The same change occurred gradually in Europe starting about ten years ago. No more swiping, always chip and PIN. They were slow at first, but as time went on the chip readers got better and mobile speeds got better (most of the chip readers use a simple 3G data connection). Sure, sometimes it can take up to ten seconds, but I’ll gladly trade that for added security. Europe uses chip-and-PIN though, before it was swipe-and-signature.
On the other hand, chip and signature seems idiotic. It’s the worst setup imaginable.
I imagine that it has to do with the hardware in the card reader systems. I’d also guess that reading data off the chip, applying any crypto (not sure if this happens in the card reader though?) is just much slower than reading a magnetic strip.
Yeah, but we’ve been using these machines in Canada and Europe for a long time now, and while they used to be slow, they haven’t been as slow as these news articles from the US make them out to be in ages.
So it seems weird that the US, being as spectacularly late to the party as it is, is re-experiencing old problems. All of the inherent slowness was optimized years ago in the rest of the world.
edit: but maybe it’s related to this bizzaro US-specific chip-and-not-pin system that the rest of the world isn’t using.
Chip and signature, while it should not be the main authentication system, is important for accessibility. There are many people with motor difficulties for whom entering a number on a PIN pad is difficult or impossible but who can reliably reproduce some kind of drawing that can function as a signature.
Indeed. In the UK at least it’s possible to request a bank to issue you with a card that requires a signature when used (see the FAQ and the RNIB site), a “chip and signature” card.
Chip-and-signature also seems to be surprising to vendors. I went on vacation to Canada last month and several people at hotels, restaurants, etc. expressed surprise when their machine printed out a signature page. They said things like, “I’ve not had to ask someone for their signature in months!” or “I’ve never seen this before. I guess you have to sign this.” I’d just say, “This is normal for me. Je suis américain.”
Yeah, I’ve literally never seen a chip-and-signature transaction in Canada. Didn’t even know it was a thing until Americans started talking about it. The non-US world has standardized on chip-and-pin pretty much exclusively.
Canada has had the PIN & chip in almost all of our cards (debit & credit) for many years now and I don’t think there was even a problem with them when they were introduced. I remember when I was working retail in 2010 the hardest part was making sure the customer knew which way the chip went into the reader - I worked at Future Shop (Best Buy) and they have their own proprietary card reader that was just a terrible terminal to use either way. With debit cards you always had a pin number, so that didn’t really change. I guess the biggest change was for credit when you no longer had to sign anything. It just boggles my mind how its been such a shit show to introduce new technology down there.
Speaking of debit, I recently realised that my debit card has one of those ‘tap’ chips built in. For some reason, I thought that only credit cards had em. Pretty nifty.
I’m such a sucker for the RFID reader solely because of the ease. Nothing worse than starting a line up at a coffee shop just because you don’t have any change on you.
This is another way in which the boring, super-conservative retail banking sector in Canada wins out over the products of untrammeled deregulated competition in the States. I love boring banks.
The same change occurred gradually in Europe starting about ten years ago. No more swiping, always chip and PIN. They were slow at first, but as time went on the chip readers got better and mobile speeds got better (most of the chip readers use a simple 3G data connection). Sure, sometimes it can take up to ten seconds, but I’ll gladly trade that for added security. Europe uses chip-and-PIN though, before it was swipe-and-signature.
On the other hand, chip and signature seems idiotic. It’s the worst setup imaginable.
I wonder why they are so slow in the first place in the US. It usually takes around a second in Europe.
I imagine that it has to do with the hardware in the card reader systems. I’d also guess that reading data off the chip, applying any crypto (not sure if this happens in the card reader though?) is just much slower than reading a magnetic strip.
Yeah, but we’ve been using these machines in Canada and Europe for a long time now, and while they used to be slow, they haven’t been as slow as these news articles from the US make them out to be in ages.
So it seems weird that the US, being as spectacularly late to the party as it is, is re-experiencing old problems. All of the inherent slowness was optimized years ago in the rest of the world.
edit: but maybe it’s related to this bizzaro US-specific chip-and-not-pin system that the rest of the world isn’t using.
Chip and signature, while it should not be the main authentication system, is important for accessibility. There are many people with motor difficulties for whom entering a number on a PIN pad is difficult or impossible but who can reliably reproduce some kind of drawing that can function as a signature.
Indeed. In the UK at least it’s possible to request a bank to issue you with a card that requires a signature when used (see the FAQ and the RNIB site), a “chip and signature” card.
Do you have any study about this? I also see advantages on using a pin keyboard for visually impaired people over signing.
Anyway, here in Europe all pin and chip are also usable with signature, be that chip&sign or via magnetic strip.
The US has a bad habit of half-assing these things. The healthcare “system” is another good example of this. None of the systems talk to each other.
Chip-and-signature also seems to be surprising to vendors. I went on vacation to Canada last month and several people at hotels, restaurants, etc. expressed surprise when their machine printed out a signature page. They said things like, “I’ve not had to ask someone for their signature in months!” or “I’ve never seen this before. I guess you have to sign this.” I’d just say, “This is normal for me. Je suis américain.”
Yeah, I’ve literally never seen a chip-and-signature transaction in Canada. Didn’t even know it was a thing until Americans started talking about it. The non-US world has standardized on chip-and-pin pretty much exclusively.
Canada has had the PIN & chip in almost all of our cards (debit & credit) for many years now and I don’t think there was even a problem with them when they were introduced. I remember when I was working retail in 2010 the hardest part was making sure the customer knew which way the chip went into the reader - I worked at Future Shop (Best Buy) and they have their own proprietary card reader that was just a terrible terminal to use either way. With debit cards you always had a pin number, so that didn’t really change. I guess the biggest change was for credit when you no longer had to sign anything. It just boggles my mind how its been such a shit show to introduce new technology down there.
Speaking of debit, I recently realised that my debit card has one of those ‘tap’ chips built in. For some reason, I thought that only credit cards had em. Pretty nifty.
I’m such a sucker for the RFID reader solely because of the ease. Nothing worse than starting a line up at a coffee shop just because you don’t have any change on you.
This is another way in which the boring, super-conservative retail banking sector in Canada wins out over the products of untrammeled deregulated competition in the States. I love boring banks.
Yeah the UX is just terrible. I sincerely hope token based payment options like ApplePay squash this whole chip thing dead.