Why has the US not Moved to Chip & Pin?

[Anonymous]

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@core wrote:

Yes, I suppose fraud can happen everywhere, but online is one of the best/safest places to do it.  None of these ridiculous security approaches will do anything about that.  The safest approach is Citi's.  They just decline the charge whenever you try to use it for anything, anything at all.  I bet they don't get much fraud there!

Although to solve the online issues, Amex was supposedly thinking about having a card with a little mini screen on it where the security code changes over time.  That was kind of novel, and would solve the online fraud problem.  I sure wouldn't want it in my wallet, since I grab my CC #'s out of a convenient text file when doing online shopping, but it's cool all the same.

The best security features are the ones that don't get in the way of your customers.

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I'm not sure that's a good idea unless you have really, REALLY good malware and virus protection and trust that the other people authorized to use your computer aren't simply going to copy that file onto a USB thumb drive.

[Themanwhocan]

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@Anonymous wrote:
The teller at my credit union told me they won't be getting chips in their cards until after "all the other big banks" have converted their cards to chip cards and everyone gets the kinks out. I told her about October 2015 deadline and she seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. Crazy.

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The problem with deadlines is... They get extended all too frequently. And the more businesses that play the waiting game, the more likely they can argue that the deadline was too soon and they need more time, yadda yadda, now we have a new deadline.

But really, its the fact that nobody likes memorizing the random number pins on one bank card, let alone on several credit cards. And if people start using cash again, then people stop over spending their budgets. Thats bad for business.

[CreditJim]

I don't know why some people are so anti chip & pin. I've lived in the US for 8 years now and the country I came from (UK) had chip & pin for years before I left. Granted, it's not the same size as the US, but there's still 56 million people and hundreds if not thousands of different banks, and everybody, old and young, managed to switch over to chip & pin on the deadline, supermarket checkouts still move (guess what, you know you can enter your card and pin BEFORE they finish scanning all your groceries, right?). Personally whether I'm on the hook or not for fraud, if I drop my card somewhere I feel better knowing they can't use it without having the pin number without having to go through all the fraud reimbursement when they've just squiggled any old thing as a signature. Yes, of course it's possible that organized thieves and fraudsters MIGHT be able to capture your pin somewhere with a camera but it's inherently safer than just signing any old signature.

[Anonymous]

I'm all for chip and pin. Most people don't have 10 plus credit cards and I actually use the same pin for all of my debit cards.

[core]

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@CreditJim wrote:

(guess what, you know you can enter your card and pin BEFORE they finish scanning all your groceries, right?).

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I did that once and the chick practically yelled at me.  Of course in my case it was because I had a little redemption slip from the beer can return machine and I wanted to apply that to the grocery total... entering your card early apparently prevents such things from being able to be applied.  At least at the store I was at.

See, it's all about implementation.  8 years from now I have no doubt that things will be somewhat more smooth.  But if all you're buying is a coffee, entering your card & pin early doesn't really gain you anything, does it?  You're still taking much longer than before.

[Anonymous]

Are we in that much of a hurry that typing in a PIN number is a big deal?

[Anonymous]

Meh, chip does take significantly longer. TBH I don't think we'll ever adopt PIN because we'll probably have gone almost completely to NFC before then (thus making it more of a waste of money than the banks think now). This might be because I see a future where most Americans switch over to NFC for day to day transactions by 2016, thereby "skipping" chip entirely.

[Anonymous]

Significantly? Because people put their pins in where I work everyday and it takes aboutb1.5 seconds if you know your pin. Actually it's mostly the people who are working the desk that take longer than the customers.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Significantly? Because people put their pins in where I work everyday and it takes aboutb1.5 seconds if you know your pin. Actually it's mostly the people who are working the desk that take longer than the customers.

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Chip in general, although this is really dependent on the equipment the store's using.

[core]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Are we in that much of a hurry that typing in a PIN number is a big deal?

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No, not a "big" deal.  But it is a small deal, and the fact that it inconveniences me even in the slightest just to protect the fat cat big banks doesn't sit too well with me.  And since I don't exactly shop at Tiffany's, I'd rather not linger around the stores taking in the sights.  Usually anyway.  I wouldn't mind so much if you could just insert your card quickly and then put it away, and _then_ wait for all the communication and pin entry or whatever.  That would be much better, if it didn't need the chip contact the entire time.  It also wouldn't be so bad if you just had one lonely card in your jeans pocket.  In a 5% cash back for everything world that one-card plan doesn't work out so well though.

It just takes a bit longer and it seems a lot longer because it's awkward waiting for the darn thing so you can have your card back.  Besides, the faster I can get out of the store and back to my car, the sooner I can start sniffing the glue I just purchased.