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Europe's Square

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Re: Europe's Square

#101

Post by [deleted] »

buro9 wrote: post #35
hopeless wrote: post #15

What's all this "sign with your finger" nonsense? With Chip & PIN cards (i.e., all our modern credit cards) you should just need the chip & PIN. Signatures are only a backup authentication. Also, signing with anything other than a pen and paper is still a disastrous user experience (see every courier's PDA system ever built)

PIN keypads have to be secure... totally secure. Passing through the iPhone isn't security. For them to include a PIN entry system, they would need to do so on the chip reader device itself (non-iPhone). The keypads for PIN entry systems always hash the PIN before it leaves the keypad... no other software gets the PIN. If you cannot offer secure PIN entry, then you cannot offer PIN entry. You can still take a signatu…

[deleted]

Re: Europe's Square

#102

Post by TorKlingberg »

antr wrote: post #64
arethuza wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for car park payment machines in the UK - which seem to accept your card and don't ask for a PIN or a signature.

very true, i guess there might be exceptions due to average transactions sizes. 5 GBP for parking might not compare to a 3,000 GBP Louis Vuitton purse

Also parking is not very interesting for people with stolen cards. They want cash or something they can sell.

Re: Europe's Square

#103

Post by [deleted] »

arethuza wrote: post #63
antr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess that checking the signature is a US thing, in the UK, Switzerland and Spain if you don't pay with a chip & pin card they ask for ID, and that works pretty fine security wise.

Except for car park payment machines in the UK - which seem to accept your card and don't ask for a PIN or a signature.

[deleted]

Re: Europe's Square

#104

Post by fennecfoxen »

bede wrote: post #36

However successful this product becomes (which looks doubtful given its dependence upon signatures), its irritating generic web 2.0 startup name will prevent me from ever taking it seriously.

The thing that makes me worry is the "Super social" tag. If there's one thing I like about Square compared to all the other nonsense Web2.0 garbage out there, it's that it isn't trying to spam my Facebook page with all my purchases. (The closest thing is that there's a "find nearby businesses" in the Pay With Square app. That's fine.)

"Social" in this context just sounds like "here is another way we think we can make more money off of you". Bah. I've no love for my credit card company but at least it's not trying to be a social network. (Yet. (That I know of.))

Re: Europe's Square

#105

Post by dan1234 »

quarterto wrote: post #28
suhailpatel wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. I've had a chip and pin card since they were introduced in the UK and never had to sign anything related to payment. It's always a case of entering your PIN on the terminal and authorise. I was previously under the assumption that you can't authorise a payment via a signature nowadays in the UK?

From http://www.chipandpin.co.uk/faqs/affect.html#retailer : What if the retailer does not accept chip and PIN? Where the retailer has not upgraded to chip and PIN technology, you will be asked to follow the current card payment process using your signature to confirm the transaction.

That site hasn't been updated since 2006 so I would rely on any information on there.

Re: Europe's Square

#106

Post by jarek »

bede wrote: post #36

However successful this product becomes (which looks doubtful given its dependence upon signatures), its irritating generic web 2.0 startup name will prevent me from ever taking it seriously.

They should have named it Hipcard, obvs.

Re: Europe's Square

#107

Post by norswap »

com wrote: post #72
rmc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heads up, If you're an American going to Europe, regular swipe only credit cards won't work as often here. Nearly all point-of-sale credit card machines require chip & pin. Or you'll wind up like some tourists in my local supermarket unable to use their credit card.

Heads up, if you're an American going to Europe, be aware that attitudes to living on credit or via credit cards are at times very different. In Belgium and the Netherlands, it's not usual to see supermarkets even taking credit cards, and some restaurants (!) don't either. This is changing, but slowly.

I live in Belgium and all supermarkets I know of take credit cards. Maybe we don't agree on the definition of supermarket (to me it means something like Wal-Mart; in Belgium: Carrefour, Champion, Colruyt, ...), but I'll say that if it has a parking, then it most probably takes credit cards.

Re: Europe's Square

#108

Post by pimeys »

com wrote: post #72
rmc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heads up, If you're an American going to Europe, regular swipe only credit cards won't work as often here. Nearly all point-of-sale credit card machines require chip & pin. Or you'll wind up like some tourists in my local supermarket unable to use their credit card.

Heads up, if you're an American going to Europe, be aware that attitudes to living on credit or via credit cards are at times very different. In Belgium and the Netherlands, it's not usual to see supermarkets even taking credit cards, and some restaurants (!) don't either. This is changing, but slowly.

Credit cards are also not so popular in Germany. Supermarkets accept the local bank debit card, but I typically leave my Visa to home.

Usually I remember to get enough money from ATM's. The worst day to forget to withdraw some cash is the first of May, when it's a bit different because all the ATM's are closed to prevent the protesters from breaking them.

Re: Europe's Square

#109

Post by SagelyGuru »

rmc wrote: post #32
lachyg wrote: post #6

One thing that may not be too familiar to the Americans, but this looks a lot sturdier (read:larger) because it isn't a swiper like Square. It is a chip reader, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_and_PIN

Heads up, If you're an American going to Europe, regular swipe only credit cards won't work as often here. Nearly all point-of-sale credit card machines require chip & pin. Or you'll wind up like some tourists in my local supermarket unable to use their credit card.

In France, they only seem to have automatic fuel pumps and they only accept local credit cards. They don't take cash and there is no staff to appeal to. As a foreign tourist (not even from the US) I had been reduced to begging the natives to fill up my car for me in return for cash and had been looked at like a bum (hobo, scammer). Oh well, I guess 'tat fiiil tiiiich zi roasbifs!' :)

Re: Europe's Square

#110

Post by jedc »

JonnieCache wrote: post #88
ErrantX wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whilst many places often refuse to swipe any more (which I suppose is their prerogative) it does actually work. If the chip/pin reader has the swipe slot at the top then it will work. Tesco don't have the swipe slot, and they now train till staff to say they can't swipe cards. But it does work on the till itself (I know this because when a friend visited we made the poor till attendant try it :)). EDIT: also, interes…

Increasingly, most shops do not offer the ability to swipe/sign. I think it is their right to refuse to do so.

IIRC, the law states that if your card has a Chip/Pin, you have to use it. It basically ignores the case of swipe cards.

Generally I've found that swipe almost always works, it's just that most people don't know that it does. (And you have to be willing to help show them how.)

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