EMV terminal speed

[fiddycal]

Shopped at the Fresh Market for the first time the other day, and immediately as my card clicked in it said "remove card." This really threw me off, because my experience is usually waiting upwards of 5 or 10 seconds for it to process. I thought something had gone wrong at first.

So I'm curious what others' experience is with EMV terminal speeds and what factors affect that.

[Anonymous]

Bah...Ive had transactions post before i even get my card out.

okay so I use Apple Pay

[UncleB]

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@fiddycal wrote:

Shopped at the Fresh Market for the first time the other day, and immediately as my card clicked in it said "remove card." This really threw me off, because my experience is usually waiting upwards of 5 or 10 seconds for it to process. I thought something had gone wrong at first.

So I'm curious what others' experience is with EMV terminal speeds and what factors affect that.

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I've yet to encounter a 'speedy' EMV terminal but your post gives me hope.

That said, some are certainly slower than others... Publix is probably the worst I've experienced. 

I'm curious how the speed of our transactions compares to our friends overseas who have had EMV tech for years; I'm hoping theirs is significantly faster and that we'll eventually catch up.

[Anonymous]

Visa introduced a new faster program for processing EMV Chip Cards and it seems some stores must have it. Love the faster.

[Anonymous]

Most EU and some Canadian EMV readers are instant, but I'm not sure if this is because the predominant Chip+PIN storage is offline or simply that the readers are faster.

[fiddycal]

I think Publix has probably been the slowest for me too. Definitely hoping more places upgrade to these quick terminals soon.

[DeeBee78]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@fiddycal wrote:

Shopped at the Fresh Market for the first time the other day, and immediately as my card clicked in it said "remove card." This really threw me off, because my experience is usually waiting upwards of 5 or 10 seconds for it to process. I thought something had gone wrong at first.

So I'm curious what others' experience is with EMV terminal speeds and what factors affect that.

---

I've yet to encounter a 'speedy' EMV terminal but your post gives me hope.

That said, some are certainly slower than others... Publix is probably the worst I've experienced. 

I'm curious how the speed of our transactions compares to our friends overseas who have had EMV tech for years; I'm hoping theirs is significantly faster and that we'll eventually catch up.

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Costco has the upgraded Visa quick EMV technology on their card readers. Check it out next time you go in - it's as fast as swiping used to be. 

[Anonymous]

I got one of the "new" ones at a grocery store where they just put in new self checks. Threw me off too! It did fail the first time, however, so perhaps they're slightly too fast...

[Anonymous]

I have seen instant approvals at drive through fast food restaurants and convenience stores.  

The slowest I have seen is at our local Honda dealership.  Had the oil changed and small maintenance a few times and it's as if a person on a bicycle has to deliver a telegram.

At Zaxbys and Taco Bell it takes longer to print the receipt than it does for an approval.  The cashier is handing you your card back in two seconds.  Kinda confuses you as to whether you should wait until you get the receipt or drive off and be accused of stealing the food if it didn't go through.

[nyancat]

This is a trick being used in the US market only (to the person above who said Europe has instant EMV - LOL, umm, no. But we do have contactless which feels near-instant and the US desperately needs more of).

It's being called 'Quick Chip' or similar, and the most important thing to note is that it doesn't significantly improve the speed of transactions at all. Instead, it reduces the card-in-terminal dwell time (to almost instant).

While there are some technical differences (such as support for offline PIN mode), fundamentally Quick Chip is running something very similar to a contactless transaction over the contact interface. The most significant difference (vs contactless) is that the amount sent to use in the cryptogram to the card is a fictional amount that does not represent the actual amount of the transaction, so you can insert before getting the total (though I, personally, think you'd be crazy to do so - why on earth would you present payment without being told how much you're going to be charged?). Contactless quick chip allowing the same thing also exists, for the US market. Normally, you need the final amount before you insert/tap.

The most significant similarity to contactless is that issuer script processing is skipped, so the card can be removed before the authorisation response is received. This means that once the terminal is ready, the card read time is well under a second.

The total time is similar, however.