Visa Debit Card

[dlockers]

Sorry if I'm missing the point, but without numbers how do you use the card online.

They're written on the back (TSB), in the App (Curve).

 

[LeeUK]

Sorry if I'm missing the point, but without numbers how do you use the card online.

The reasoning is that all your card details are stored in the App. Although that can be a bit tricky if you're trying to buy something online using your phone and having to switch back and forth between the shopping site and banking App to copy the details.

 

[Silly Goose On The Loose]

Stupid question but what is the point of the magnetic stripe with chip and pin?

 

[something daft already!!]

Stupid question but what is the point of the magnetic stripe with chip and pin?

None at all. The mag stipe is used where the signature is checked. This is a throwback to older systems. The sales person would take the card from you, swipe it, you get a bit of paper to sign, they compare and approve or not.

Back in the day I did catch a dodgy card and got a £50 reward. Which back in the 80s was a lot of money.

 

[Silly Goose On The Loose]

None at all. The mag stipe is used where the signature is checked. This is a throwback to older systems. The sales person would take the card from you, swipe it, you get a bit of paper to sign, they compare and approve or not.

Back in the day I did catch a dodgy card and got a £50 reward. Which back in the 80s was a lot of money.

So why don't they just remove it? Presumably if a scammer swipes the card now it doesn't work or does it? Can you technically pay with it?

 

[dowie]

Stupid question but what is the point of the magnetic stripe with chip and pin?

It doesn't have anything to do with chip and pin - sometimes if the chip can't be read you can use the magnetic stripe instead and swipe & sign for a purchase.

 

[Werewolf]

So why don't they just remove it? Presumably if a scammer swipes the card now it doesn't work or does it? Can you technically pay with it?

It's a fallback and is still needed in some parts of the world *looks at large parts of the USA*.

It's like the embossed numbers on the front, a lot of large chains will still have a click clack swipe machine somewhere, even if it's not been opened in years.

Something people tend to forget is that banking has a very long technological tail, and depending on where you are in the world different systems are in place, usually trying to retain at least secondary/backup method that might seem pointless.
so your average modern card has something like 4 different ways to read it, NFC, Chip (for chip and pin), magstripe for if the chip fails, and the embossed number for both over the phone use and if a store needs to fall back to an embossing machine.

About 4 years ago the then relatively new Boots Opticians in our town had to resort to the click clack machine because all their payment computers/readers were down, it was the first time i'd seen one used for 15 years or so, they had to get the box out and open it up as it was unused, and the older assistant took the time to demo it to the younger one who'd never seen one.

*the US still has massive numbers of magnetic readers and relatively low uptake of chip and pin, partly I suspect because the banks offload the risk to the customer over there a lot more than they can here.

 

[dlockers]

I remember the tills going down where I worked and us having to pull out the manual machine. Much anger when folk wanted to pay card for 2 quid batteries or something

 

[BowdonUK]

I think its easier to read, with all the information printed in big clear letters and numbers, and all on the same side of the card.

I agree it looks like an access card.

 

[LeeUK]

I remember when shops still accepted cheques.

We had a regular "customer" who used cheques as way to get a free cash loan. She would buy stuff, pay by cheque, then come back in an hour later and return the stuff for a refund. Because she paid by cheque, the refund would be in cash.

She also found out somehow that we only sent the cheques off once a week so she knew she had a free week before the cheque was presented + however long it took to clear and come out of her bank account. In the end we banned her.

 

[jon86]

*the US still has massive numbers of magnetic readers and relatively low uptake of chip and pin, partly I suspect because the banks offload the risk to the customer over there a lot more than they can here.

What do you mean by "offload the risk to the customer"? All of the credit cards in the USA that I have and know of (VISA, Mastercard, American Express, and Diner's Club) all offer the same zero (customer) liability in case of theft or fraud that you enjoy in the UK. I know that at least VISA has the same consumer protection for debit card transactions as well.

A friend who is in banking here in the USA told me that chip and pin isn't common here because American banks can simply move the inherent risk (in not adopting chip and pin) to someone/something else (like insurance companies); it is cheaper to buy insurance than it is to roll out chip and pin across the country.

 

[Werewolf]

What do you mean by "offload the risk to the customer"? All of the credit cards in the USA that I have and know of (VISA, Mastercard, American Express, and Diner's Club) all offer the same zero (customer) liability in case of theft or fraud that you enjoy in the UK.

A friend who is in banking here in the USA told me that chip and pin isn't common here because banks can simply move the inherent risk (in not adopting it) to someone/something else (like insurance companies), so there's no real incentive to roll it out here.

I'd heard it was far more on the customer to prove they hadn't bought something than over here, certainly I've seen a load of Americans complaining about the problems they've had getting their bank/card company to admit it was fraud to the point that some people give up (by comparison when it's happened to me in the UK it's usually been a 5 minute call to my card issuer, new card sent out and in one instance a form to sing).

 

[something daft already!!]

Apparently most cashpoints still use the magstripe so that's another reason it exists.

 

[Hagar]

I've had the contactless removed so mine is just chip and pin. Why? I have never used contactless payment so it is a bit superfluous.

 

[Angilion]

Stupid question but what is the point of the magnetic stripe with chip and pin?

It's a legacy/fallback system that serves the same purpose as the chip in chip and pin (though in a more limited and probably less secure way). More bother to remove it than to keep it, at least for the time being.

The mobile readers for card payment we have at work can read the magnetic strip on a card. I've never known that option to be used, but putting it into the reader adds almost nothing to the cost of the reader so may as well.

I'd heard it was far more on the customer to prove they hadn't bought something than over here, certainly I've seen a load of Americans complaining about the problems they've had getting their bank/card company to admit it was fraud to the point that some people give up (by comparison when it's happened to me in the UK it's usually been a 5 minute call to my card issuer, new card sent out and in one instance a form to sing).

That typo gave me a good laugh with an image of a rather odd karaoke session over the phone to get a fraud corrected

 

[Fluffybob]

Ever closer to having a tiny chip implanted in the back of your hand and a machine on the wall that fines you if you swear.

HA HA HA HA !

 

[mrk]

I was mildly interested today, to see I have been sent out a new replacement debit card.

It is a bit different to the traditional cards which I have been used to. I expect those in retail have already seen them but this was my first time. They have removed the embossed number from the front of the card and the front itself is mostly plain. This means there will be no fallback to the old manual card swipe devices with carbon copies should the power or network fail(not sure if there still is, not worked in retail for over 20 years now). No number or name, just the chip and bank name. On the rear the number is printed in black ink with expiry date, hologram and signature area. There is also a mag stripe for older systems.

Not even sure this is thread worthy but here it is.

Like Samsung Pay! All my main cards have printed numbers but they never leave the house as everything is done via mobile contactless. Saying that, Samsung Pay did send a clean blacked out debit card which is kinda cool:

I've had the contactless removed so mine is just chip and pin. Why? I have never used contactless payment so it is a bit superfluous.

But why? To date I have not heard a single logical reason as to why people avoid contactless. Why add more steps to a process when you can save time!

 

[englishpremier]

Not quite what the OP was describing, but still on-topic: I've been with the same bank since 1997 and my cards have always been VISA debit cards. But starting this year, I got issued with a Mastercard. Any idea why's that, and what is the difference between VISA and Mastercard?

I've not come across debit cards without embossed numbers though.

Visa is more expensive. The banks make more money from Mastercard. This is why practically every new bank and fintech is issuing Mastercard rather than Visa. In terms of acceptance, it's not going to make a difference, pretty much everywhere that accepts one accepts the other.

 

[red eye]

I was mildly interested today, to see I have been sent out a new replacement debit card.

It is a bit different to the traditional cards which I have been used to. I expect those in retail have already seen them but this was my first time. They have removed the embossed number from the front of the card and the front itself is mostly plain. This means there will be no fallback to the old manual card swipe devices with carbon copies should the power or network fail(not sure if there still is, not worked in retail for over 20 years now). No number or name, just the chip and bank name. On the rear the number is printed in black ink with expiry date, hologram and signature area. There is also a mag stripe for older systems.

Not even sure this is thread worthy but here it is.

I had that in the 90’s with my poverty spec visa debit card think it was called visa electron

 

[something daft already!!]

I had forgotten about Electron cards. I had one once, was basically just a cash point card.