Live data from Hacker News

Swiping left on magnetic stripes

mastercard.com

21–30 of 325 posts

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#21

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.

My debit cards only work with the chip, although the stripe is physically present, it doesn't contain any data (apparently).

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#22
post #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…

I can't remember ever having paid using the magnetic stripe in Europe since 2010 (having been to Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, Romania and living in Germany), before I didn't use a credit card at all since it wasn't very popular here.

Honestly curios: where (and when) did you make that observation?

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#23
post #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).

I just got a new credit card recently. There definitely still is the space for signatures in the US. I actually once had a store turn me away because I didn't sign it.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#25
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.

There are some reasons it still exists, however, it is no longer required and merchants/POS systems ought to start phasing it out.

In the US, the way we do tip on receipt is a lot more natural if you're asking for a signature. Without a signature, you're just handing someone a tip option, which is awkward with our current way of doing things.

Some merchants opt to keep signature enabled because it gives them a fuzzy feeling and it's a point of closure to a transaction.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#26
post #12

Why does it take so long? Where’s the bottleneck? Where I lived over the last years (two countries in Europe), I don’t even have to use the physical card. I just use contactless payments with the phone. Prior to that, it was contactless with card. Even ATMs work with contactless (not all, yet). Prior to that, it was chip. I honestly don’t even recall the time when the magnetic stripe was needed. (edit) Think of this:…

It really is mind blowing to me. Especially in a pandemic, why why why require a signature for anything? This is one of the few things that would reduce exposure that we already have a technical solution for. I just don’t understand.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#27
post #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…

I can't remember ever having paid using the magnetic stripe in Europe since 2010 (having been to Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, Romania and living in Germany), before I didn't use a credit card at all since it wasn't very popular here. Honestly curios: where (and when) did you make that observation?

I made that observation from using a loyalty card from a grocery chain that only has a magnetic stripe. ~10 years from the same card now.

(Sorry, this was unclear from the first iteration of the observation.)

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#28
post #12

Why does it take so long? Where’s the bottleneck? Where I lived over the last years (two countries in Europe), I don’t even have to use the physical card. I just use contactless payments with the phone. Prior to that, it was contactless with card. Even ATMs work with contactless (not all, yet). Prior to that, it was chip. I honestly don’t even recall the time when the magnetic stripe was needed. (edit) Think of this:…

>I honestly don’t even recall the time when the magnetic strip was needed.

for when you fly over to the US and need to use your card

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#29

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.

That’s just a bit on the mag strip that encodes if your card has a chip present.

You can flip it with a writer and use the magnet strip again if you want.

It’s quicker as one doesn’t have to wait for the Javacard OS on the chip to boot up and handshake. (Ie swipe and walk away vs insert, wait 4 seconds, remove).

Wouldn’t do this on my debit card but it’s fine on credit cards with chargeback protection.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#30
post #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…

To echo my other comment: my chip broke on my debit card and the card refused to work with magstripe only (and it was broken in a way were the NFC thing also no longer functioned). So not sure if the magstripe has any functionality in the SEPA region based on that experience.

I think the magstripe is disabled in my region, I've never managed to use it on any of my cards. I tried testing it out to see if it even was functional. Surely they must work as I've heard quite a few stories of card skimmers...
Post reply on HN