Any drawbacks to EMV chips?

[Shock]

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@mongstradamus wrote:

I don't know if i am not understanding how to use emv chip cards properly, but some places i shop have the reader on the bottom i think you are supposed to slide in your card, but none of them work so i just slide it the old fashioned way.

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I think lots of them are not activated yet, even though they have the slot to insert the card. Refer to these pictures:

 If these have slots, I doubt theyre activated, only at certain big retailers)

 IME, these almost always work

[nyancat]

It would be very, very rare for a shop or terminal to be unable to read a chip card. The only way this would happen is if EMV was enabled, but the reader itself was missing or damaged. I've heard of some very isolated cases of this - countertop terminals that appear to believe they have an EMV PIN pad attached, but they really don't.

The thread posted here awhile ago, I FIRMLY believe was user error. The user flat-out refused to answer questions about how he was using it, but given he said he'd been doing it the same way for decades, I feel very confident that he removed the card too early. An EMV card in an EMV-enabled terminal must be LEFT IN until the transaction is complete. Therefore at gas stations, ATMs, ticket machines, etc you insert the card AND LEAVE IT IN until you're done if it is a chip card and the terminal is chip enabled.

Chip and PIN cards may be refused at some merchants in the US, if they have their chip terminal located in a place where customers aren't allowed or can't reach, and thus they will not allow you to type in the PIN. Tell them to try hitting enter to bypass the PIN. This may work.

Occasionally, there are reports of an especially dense cashier REFUSING to insert the chip card into the chip slot on their terminal. These reports seem to be mostly a thing of the past, however, as there are now too many chip cards in the market for people so ignorant to actually continue to exist.

I've made sure to carry a wallet with no magnetic stripe cards for awhile, and I've had no general chip card specific problems. I had some Amex chip card issues at Walmart, but these got resolved - and only affected Amex.

Conclusion - I would not hesitate to carry a wallet with only chip cards. There MIGHT be an incredibly rare acceptance issue, but it's far more likely for there to be user error.

[Fizzled]

I requested Chip + Signature and Contactless for my BCP primary and AU cards today.

I think the most important aspect of this upgrade is how cool they look. I'm in IT, so I guess these trivial things impress me. =D

[mongstradamus]

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@Shock wrote:

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@mongstradamus wrote:

I don't know if i am not understanding how to use emv chip cards properly, but some places i shop have the reader on the bottom i think you are supposed to slide in your card, but none of them work so i just slide it the old fashioned way.

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I think lots of them are not activated yet, even though they have the slot to insert the card. Refer to these pictures:

 If these have slots, I doubt theyre activated, only at certain big retailers)

 IME, these almost always work

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yeah i see an lot of the top picture and i try to slide mine in the bottom below where you type in pin and such. They yell at me what are you doing just slide it. 

[elegia]

Okay, cool - thanks for the input, everyone!

[_sidhe_]

I was in Target last night and tried to use the chip reader. It was blocked so the card couldn't slide in, and the guy at the register told me that it reads the EMV chip when I slide it. O.o

[nyancat]

The guy at your Target is especially uneducated and fails to actually think about what he's even saying, the slots are blocked because Target has EMV disabled.

[MoreRewards]

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@mongstradamus wrote:

I don't know if i am not understanding how to use emv chip cards properly, but some places i shop have the reader on the bottom i think you are supposed to slide in your card, but none of them work so i just slide it the old fashioned way.

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The walmart worker had no clue. I tried to slide the old way but it was saying insert. Id never used EMV and walmart clearly didnt tell their employees anything about it. Which is senseless.  He told me to let him swipe it over here (on his side) it will work. Of course it didnt. I said I have to insert it he comes over to my side and gives me my card but he wants to it in the wrong way. I was getting irritated. Im like it has to READ the chip. I dont like people much in the first place but Im not a rude person not his fault walmart installed these things without giving them info. But he was totally ignoring everything I said!!! At least he learned (I hope) so next person didnt go thit's even though that. For what its even worth  considering one of my last walmart trips a lady was trying to use a walmart MC with chip & it was disabled or something.

[nyancat]

Walmart disabled their chip enforcement because of some problems, mostly stupid people. Without enforcement it offers almost no security benefit, however, so Walmart took a giant leap back in security and set the card industry in the US back dramatically by setting a precedent for insecure practice.

Now, what I don't understand - why didn't you just follow the terminal prompts and insert the card, properly, yourself?

[MoreRewards]

So they did disable it completely? Im confused as to why they added it in the first place.
That's what I was trying to do. I guess it could have just ignored the guy. I swiped it being clueless myself not knowing about them having a reader & this being my first card with it. The terminal said something about insert EMV or whatever & he said give the card to him he has to do it on his side & it will work. When it didn't like he said he came around to my side I'm assuming they don't see where it says insert but he did see it on my side. Then I was going to put it in he's trying to take it & put it in the opposite way (so the chip would be hanging out).
Our gas station has similar terminal so I told my partner that he will have to put it in if he uses it there but nope you just swipe. I guess theirs has never been enabled at least that I know of.