Chip error from Disco/Google Pay ??

[expatCanuck]

Hi folks.

Paid at Trader Joe's via Google Pay/Discover this morning. No issues.

Tried to do the same at Giant a bit later, and the card/phone appliance (Verifone at both stores) generated a card read error. Paying by phone?!?

It also subsequently rejected the physical card once, then accepted it on the second attempt.

Thoughts? Should I request a replacement card?

[FinStar]

Sounds like a hardware issue since the card went through on the 2nd attempt.

You can always try it at another merchant to determine whether it takes via mobile wallet or if it fails even with the chip then request a replacement.

[GApeachy]

There's this one place we go and they always have to run it 3 times before they can enter the numbers manually to make it work...of course Discover sends an alert asking if it was us using the card.

But the ppl said it only happens with Discover and it always happens with Discover.  Sure enough, they are right x 4.

[Nomad3]

Speaking from the industry:
The chip reading consoles are relatively cheap and get "worn out" especially at POS's that get the most traffic. The majority of the time this is the case from what I've seen. Some merchants replace these frequently (sending the old one to be refurbished). The problem is the chip not making contact properly (usually) and one solution that I've personally used is to slightly bend down on the card sticking out, pressing the contact points together.

If your card is heavily used it could also be worn down contact points (not very likely), or the merchant doesn't clean the chip reader frequently (alcohol "credit card" inserted repeatedly to remove dirt)

Edit: read too fast and missed the Google pay part.. Lol.. Whoops

[UncleB]

I had a similar problem recently at Popeye's... I was using Samsung Pay but it was the same error.

It kept throwing an error message (it was clearly the NFC reader, and not MST), and I was just about to give up when it finally worked.

Since then it's worked fine everywhere else, so I suspect it was just that one reader.

[Anonymous]

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@Nomad3 wrote:
Speaking from the industry:
The chip reading consoles are relatively cheap and get "worn out" especially at POS's that get the most traffic. The majority of the time this is the case from what I've seen. Some merchants replace these frequently (sending the old one to be refurbished). The problem is the chip not making contact properly (usually) and one solution that I've personally used is to slightly bend down on the card sticking out, pressing the contact points together.

If your card is heavily used it could also be worn down contact points (not very likely), or the merchant doesn't clean the chip reader frequently (alcohol "credit card" inserted repeatedly to remove dirt)

Edit: read too fast and missed the Google pay part.. Lol.. Whoops

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And people wonder why I think that stores wouldn't have bothered with contactless at all had Apple not rolled out Apple Pay when it did. Even with Apple, there are still a fair number of places without the hardware (and a bunch more where it could work but terminal placement basically prevents its use).

Back on topic, though, I feel like Discover chip is more reliable than Discover contactless, mainly because they didn't get Apple Pay support until significantly after the other networks. Subway for instance still forces insertion if you tap a Discover card. I'm kinda surprised there hasn't been much movement in fixing that.

[Rudy1]

Same this happens to me they will make the card denied 3 times and then tell me to swipe it. Instead of inserting the chip.