Chip and signature card refused by retailer

Mrs_Ryan

I have a C&S card as I have dyscalculia so I cannot use a PIN.
I once got told in Sports Direct that all C&S cards are fraudulent and if I can't use a PIN I must be stupid. (The so called 'supervisor' had never heard of dyscalculia and said 'there's no such thing') However there's a shocking amount of places who don't cater for disabled people full stop so I'm no longer surprised when somewhere won't take my card. They don't take C&S or contactless- I walk out. I don't have any other means of payment (I can't use cash as I can't count it)
That's if I can actually access the shop in the first place because the lifts aren't working or the aisles are too cluttered.

boo_star

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

I have a C&S card as I have dyscalculia so I cannot use a PIN.
I once got told in Sports Direct that all C&S cards are fraudulent and if I can't use a PIN I must be stupid. (The so called 'supervisor' had never heard of dyscalculia and said 'there's no such thing') However there's a shocking amount of places who don't cater for disabled people full stop so I'm no longer surprised when somewhere won't take my card. They don't take C&S or contactless- I walk out. I don't have any other means of payment (I can't use cash as I can't count it)
That's if I can actually access the shop in the first place because the lifts aren't working or the aisles are too cluttered.

I'm not sure why they'd refuse to accept your card, the till will just print out a slip for you to sign if it's C&S (and it should do the same if the chip is broken.). Maybe he thought you were using magical powers to make the till print out the slip.

There shouldn't be any risk for the retailer by doing this, using stripe and sign is when they're taking a risk.

I suppose it must be poor training, I'm not exactly surprised it was Sportsdirect.

OllyM

Paul_Metcalfe wrote: »

Retailers found so far that openly / knowingly discriminate over chip and signature include Asda (fuel stations revamped to remove ability to use,) Post Office, Richer Sounds and an increasing number of smaller outlets that use the new cheap pin machines that do not print or have any ability to sign.
Maybes we should just compile an open list ....

Is the Asda petrol station thing a recent change?

When I was back in the UK over Christmas I got fuel using my US card (which is chip and signature) at an Asda Pay at Pump, but it limited the fill to 40GBP which meant I had to use two cards to fill the tank

Tesco Pay at Pump wouldn't accept it.

cheesetoast

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

I have a C&S card as I have dyscalculia so I cannot use a PIN.

Serious question - could you not use a PIN by way of either a pattern on the keypad (top left, middle, middle, top right - which would be 1553), or as patterns for the numbers (circle, double-circle, double-circle, stick - which would be 0881)?

Arleen

boo_star wrote: »

I'm not sure why they'd refuse to accept your card, the till will just print out a slip for you to sign if it's C&S (and it should do the same if the chip is broken.). Maybe he thought you were using magical powers to make the till print out the slip.

There shouldn't be any risk for the retailer by doing this, using stripe and sign is when they're taking a risk.

I suppose it must be poor training, I'm not exactly surprised it was Sportsdirect.

I'm not sure how they would even know it's c&s until the terminal would start printing a slip to sign (it's set on the card). I can understand the scepticism of store staff when someone approaches and, rather than just shopping and paying, starts asking will they take a signature instead of pin code, especially in the ongoing fearmongering campaign about credit card frauds.
A good countermeasure would be to volunteer your ID if you must ask that question because credit cards were moving very fast away from C&S primarily because of the amount of fraud it attracted which was also expensive to investigate.

Mrs_Ryan

cheesetoast wrote: »

Serious question - could you not use a PIN by way of either a pattern on the keypad (top left, middle, middle, top right - which would be 1553), or as patterns for the numbers (circle, double-circle, double-circle, stick - which would be 0881)?

I've had this asked before and the answer is no unfortunately- the numbers just look jumbled to me so I would end up getting them the wrong way around. Coupled with my poor memory due to my fibromyalgia and mental health problems remembering any kind of number to me is a no-go.

ELl

try contacting the customer services department with this info:..

Obviously retailers can choose which methods of payment to accept … however please see the article on the payyourway.org.uk website search for the "chip-and-signature-plain-text-guide" the paragraph of interest makes reference to the 2010 Equality Act..

alternatively type the following replacing the "?" with "." and the "/ " with "/"
www?payyourway?org?uk/ consumer-advice/ chip-and-signature/ chip-and-signature-plain-text-guide

[Deleted User]

ELl wrote: »

try contacting the customer services department with this info:..

Obviously retailers can choose which methods of payment to accept … however please see the article on the payyourway.org.uk website search for the "chip-and-signature-plain-text-guide" the paragraph of interest makes reference to the 2010 Equality Act..

alternatively type the following replacing the "?" with "." and the "/ " with "/"
www?payyourway?org?uk/ consumer-advice/ chip-and-signature/ chip-and-signature-plain-text-guide

This topic is over a year old.

I'm pretty sure it's dead and buried now

bertiewhite

I'm not sure if this is relevant but I regularly use a chip & signature fuel card.

Quite often the vendor asks for a PIN and sometimes they try swiping it rather than insert it like a PIN card. It seems that many assistants just aren't used to dealing with them.

On the other hand, some establishments simply state that they will not take them.

20aday

bertiewhite wrote: »

I'm not sure if this is relevant but I regularly use a chip & signature fuel card.

Quite often the vendor asks for a PIN and sometimes they try swiping it rather than insert it like a PIN card. It seems that many assistants just aren't used to dealing with them.

On the other hand, some establishments simply state that they will not take them.

I used to work in a petrol station until a couple of years ago chip & signature fuel cards e.g. AllStar were the norm; was merely a case of dipping the card into the PIN pad, waiting, and taking it out again before processing the transaction. The same applied to any chip & signature debit/credit cards too.