@Anonymous wrote:
@FireMedic1 wrote:@Aim_HighOne store took one of their bags put my card in it. Then placed it in the reader. It worked. And the ole rub your thumb over the chip a few times. Just like your phone. Body oils and stuff get on cards.
This assumes that the chip is basically ok and something is just "getting in the way" (a very technical term) of it being read correctly. I believe @Aim_High is asking about where the chip is functionally not working, so no workarounds short of replacing the chip will work. I guess there is some belief here that that doesn't happen!
@AnonymousI am not allowed to tell a short story? That worked? I thought it was comical. Lady told me it worked because their terminal is old and worn out. We all have had a chip not work at times. I know what AimHigh is talking about. I've had 4-5 cards replaced due to bad chips. And 1 forgot to pull my wallet out when taking a Patient to the MRI room in an emergency. That will wipe it clean real quick.
@FireMedic1 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@FireMedic1 wrote:@Aim_HighOne store took one of their bags put my card in it. Then placed it in the reader. It worked. And the ole rub your thumb over the chip a few times. Just like your phone. Body oils and stuff get on cards.
This assumes that the chip is basically ok and something is just "getting in the way" (a very technical term) of it being read correctly. I believe @Aim_High is asking about where the chip is functionally not working, so no workarounds short of replacing the chip will work. I guess there is some belief here that that doesn't happen!
@AnonymousI am not allowed to tell a short story? That worked? I thought it was comical. Lady told me it worked because their terminal is old and worn out. We all have had a chip not work at times. I know what AimHigh is talking about. I've had 4-5 cards replaced due to bad chips. And 1 forgot to pull my wallet out when taking a Patient to the MRI room in an emergency. That will wipe it clean real quick.
I've seen that bag trick once or twice, @FireMedic1, but I'll admit none of us tried that one with this card. But it was wiped and wiggled and reinserted with no change in the results, and this was at maybe a dozen different terminals before I gave up and called Chase to replace it. I also thought it was odd that it was a brand-new card, so it wasn't due to excessive wear, but might be a manufacturing defect. For grins, I scrubbed the card with a heavy duty scouring sponge to try to clean off any residue and may try it again ... for science. It scratched the plastic some but it's no biggie since another card is on the way. Still, it's curious to me since the contactless payments still worked well, so apparently the internal part of the chip is intact. It's just not making contact via the chip insertion.
@Aim_High wrote:
@FireMedic1 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@FireMedic1 wrote:@Aim_HighOne store took one of their bags put my card in it. Then placed it in the reader. It worked. And the ole rub your thumb over the chip a few times. Just like your phone. Body oils and stuff get on cards.
This assumes that the chip is basically ok and something is just "getting in the way" (a very technical term) of it being read correctly. I believe @Aim_High is asking about where the chip is functionally not working, so no workarounds short of replacing the chip will work. I guess there is some belief here that that doesn't happen!
@AnonymousI am not allowed to tell a short story? That worked? I thought it was comical. Lady told me it worked because their terminal is old and worn out. We all have had a chip not work at times. I know what AimHigh is talking about. I've had 4-5 cards replaced due to bad chips. And 1 forgot to pull my wallet out when taking a Patient to the MRI room in an emergency. That will wipe it clean real quick.
I've seen that bag trick once or twice, @FireMedic1, but I'll admit none of us tried that one with this card. But it was wiped and wiggled and reinserted with no change in the results, and this was at maybe a dozen different terminals before I gave up and called Chase to replace it. I also thought it was odd that it was a brand-new card, so it wasn't due to excessive wear, but might be a manufacturing defect. For grins, I scrubbed the card with a heavy duty scouring sponge to try to clean off any residue and may try it again ... for science. It scratched the plastic some but it's no biggie since another card is on the way. Still, it's curious to me since the contactless payments still worked well, so apparently the internal part of the chip is intact. It's just not making contact via the chip insertion.
@Aim_High BINGO! 4 cards in 7 yrs were Chase Debit cards. Now that I left to go to WF's Early PD. Dont have to worry about it anymore.
Can't say that I've ever had a chip issue that I can recall, but speaking of Chase, my CSP doesn't seem to do well with tapping. I already replaced it once, and I think the new(er) one is also not tapping well. The only problem is I don't use my CSP too often, so it's tough to tell if it's the reader or the card.
I see a lot of you getting close to the issue but no one has really nailed it yet.
The THICKNESS of newer cards is "not a precise thing" across several issuers.
Cards (and driver's licenses alike) have been getting thinner over time to save plastic, but it's been causing more headaches for consumers and merchants. Especially as more merchants adopt policies - however arbitrary - against keying in card numbers when the card won't get a readable swipe.
Neither the inner workings of chip readers nor magstripe readers have a very wide range of movement. It's not a coil spring in the classical sense, is simply thin pieces of metal to allow for basic (limited) travel to glide over any sharp edges on a SPECIFIED card thickness.
I think the real solution here is to add thickness to the card at the back, as the chip has a zero tolerance for anything BUT direct electrical contact with the reader. I've seen cashiers get successful swipes with a magstripe card by putting it inside a plastic bag and swiping. Just needs a hair more like a piece of window tint.
@CashOutReFi wrote:I see a lot of you getting close to the issue but no one has really nailed it yet.
The THICKNESS of newer cards is "not a precise thing" across several issuers.
Good point, @CashOutReFi, and you might be on to something here.
I think there could be more than one issue at play, depending on the card or chip, but this could certainly be valid.
@Aim_High wrote:... For grins, I scrubbed the card with a heavy duty scouring sponge to try to clean off any residue and may try it again ... for science. It scratched the plastic some but it's no biggie since another card is on the way. Still, it's curious to me since the contactless payments still worked well, so apparently the internal part of the chip is intact. It's just not making contact via the chip insertion.
Update on my "experiment." Much to my shagrin, that chip seems to be working now. 
I tried it on three separate transactions and it was never declined; in fact, it worked very promptly. Since the card was brand new, I have clean hands when pulling my cards out, and I don't normally touch the chip, I'm thinking that perhaps there was some film/residue from manufacturing (adhesive?) that I scrubbed off. I just used the kitchen scrubber sponge with a little dish soap. After seeing the video where the contactless payment still uses the chip for processing, it made me wonder if cleaning the chip again would help. It had been wiped off but not washed since the problems began.
Meanwhile, I received the replacement card from Chase. But the thread has still been some interesting discussion.