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Hi to all.
My wife was in Bed, bath, and Beyond yesterday, and tried to use her Citi Double Cash. The chip reader rejected it twice, and the line behind her was pretty long. She used her Costco Visa instead. The next store, Citi worked fine.
It got me to thinking what if she were in a store and only had AMEX as a backup, and they didn't take AMEX?
That is my situation. As mentioned previously, I only carry Citi DC and AMEX BCP to simplify my charging. I have Cap One Savor and Chase Freedom in the SD.
Rare as this incident was, it still happened.
I wonder , in my case, whether AMEX BCP (which I only really use for the 6% groceries) is a decent backup for the Citi DC or should I use
one of the other two cards I have as a backup in the wallet in case this happens to me and the store does not take AMEX.
Or am I worrying too much and don't need to carry a backup other than the AMEX?
Have a great Christmas, all of you, in any case. I have learned so much from this forum !!
Do you carry your debit card? That could be your second backup (though you wouldn't get rewards).
Assuming you use a cell phone, consider loading a mobile wallet with one of the SD cards. You don't need to use it except in these backup cases
Is this a question of a wallet's physical capacity, or of organizational simplicity?
If the former, a mobile wallet may be an option as discussed.
If the latter, you can carry a card and simply decide to only use it if any when the two other cards are, for whatever reason, unusable.
Simply swipe the card; the magnetic strip should still work.
Also sometimes it helps to clean the front of the card near the chip.
@Anonymous wrote:Simply swipe the card; the magnetic strip should still work.
Also sometimes it helps to clean the front of the card near the chip.
This.
DW only tried the chip twice. Often the cashier wants to see three failures on the chip, then the terminal goes to swipe, and the mag stripe should work. If the chip isn't working and you know the card is fine, the cashier will often take steps to get it to work. The inconvenience of 30 more seconds to the people behind you .... is not. If they wanted to get out ahead of you, they should have made their purchase decisions earlier.
The mobile wallet (in your phone) is good also, though that does require appropriate phone and terminal.
And in this case, with a national retailer, AMEX would have been just as good.
@NRB525 wrote:If they wanted to get out ahead of you, they should have made their purchase decisions earlier.
Lol.....game....set....match!
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