Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Swiping left on magnetic stripes

mastercard.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 325 posts

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#91

Post by syshum »

ryandrake wrote: post #65
aidenn0 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA is a big holdup. I just traveled across the country and there are still filling (petrol) stations where the only card reader is stripe. See also other comments about the stripe being a fallback for chip as chip readers on POS terminals seem to be more fragile than magnetic stripe readers. FWIW, Contactless is very hit-or-miss for me in the US; about 1/3 the time it just doesn't work at all (even with multiple…

Yea, the Achilles Heel of contactless (or phone/NFC) in the USA is the uncertainty that it's supported and the terrible UX for failure cases. How many times have you had this happen? Your groceries are all rung up and the POS terminal is waiting. You dig out your phone or contactless card and try to invoke the contactless payment system. Nothing's happening. You wave it around a little. Still nothing. Grocery cashier…

Atleast you are not the person still writing a paper check.....

I switched to curb side pickup, I hope I never have to enter a grocery store again

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#92

Post by nitrogen »

xahrepap wrote: post #67
throwawayboise wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The holdouts have long been the gas station fuel pumps. Though that is finally changing at least where I am many stations now support chip and tap card payments.

Gas stations around me (Utah) have all replaced their magstripe with a dual magstripe/chip reader. It drives me nuts though, because you still have to insert your card ALL THE WAY IN as if you're using the mag stripe, and then it decides which one to use. Are gas stations not a big target for skimmers? Why didn't they design it to avoid the magstripe-skimmers? have two inserts or something, I don't care. But now we'r…

A lot of pumps with the chip readers also have contactless readers, but the on-screen prompts still just say "insert card". If your chip card is also contactless, you should be able to just hold it in front of the contactless reader and save both time and wear.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#93

Post by kzrdude »

lrem wrote: post #48
kuroguro wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Got a new Mastercard in Europe this year, still with signature space. Same for Visa from two banks.

Got a new mastercard (debit) without signature field and a mastercard (credit) with embossed numbers and signature field. It makes sense with the debit/credit split.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#94

Post by fullstop »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #84
fullstop wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Target, at least in the USA, supports tap & pay. Home Depot is still holding out, though.

Do mobile devices work? The Target here does not accept Apple Pay…

Yes, I use my Android device. They list Apple Pay as being supported. [1]

1. https://help.target.com/help/subcategoryarticle?childcat=Acc...

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#95

Post by bluGill »

bovermyer wrote: post #80
ryandrake wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, the Achilles Heel of contactless (or phone/NFC) in the USA is the uncertainty that it's supported and the terrible UX for failure cases. How many times have you had this happen? Your groceries are all rung up and the POS terminal is waiting. You dig out your phone or contactless card and try to invoke the contactless payment system. Nothing's happening. You wave it around a little. Still nothing. Grocery cashier…

I dunno, I've had plenty of instances where swiping a card doesn't work. Sometimes I'd have to put a plastic bag around the card and _then_ swipe it.

Those exist, but they are somewhat rare overall. The chip does take a lot longer than it should in most cases (I'll give them 2 seconds - which is enough time to cross satellites in geosynchronous orbit, for land based internet connections 50ms is plenty of time).

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#96

Post by Reventlov »

tpmx wrote: post #88
Reventlov wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's cleartext, after all What do you mean by "cleartext" exactly ? When I pay using my card with NFC, it's not really cleartext.

Real-world demo: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.dev...

Well… This kind of data you access with this app is not used to do contact-less payments.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#97

Post by derefr »

hamburgerwah wrote: post #37

Still a LOT of merchants that need to upgrade equipment to do chip cards including some large franchises. There is a real problem that chip reading devices do not yet have anywhere near the longevity that magswipe use does. Machines go out of service for repair and cleaning after as little as a month of use in busy locations. Magstripe machines typically lasted 12 months plus before needing attention.

Who cares about inserting chips into the machine? We're already well past that, to contactless payment — tapping the chipped card against the terminal like an NFC door tag. It still uses the chip, and can still require your PIN (depending on your bank); you just don't stick the card in the machine to do it. MTBF = approximately forever.

Inserting the chip is a fallback, or for high-value transactions. Both use-cases are low-volume enough that a POS terminal's chip-slot reader should see relatively little use/wear.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#98

Post by secabeen »

bovermyer wrote: post #80
ryandrake wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, the Achilles Heel of contactless (or phone/NFC) in the USA is the uncertainty that it's supported and the terrible UX for failure cases. How many times have you had this happen? Your groceries are all rung up and the POS terminal is waiting. You dig out your phone or contactless card and try to invoke the contactless payment system. Nothing's happening. You wave it around a little. Still nothing. Grocery cashier…

I dunno, I've had plenty of instances where swiping a card doesn't work. Sometimes I'd have to put a plastic bag around the card and _then_ swipe it.

I've had that too, but when that happens, it's obvious to others; they can see you swiping again and again. Failed NFC just looks like you're standing there.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#99

Post by nicoburns »

bryanthompson wrote: post #25
modeless wrote: 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…

Lot's of payment terminals in the UK allow the customer to input the service charge themselves before they enter their PIN. Otherwise the waiter/waitress typically asks you how much you want to pay before typing in the amount. If you're splitting the bill then they need to do that anyway.

Re: Swiping left on magnetic stripes

#100

Post by learc83 »

djhworld wrote: post #78
bryanthompson wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

When I was over there I constantly got confused around the tipping system and how some bars keep a tab open for you (by take your card and putting it in a little book at the back and then you pay/tip at the end) I didn't trust that so I ended up just signing the receipt and adding the tip to the bottom and keeping my card in my wallet. Needless to say I think the bar staff got a lot of tips that night!

>Needless to say I think the bar staff got a lot of tips that night!

You generally tip based on percentage or the number of drinks, so it shouldn't matter too much unless you're doing it by percentage and rounding up the nearest dollar.

Post reply on HN