What happens when you swipe a credit card • Hacker News Board

Re: What happens when you swipe a credit card

#11

Post by Cyph0n » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 6:31 PM UTC

I'm kind of disappointed that you didn't go into the security features present in a typical credit card transaction. For example, you could describe the crypto protocols used to communicate with the gateway and/or card processor, what kind of data the stripe and chip contain and how it is used for authentication, etc.

Another thing I find interesting is the anti-tamper features that are present in a standard credit card terminal. There's a great CC terminal teardown video by EEVblog that walks you through them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCgtTPwlDSo.

Re: What happens when you swipe a credit card

#12

Post by coin » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 6:31 PM UTC

jwilk wrote: post #5

coin wrote: post #4

> swipe your card Sadly swiping is being replaced by chipcard.

Why sadly?

Because swiping is so much more convenient. With a magnetic transaction I can just swipe and put my card away. Most of the time I swipe at the beginning of a long checkout (grocery store). With a chip transaction, I need to leave the card in until the very end. I now need to leave my wallet out, or put the wallet away and then remember to take the card back. More card readers are optimized for swiping with card insertion as an afterthought. Inserting a chipcard is usually at some awkward angle.

As a consumer, chipcard provides no benefit. Yes fraud is theoretically lower, yet the banks aren't passing any of these savings to me (I'm still waiting for lower rates or higher paybacks).

Re: What happens when you swipe a credit card

#13

Post by leeoniya » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 6:34 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #8

coin wrote: post #4

> swipe your card Sadly swiping is being replaced by chipcard.

Chip cards replaced swiping over a decade ago, and a couple of years ago contactless replaced chip cards for most purposes. Does anyone literally swipe a credit card any more? I can't remember seeing it done in years except in some parts of Europe.

well, there's the rest of the world, and there's the US, where chip cards are recent and still lack chip+pin requirement for now. we still use imperial units, too! not to mention the worst (read: non-existent) maternity-leave laws on earth - worse than many less developed countries.

Re: What happens when you swipe a credit card

#14

Post by leeoniya » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 6:36 PM UTC

coin wrote: post #12

jwilk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why sadly?

Because swiping is so much more convenient. With a magnetic transaction I can just swipe and put my card away. Most of the time I swipe at the beginning of a long checkout (grocery store). With a chip transaction, I need to leave the card in until the very end. I now need to leave my wallet out, or put the wallet away and then remember to take the card back. More card readers are optimized for swiping with card inser…

yes, the chips protect banks from fraud. your contract with the credit card already protects you from fraud as long as you report it in a timely fashion.

Re: What happens when you swipe a credit card

#15

Post by chrisseaton » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 6:39 PM UTC

coin wrote: post #12

jwilk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why sadly?

Because swiping is so much more convenient. With a magnetic transaction I can just swipe and put my card away. Most of the time I swipe at the beginning of a long checkout (grocery store). With a chip transaction, I need to leave the card in until the very end. I now need to leave my wallet out, or put the wallet away and then remember to take the card back. More card readers are optimized for swiping with card inser…

Why do you want to put your card in at the start? Why not put it in at the end when it's time to pay?

Re: What happens when you swipe a credit card

#16

Post by leeoniya » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 6:42 PM UTC

i've always found it to be profoundly messed up that address validation (AVS) and security code validation (CVV/CSC) happen after the funds are authorized and held by the issuing bank.

this means if you choose to decline transactions for cvv or avs reasons in your gateway settings, those funds are still actually held by the customer's bank as pending for ~24h, preventing them from trying the auth again if it puts them over their credit limit.

the only way to release them is for the merchant to call the customer's bank and provide the, cc number and auth code.

we've had to leave these "security" settings off in our payment gateway and just assess the processor codes ourselves. then manually call the bank if there are mismatches. it's a massive pain in the ass and pretty much a neccessity if your avg order is hundreds of dollars. >:(

Re: What happens when you swipe a credit card

#17

Post by coin » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 6:45 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #15

coin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because swiping is so much more convenient. With a magnetic transaction I can just swipe and put my card away. Most of the time I swipe at the beginning of a long checkout (grocery store). With a chip transaction, I need to leave the card in until the very end. I now need to leave my wallet out, or put the wallet away and then remember to take the card back. More card readers are optimized for swiping with card inser…

Why do you want to put your card in at the start? Why not put it in at the end when it's time to pay?

It's faster that way.

Re: What happens when you swipe a credit card

#18

Post by vertex-four » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 6:45 PM UTC

coin wrote: post #12

jwilk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why sadly?

Because swiping is so much more convenient. With a magnetic transaction I can just swipe and put my card away. Most of the time I swipe at the beginning of a long checkout (grocery store). With a chip transaction, I need to leave the card in until the very end. I now need to leave my wallet out, or put the wallet away and then remember to take the card back. More card readers are optimized for swiping with card inser…

You can actually put your card in at the beginning with certain machines in the UK, and then it picks it up once the cashier starts the payment process. You'll get weird looks if you do. The slot for the card is almost always at the bottom, under the PIN pad. I assume the US uses different machines, since you need to do some awkward signature thing?

Re: What happens when you swipe a credit card

#19

Post by ghaff » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 6:47 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #15

coin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because swiping is so much more convenient. With a magnetic transaction I can just swipe and put my card away. Most of the time I swipe at the beginning of a long checkout (grocery store). With a chip transaction, I need to leave the card in until the very end. I now need to leave my wallet out, or put the wallet away and then remember to take the card back. More card readers are optimized for swiping with card inser…

Why do you want to put your card in at the start? Why not put it in at the end when it's time to pay?

He says why. With swiping, you can often do the swipe while the clerk is ringing up your groceries and put your wallet away as opposed to having to do the transaction at the end (as you also need to do if you use your phone).

He's not wrong although this is pretty far down my list of life's annoyances :-)

Re: What happens when you swipe a credit card

#20

Post by stephenhuey » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 6:47 PM UTC

leeoniya wrote: post #13

chrisseaton wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chip cards replaced swiping over a decade ago, and a couple of years ago contactless replaced chip cards for most purposes. Does anyone literally swipe a credit card any more? I can't remember seeing it done in years except in some parts of Europe.

well, there's the rest of the world, and there's the US, where chip cards are recent and still lack chip+pin requirement for now. we still use imperial units, too! not to mention the worst (read: non-existent) maternity-leave laws on earth - worse than many less developed countries.

Exactly! He said that with such authority, didn't he? :) Chase just issued me a chip card in the last couple of years, and every time I check out of a store equipped with a terminal that can do both, it's still pretty much a 50/50 chance they'll tell me the chip reader doesn't work yet and I need to swipe.