Chip & PIN in USA

Kernow666

used my card about a dozen times on recent trip to LA and never asked for pin just swiped and sometimes had to sign but that was it

EssexExile

Thanks for the views, as I'm going to the middle of nowhere I'll probably come across more "carbon copy" machines than chip & PIN!

Before I went to Florida about a year ago I phoned my card companies to warn them as usual.One said "whatever" & the other gave me a 10 minute lecture on card security including "never let your card out of your sight". He'd obviously never been to the States. It got me thinking though that as they are so lax with security they must be an honest bunch, or they'd be more careful. According to Wiki it was the 2nd worst country for credit card fraud after Mexico.

Go figure.

pollypenny

DS and DIL don't understand why we are so twitchy when servers take credit cards away to complete the transaction!

We try to pay cash for meals. In shops, I don't mind the swipe and sign,though. I've just been to a store and was surprised to see an enormous machine which gave the option for chip and pin or swipe. This is in New Jersey.

mikem1986

Just got back from 3 months travelling from NYC to LA and back again.

Few places there was a signature pad but most of the time it was simply swipe, receipt and go. Was probably the reason my card was cloned in Chicago when I had to leave it behind the bar for the night so I wouldn't run off without paying the bill so be careful

ferf1223

Heng_Leng wrote: »

TB Bank ATMs and WalMart definitely used Chip and Pin

It may depend on where - WalMart in Vegas didn't at least as of October...nor in east central Illinois.

As for the sign or don't sign the signature strip on the back of the card - when I lived in the US I signed my card 'see photo ID'...so that way the signature strip wasn't blank and also didn't have my signature on it. It was something I read years and years ago and I have no idea if it offered any protection at all but logically, to me, it did a little.

I haven't seen a "kerchunker" (what we used to call the slidey carbon copy credit card machine thing about 25 years ago when I worked in a supermarket in the US) in many, many, many years...I have also never encountered C&P in the US so far but understand that will change soon. Mostly it's just swipe and occasionally swipe and sign the little monitor thing and occasionally sign the receipt. Some shops and restaurants do ask for photo ID.

System

The WalMarts I used (in various states ) didn't give you an option; when you swiped a Chip and Pin card it told you to insert it into the card reader on the bottom of the machine.

The machines were large and looked something like this

Many shops had similar machines but didn't have the chip card slot activated.

ferf1223 wrote: »

It may depend on where - WalMart in Vegas didn't at least as of October...nor in east central Illinois.