@flan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@flan wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
+1. For the forseeable future, US is just going to be using chip + signature.
Signature is more or less a joke, because I have literally never seen a cashier compare a signature to that of the one on the card. However, at least the chip itself adds some security.
In the US, card present fraud with an actual lost or stolen card is very small fraction of card present fraud, and a tiny percentage of all fraud. The vast majority of card present fraud uses a cloned or otherwise faked card. The chip makes cloning the card hard, a pin adds very little security. If you can clone the chip, you can clone the pin as well.
PIN is useful for offline verification, and for pushing liability for fraud from the bank on to the customer. They can't get away with that fraud shift in the US, and offline verification has no real use in the US. So the only thing the banks get from pin is added expense. VISA are in the process of requiring that all online terminals accept the no customer verfication required verification method, so that things like automated fuel dispensers and ticket kiosks will work with US signature cards. If VISA are serious about that, it will happen fast. Chase is a more important customer than every transit agency in Europe....
What about the self-checkouts that will not let you complete the transaction without an attendant if you insert a chip and signature card? And the places (as rare as they are) that will see the signature line on the receipt, void the transaction and tell you "tough luck"? Or the places that will mandate ID because there's a signature slip, yet have no such requirement for their PIN customers?
Signature may be relatively pain free in the US but that's because it's more like not having cardholder verification at all.
Did you not read the sentence that says "VISA are in the process of requiring that all online terminals accept the no customer verfication required verification method"? VISA's merchant contract requires that merchant that accept visa accept *all* visa cards, not just those they feel like; visa is requiring online terminals take cards that don't support pin and do support 'no verification required', by this summer. There are some exceptions, and what will be interesting is to see how serious visa is about making non-compliant terminals go away. If they're really serious, they'll stop allowing them to be used, or charge a substantial surcharge on them. If they're not serious, they won't.
Note that none of the scenarios I listed involve the terminal itself rejecting the transaction, but rather the merchant applying their own rules after the fact. I'm also pretty sure one will get nowhere trying to explain Visa bylaws to a merchant that doesn't care, especially if there's a significant language barrier.
That said, most people probably won't have issues with chip and signature. Until they do.
and either at retail locations.
