Declined...

My local branch of W.H. Smith will no longer accept my Amex card because it's not chip and pin.

I don't know if that's a national policy, but it certainly restricts the use of my card.

I'd love to use a Season, but over the last couple of years I've had to do a variety of journey so a Season isn't applicable to me. I've seen it where the Northern machine has refused my chip and pin but the Central one has worked. Both of these for the same card for the same transaction.

RW

I am US Citizen. Canada is moving towards a Chip n pin system. So your Visa card will start working there. The U.S. cards may not work at some place unless they issue a compatible card. I am real surprise that the U.S. does not go to chip and pin. The are other countries besides the U.S. that do not have chip and pin yet.

Greg Rozelle

Your card transaction *should* be dealt with as a traditional swipe and signature transaction - so any Visa or Mastercard retains universal acceptability. However I suppose you might encounter some problems with a retailer who isn't as clued up as they should be.

In message , Greg Rozelle writes

I'm in no doubt the US will eventually go to chip and pin. Of course that system of chip and pin will therefore have to be completely incompatible with the rest of the western world..

Eventually. I asked my card's customer services dept after I flew baxk from my sister's wedding last year.

It's planned but the sheer number of cards and machines is going to make it slow and expensive.

Bit odd that.

The US is a big country with a lot of banks, lot of ATM's and lot of cards. But the amount of spendable money per person, per card, or per ATM, is presumably not that much different to the UK.

During one none too pleasant interview with our business bank manager I told him the latest machine we had to offer cost £35k. OOOOooooh, he said that's a lot of capital for somebody to find.

"How much do you pay for an ATM I asked him. "About £75k" he said. How much do you charge your customers to use it, I asked. "nothing he said".

Anyway I let him sell me some health insurance and he let me out of the building on the understanding I didn't come back for another year.

DG

For the sake of completeness, newer pay at the pump systems ie Shell use C&P so only these cards will work there. In the US my card would not work to pay at pump due to issues with my lack of a zip code (and it would not accept any old zip)

I once used a Sainbury petrol station where the cashier sat behind a screen and the PIN pad was on the outside. I inserted my card and on the little screen the message came up "Swipe Card" so I took it out and swiped it. The cashier got upset with me and said "Put it back" so I did nad got an error message I think. Anyway the till printed out a sig slip which he gave me to sign and he was happy with that.

Thanks for that. So the advice for people who don't have a Chip-and- PIN card is - when at a petrol station, before pumping any petrol, check first to see if it is attended. If it is an unattended pay-at- pump petrol station then don't pump any petrol because you may not be able to pay for it.

The good news is that most petrol stations in the UK do have attendants who are present during daytime hours at least. My experience is that pay-at-pump hasn't generally been taken up that widely here in the UK either.

And this was a Chip-and-PIN card right?

In message , at

Pay-at-pump systems don't generally let you get any fuel until *after* they've accepted your card.

There has been a suggestion of unattended pay-at-pump pumps for some of the remoter parts of the Highlands because of the number of filling stations that are closing there.

MB

If it won't authorise the card you cannot pump the fuel.

Yep. it was just having an off day.

Fair enough, I've rarely used pay-at-pump systems, not least because (IME) there aren't that many around. That would appear to be a sensible system - I wonder, does the card get pre-authorised for a certain sum so as to test its worthiness?

In message , at

Most supermarket petrol stations I use seem to have some.

Yes, and the pumps at my local ASDA have a warning on them SOLO/ELECTRON users will experience a delay in getting the balance returned to them.

Using a CC, I usually get given a £60 "allowance", which is ample as my car rarely needs more than £30 worth. I assume they phone the CCC back at the end of the transaction to report the actual amount.

Similar "pre-authorised" amounts are routinely organised by hotels at checkin.

Yes, usually 50 quid or so. This is a good reason not to use a debit card in one, as the pre-auth will deduct 50 quid from the account balance and only put it back when the transaction relating to the pre-auth is processed, possibly several days later.

To be fair to the operators of such systems, I have seen text to the above effect on at least one such pump.

Neil

Tescos seem to be the main users, trouble is they can't be relied on to produce a VAT receipt so I still have to pay at the kiosk.

The Tesco pay-at-pump pumps that I use (and I assume all the others are the same) momentarily capture the entire physical card, and thus potentially read the magnetic stripe. It would therefore be unreasonable to expect the cardholder to furnish their PIN as well, wouldn't it, due to the potential for cloning?

That's the position I take at Tesco's checkouts too, when the cashier insists on taking my card and swiping it, rather than letting me insert the chip end into the keypad device: swipe => signature or nothing.

(Sorry, I messed up the follow-ups setting.)

The Tesco pay-at-pump pumps that I use (and I assume all the others are the same) momentarily capture the entire physical card, and thus potentially read the magnetic stripe. It would therefore be unreasonable to expect the cardholder to furnish their PIN as well, wouldn't it, due to the potential for cloning?

That's the position I take at Tesco's checkouts too, when the cashier insists on taking my card and swiping it, rather than letting me insert the chip end into the keypad device: swipe => signature or nothing.

In message , at 12:32:14 on Wed,

But I answered it anyway.