EMV still takes a few seconds. (Hell, contactless is kinda questionable now what with all the businesses that support EMV contactless still requiring signature for extremely small transactions even if a mobile device is used. Never mind the MSD only places.)
Another reason why we probably need Quick Chip: the liability shift simply isn't a big enough motivator. A lot of stores are perfectly fine with eating the fraud because EMV is seen as "too slow". If having it gets the holdouts to upgrade, that's probably a good thing overall.
On the other hand, the "need" for it probably would be much less if stores in general had better connectivity. Or if Visa/MC wasn't so hellbent against offline transactions for (most) small purchases. The latter would also have helped with standalone terminals that aren't allowed to have Quick Chip, too.
Ideally. If we're going to allow Quick Chip though, it makes sense to allow pre-tap too. Otherwise, contactless isn't nearly as worthwhile even if EMV still takes a few seconds. (Hell, contactless is kinda questionable now what with all the businesses that support EMV contactless still requiring signature for extremely small transactions even if a mobile device is used. Never mind the MSD only places.)
May 14, 2017, 10:02 am
#1419
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 3,537
It's a gimmick that a lot of Americans apparently want. Might as well give it to them if it doesn't significantly impact security, especially if it means that some will use cash more often otherwise.
Another reason why we probably need Quick Chip: the liability shift simply isn't a big enough motivator. A lot of stores are perfectly fine with eating the fraud because EMV is seen as "too slow". If having it gets the holdouts to upgrade, that's probably a good thing overall.
On the other hand, the "need" for it probably would be much less if stores in general had better connectivity. Or if Visa/MC wasn't so hellbent against offline transactions for (most) small purchases. The latter would also have helped with standalone terminals that aren't allowed to have Quick Chip, too.
Ideally. If we're going to allow Quick Chip though, it makes sense to allow pre-tap too. Otherwise, contactless isn't nearly as worthwhile even if EMV still takes a few seconds. (Hell, contactless is kinda questionable now what with all the businesses that support EMV contactless still requiring signature for extremely small transactions even if a mobile device is used. Never mind the MSD only places.)
Another reason why we probably need Quick Chip: the liability shift simply isn't a big enough motivator. A lot of stores are perfectly fine with eating the fraud because EMV is seen as "too slow". If having it gets the holdouts to upgrade, that's probably a good thing overall.
On the other hand, the "need" for it probably would be much less if stores in general had better connectivity. Or if Visa/MC wasn't so hellbent against offline transactions for (most) small purchases. The latter would also have helped with standalone terminals that aren't allowed to have Quick Chip, too.
Ideally. If we're going to allow Quick Chip though, it makes sense to allow pre-tap too. Otherwise, contactless isn't nearly as worthwhile even if EMV still takes a few seconds. (Hell, contactless is kinda questionable now what with all the businesses that support EMV contactless still requiring signature for extremely small transactions even if a mobile device is used. Never mind the MSD only places.)
May 14, 2017, 10:03 am
#1420
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 3,537
But would you insert your card before pressed it and you saw the amount on the terminal? Unless it was Target, which had a really nasty implementation where the amount NEVER shows on the terminal leaving you feeling very sketchy.
May 14, 2017, 10:19 am
#1421
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,507
PetSmart is another example of an EMV contactless supporting retailer that doesn't support CDCVM (though this was a while ago and might have been fixed by now).
May 14, 2017, 4:51 pm
#1422
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: HHonors, TrueBlue, Delta SkyMiles, Hyatt Discoverist, Starwood Preferred Guest, American Airlines.
Posts: 2,035
You're right about Rite Aid - their software is truly awful. McDonalds, however, have pretty much nailed it. You're not supposed to be able to tap before totalling; I don't consider that "not working at half the terminals nationwide" - they're following standards. It's not a matter of opinion to say that McDonalds have a bad setup - you can dislike it but it's still to standard. Also, whether or not they verify PIN for most transactions, it's easier to buy a standard device that most likely has a PIN pad.
You're not supposed to have to wait for the cashier to push a "card" button in order to tap your card... Tap is meant to be quick and the idea is "tap and go."
My card would decline if I tried it at Wegmans. Because they don't meet the standards and their insecure implementation will get declines from most non-US issuers.
My card works with tap and that's all I really care about. I don't have to meet resistance while a cashier needs to push "card" and sits and watches me try to use my card to tap and pay, not even understanding what I'm doing. I don't have to meet the resistance of stupidity when I'm allowed to use my card while the cashier is occupied.
Last edited by mikesyr18; May 14, 2017 at 4:56 pm
May 14, 2017, 5:08 pm
#1423
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,507
The software at McDonalds is awful, it's slow. It takes probably 20 seconds for the card to get approved. But at least I give Mickey D's props for actually implementing EMV, whereas another fast food joint by the name of Wendy's won't do it even after a data breach.
You're not supposed to have to wait for the cashier to push a "card" button in order to tap your card... Tap is meant to be quick and the idea is "tap and go."
You're not supposed to have to wait for the cashier to push a "card" button in order to tap your card... Tap is meant to be quick and the idea is "tap and go."
That kind of thinking is why Americans have problems with unattended terminals overseas and why we can't use AmEx or Visa with our mobile devices on the London Underground.
May 14, 2017, 6:22 pm
#1424
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Canada
Programs: BA Gold (OWE), Star Alliance Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,194
Reminds me of the two occasions when I couldn't buy alcohol because they don't accept passports or non-US drivers licences (even my Alberta licence and two passports weren't good enough). On one occasion it was in Montana, which lets be real is more likely to see Alberta licences (like mine) than New York or Florida licences. The temptation to smash the bottle or glass on the ground and be "oops, I would pay for it but according to you I'm either not old enough or not able to". If I worked in a service job here in Canada, I'd be very tempted to randomly discriminate against those with American licences or credit cards, just to give people a taste of their own medicine.
sorry rant over haha, the US has just managed to massively piss me off on several occasions recently.
May 14, 2017, 6:30 pm
#1425
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: Skymiles
Posts: 3,251
The software at McDonalds is awful, it's slow. It takes probably 20 seconds for the card to get approved. But at least I give Mickey D's props for actually implementing EMV, whereas another fast food joint by the name of Wendy's won't do it even after a data breach.
You're not supposed to have to wait for the cashier to push a "card" button in order to tap your card... Tap is meant to be quick and the idea is "tap and go."
Quite frankly I really don't care if someone from a foreign country can't use tap and go at a place like Wegmans while domestic customers can. Foreign shoppers represent less than a small fraction of 1% of their clientele.
My card works with tap and that's all I really care about. I don't have to meet resistance while a cashier needs to push "card" and sits and watches me try to use my card to tap and pay, not even understanding what I'm doing. I don't have to meet the resistance of stupidity when I'm allowed to use my card while the cashier is occupied.
You're not supposed to have to wait for the cashier to push a "card" button in order to tap your card... Tap is meant to be quick and the idea is "tap and go."
Quite frankly I really don't care if someone from a foreign country can't use tap and go at a place like Wegmans while domestic customers can. Foreign shoppers represent less than a small fraction of 1% of their clientele.
My card works with tap and that's all I really care about. I don't have to meet resistance while a cashier needs to push "card" and sits and watches me try to use my card to tap and pay, not even understanding what I'm doing. I don't have to meet the resistance of stupidity when I'm allowed to use my card while the cashier is occupied.