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Swiping left on magnetic stripes

mastercard.com

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Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#4
"The magnetic stripe will start to disappear in 2024 from Mastercard payment cards in regions, such as Europe, where chip cards are already widely used. Banks in the U.S. will no longer be required to issue chip cards with a magnetic stripe, starting in 2027.

By 2029, no new Mastercard credit or debit cards will be issued with a magnetic stripe. Prepaid cards in the U.S. and Canada are currently exempt from this change."

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#5
post #2

I'll believe it when I see it. I heard signatures were going away years ago and yet I keep getting asked for signatures.

Haven't had to sign anything for 15+ years, newer cards don't even have the space for signatures (Europe/MasterCard).

I do have to do the mag-swipe maybe once a year, if the chip reader is acting up (still no signature, it asks for the PIN).

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#6
So most of my current cards (in Europe) have 3 interaction methods:

In order of decreasing readability/communication reliability:

1. Magnetic stripe

2. NFC

3. EMV

The EMV ("chip") method is the least insecure, but lately all of my cards have been started oxidating. And it seems like the pogo pins in almost all readers also started wearing out too. Chip reader failures have become very common lately.

It's very common that I have to both clean the card before using it and also bend it while pushing it into the reader to counteract the worn out pogo pins in the in-store reader. Super annoying.

NFC has been a saver, but because of the banks security risk (it's cleartext, after all) you can't really use it all of the time.

The magnetic stripe seems like it never seems to stop working. I've assumed I can't use it outside of my native country, though, perhaps incorrectly.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#8
I'm pretty sure the magstripe is already somewhat disabled over here. My debit mastercard refuses to work outside of the European union unless I disable the geo locking in the banking app, and when my chip was broken the readers kept telling me to put the chip in.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#9
post #2

I'll believe it when I see it. I heard signatures were going away years ago and yet I keep getting asked for signatures.

I think some of it is just them not marketing features. I was unaware that my card would do the NFC/no-pin-needed thing until I paid attention to someone in front of me in line one day.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#10
I sometimes keep my credit card near my iPhone. I have wondered about the impact on credit cards of the new MagSafe magnets in iPhones. I guess if there aren't magnetic strips anymore, I won't have to worry about it. OTOH, there won't be any backup if the chip doesn't work, which it doesn't always.
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