Yes, I'm sure we don't use the chip.

[cindybubbles]

I only use cash where it is the most convenient method of payment; usually where stores and stalls are cash-only or when paying by credit or debit comes with a fee if my purchase is worth less than the minimum amount required to use plastic for free.

[Dreamstalker]

The customer would not let him see the card so he could confirm the lack of a mag-stripe! I smell I lying scammer.

That's exactly what I was thinking...and SC's reaction when J voided the transaction was interesting. She definitely thought one of us was going to pay for the item just to get rid of her.

[Teskeria]

Credit cards are required to have the chip. debit cards are not. stores are not required to take chip cards. However if you have the capability to accept the chip and you do not, you allow a swipe or key in, you are responsible if there it is a fraudulent charge.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Chips really started to get introduced for real in the US last Fall or so. IIRC, the deadline for the changeover -- when all stores MUST accept chips, by law -- is sometime this October. ...

My understanding of the chip cards in the US was stores needed to start accepting them last October (2015). If they did not, they assumed additional liability for fraudulent card transactions.

Look at item #5 on this FAQ.

This article discusses the disappearance of the magnetic strip on cards.

[Mikkel]

I have seen some cards where the strip was the same colour as the back of the card, you had to look twice to discern the slight difference in texture.

[EricKei]

IA: Interesting. I could have sworn it was this year. Thanks!

[Shalom]

we were instructed that if the card has a chip, we were forbidden from using the stripe, so once I saw the chip, I didn't bother looking for the stripe on most of them..

One of my stores recently upgraded our ancient, slow card reader (that processed every. single. transaction by dial-up) to a newer unit with an Ethernet port on it. It has a chip reader, and I've been using it as such whenever there's a card with a chip. Once I tried swiping a chip card, and it actually refused to accept the swipe ... it said "Insert Card" on the display.

What about cards that have the tap function on them, you know, the kind where you tap your card on the card reader to pay?

Those didn't last all that long. The last card but one that I got from Big Blue Bank had the "tap" transponder on it for the first time; the very next one had a chip, and no transponder. That one always made me nervous; what's to stop someone with a portable reader from sneaking up behind me and reading my card right through my wallet? (OK, aluminum foil is to stop them, but I never actually cared enough to wrap my cards.)

Also, Aid of Right had tap-readers on their terminals, but they went from "not ready yet" straight to "obsolete" without ever stopping on "operational".

[Crossbow]

A lot of fast food places around me still have toe tap to read systems in place and operational. Never used or had one myself.

[Monterey Jack]

A lot of fast food places around me still have toe tap to read systems in place.

This typo amuses me.

[Crossbow]

This typo amuses me.

Not sure where that came from, but considering how impatient some customers are when getting their morning coffee, I'm leaving it.

[cindybubbles]

I see chip readers just about everywhere I go, and more and more stores are taking advantage of payment by tap. I live in Canada, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

[bhskittykatt]

Never seen a chip card with no mag strip. Did see my mom's card is a portrait layout rather than landscape, which was frustrating b/c I couldn't show off my phone's CC camera scanner to her when I was pre-checking her into her hotel room on my phone. I believe it still did have a mag strip though.

I know of one person who almost never carries cash.

Pays by credit card for EVERYTHING.

I hear it made his last trip to NJ...interesting...when he HAD to use a toll road.

I NEVER carry cash. I have a stash of coins I try to keep stocked in my car for parking (though I try to park on the blocks that have CC-friendly pay stations when possible). Yes, I am one of those people.

Fortunately there aren't many toll roads here. The few we have either take CCs and/or they just photograph your license plate and mail you the bill.

I do often find myself wishing buskers downtown would have square readers or whatnot on their smartphones though. Seen some great musicians but had no cash to drop in their case.