DIYbanter - View Single Post - OT

Arthur Conan Doyle

wrote:

The chip cards in Canada are all chip-pin.
If the US banks do any different they are more foolish than I even
thought. They HAVE to be chip and pin to work with the Interac banking
system. (world wide interbank system)

Having had a great deal of experience using chip cards around the world, I can
tell you EMV cards do not have to be PIN enabled to be used globally. The card
tells the credit terminal what type of verification method to use. If the
terminal is capable of supporting that type of verification, the transaction is
processed.

In the case of a US card that is programmed to prefer signature verification,
the card terminal checks to see if it can either print a paper signature slip or
capture the signature electronically. If either of those happen, the transaction
is processed.

If the card is programmed as signature preferred, but has Online PIN as a
secondary verification method and the terminal has a PIN pad (think gas pump or
train ticket kiosk), a PIN is requested and the transaction is processed.

If the card doesn't have a PIN (ie Signature only), or the card is programmed to
check the PIN validity with the issuer (ie online PIN only) and the terminal is
an offline device (ie some gas pumps or kiosks), the transaction is declined.