yugi

There was no other choice but a magnetic strip reader.

invisible

Yes, I understand that.

storewanderer

Oh, let's see... because the transaction time is faster? Because in a Chip and Pin country if you have a US Card, if you insert that card, you will be the only person around who has to "sign the slip" assuming the card will even work at unattended terminals... if you use Contactless you just tap and go...

Oh and on Apple Pay, if your card gets compromised during your trip and the issuer issues you a new card, the virtual card number on Apple Pay or Android Pay will reset immediately and you will be able to keep using that card immediately after you make the call to report your old card lost or stolen.

Lots of reasons.

storewanderer

Yes, it is embarrassing indeed to be "that customer" in a foreign country with a US issued card that is not Contactless who has to "sign the slip."

Like at that restaurant where they pass you the terminal to insert your card. Then you insert it, select the tip, etc. and as you hand it back to the server they see the slip print with that "OBTAIN SIGNATURE" message. "OH YOU HAVE TO SIGN THIS." "Let me go find a pen..." Oh we can't find a pen... sign with your fingernail...

Or at the self checkout terminal at the supermarket or Wal Mart with that US Issued Card that you inserted the chip where you pay for your items and the transaction is approved and processed and done but the alert comes up and the lights start flashing "WAIT FOR CASHIER TO OBTAIN SIGNATURE" then they come over and repeat same process trying to find a pen.

I agree fully with you it is very embarrassing to use a non-Contactless signature preferring (every card from the US...) card in a country like Australia or Canada where the vast majority of transactions are done via Contactless or via Chip and Pin.

Are you a troll or work for some merchant's marketing or payment department that is resisting introducing Contactless in the US or what? Look, you can make your own decision as to what you do. If you want to not use Contactless, don't use it. Deal with slower transaction times, hassle with card usage internationally, and sacrificing the security and convenience of using Apple Pay or Android Pay. The majority of US merchants are already on board, many with EMV Contactless and many with device cardholder verification. Banks are on board issuing Contactless cards. Mass transit is getting on board with Contactless readers at entrance gates (HUGE time saver). But it is your choice what you do.

der_saeufer

I'll pile on and say that my experience mirrors that of most people in this thread--I've had Google Pay via NFC in one form or another since 2012 (Nexus 4 owners represent!) and have had 99% success with it even in countries where it doesn't yet exist in 2019.

The one thing that doesn't always work is CDCVM, i.e. bypassing the local contactless without-PIN limit. For a transaction under the limit, if the terminal is contactless, the transaction works. Surprisingly enough, though, CDCVM usually does work--I've used Google Pay quite a bit in Germany and Belgium prior to its rollout and still do use it in the Netherlands (at least at places that take Visa/MC). Both of the cards I use in Google Pay are US-issued Visa cards.

I've also used Apple Pay, sparingly, from my work iPhone and though the sample size isn't that large, the results have been identical.

The 1% of transactions that haven't worked I attribute to hardware issues with the reader--I've had 3 or 4 times where the reader thought my phone was 2 or more cards no matter how many times I tried but accepted a physical contactless card. One of those was a London bus.

tmiw

It's not going to get better if no one even tries to make it so.

Speaking of getting paid, wouldn't you want to know if your terminal's having issues with a payment method that your customers want to use? I know I would.

(Also, I doubt "hours" of research would be required. There are probably only a few categories/reasons for failure that are the most common anyway, and those could likely be listed out in a wikipost eventually.)

I think sitting down and figuring out why fewer people are using their phones to pay than expected would be a good exercise. If nothing else, to see what can be improved/added.

Ultimately, it might end up being one of those generational things. Kind of like with checks.

One possibility is that it's something to do with offline transaction support. I believe Apple/Google Pay are set up to prefer authorizing online (if not only support such), while the same contactless card could very well prefer authorizing offline. Of course, this only applies to cards from some non-US countries as all US cards are supposed to prefer authorizing online when possible, whether one is tapping the physical card or using one's phone.

If the terminal is truly unattended, you won't be signing anything. While they're supposed to allow transactions on cards without PIN, it's not 100% guaranteed and people still have issues on occasion (though less often than was the case a few years ago).

Some food for thought:

1. The "no signature required" rule changes are supposedly worldwide now. Would the level of embarrassment be the same if non-US terminals adopted that on a consistent basis?
2. Is it really that huge of a deal to use a signature-preferred/only card in Canada, a country that probably sees enough US cards where signature isn't something unheard of? Likewise with Mexico.

Anyway, the biggest issue with chip and signature, IMO, is that it likely screwed over contactless adoption in certain industries for a while (if not forever). For instance, restaurants as noted above.

corporate-wage-slave

I remember my Germany experience vividly. I first successfully used it on an unstaffed ticket machine (Hamburg or Bremen), worked fine, ticket came out. Then I went into a brand name supermarket, bought a few Euros worth of groceries, tapped my phone in front of the assistant - she had a big badge on saying Frau Schmidt or some such. My phone pinged and a big tick appeared on it. The assistant looked like she had been electrocuted "Nein! Nein!" she exclaimed. She then called over the boss, and they checked everything and it looked good from their end, I explained this Android Pay thing (as it was called back then). They were a bit unconvinced and rang head office (transaction value probably 5€). Head office - after a prolonged wait - confirmed that not only had the payment been made but it would now be difficult to reverse. So with reluctance they allowed me to go on my way. Wasn't the fastest payment method but that was the humans rather than the robots.

I find it invaluable since I can link multiple credit cards to Google Pay, some of which have different charges for use in the EuroZone, USD and so on, so it's easy to swap around.

der_saeufer

I realize it wasn't your word for the situation, but I think embarassment is a seriously strong word for the inconvenience of having to find a pen. It's no more embarrassing than having an item whose barcode doesn't scan or having to wait while the guy at the sandwich shop makes an espresso.

During the few months that Google was ahead of the 'hackers' and successfully broke Google Pay on rooted devices, I used contact-only chip-and-sign cards on a daily basis. More often than not, the clerk handed me both copies of the slip. Otherwise, either the clerk or I busted out a pen and we were both on our way in less than ten seconds. American cards are not common at all here, and the amount of trouble I've had buying stuff from humans is almost zero*. Don't get me wrong, I like to avoid it too, but if I'm going to be embarrassed about something that goes on in the US it certainly isn't going to be signing card receipts.

If the no-signature rule is worldwide, no one in Europe has noticed. I have to sign the slip (or get handed both copies) every time I use a signature-preferring card.

* zero, with the exception of a cashier at an Asda self-check till who said "we don't take signature cards" after the charge had already processed. I had paid for the stuff and had a receipt to prove it, so I left anyway.

RedSun

I'll be happy to do that. So everyone will know I'm a dumb American. I like the traditional way of paying things. We are a country of bank plastics.

RedSun

If you travel overseas a lot, you should make sure your CCs work overseas. There are so many and many. It is your fault if you did not do that.

Please do not give the expression that US CCs won't work in foreign countries. This is completely false. At least I know people do not accept US CCs. That is China and folks there do not use CCs. They use phones to pay.... They get cash in their phones.

Also, you should know that now signatures are not required if you get chip CCs. Now almost all CCs get chips inside.

RedSun

I just do not want to spend my time to figure out the phone payments with iPhone, android, Huawei (a lot folks still get those), which banks and terminals etc.... It is not our jobs. But if this is something you really happy to do, go for it. Good luck with it.

invisible

Clear.

To all: please do not feed trolls.

RedSun

You started this whole thing. You can't control on what people express their opinions.

Points Scrounger

At this rate, maybe we ought to have a CDCVM thread? I had two SP charges go through over the Czech limit. One of them was a bit odd: the terminal displayed some sort of sinister looking message with a prominent nasty looking X which the clerk's English wasn't up to translating. Then Samsung Pay chimed that the transaction was successful, just as she was telling me to check my bank account to see whether they showed it as authorized.

tmiw

I believe the extension of the rule outside North America was extremely recent, so it might take a bit before becoming common--if acquirers bother, that is (and they might not considering that there's contactless payment and all).

I thought that's what the main contactless thread was about?