Chip Off the Old Blockhead
on January 29, 2018
at 1:04 am
Even if the store was struck by an earthquake, I’d still have to wait for the chip reader to give me permission to remove my credit card before leaving.
Bug Martini
Random nonsense three days a week
You think that’s bad…our gas station actually locks your card in it until the transaction is finished. I don’t like it. No sir, not one bit.
Check with your card company and ask if it is against their TOS to restrain their cards like that.
There are a lot of things vendors do that are against the TOS that would get them severely punished by the card company. Things like writing down phone numbers, license numbers or your home address.
Yeah, so far the only places I’ve seen card readers that lock in the card are in Japan, and I don’t read enough lawyer Japanese to figure out if that’s allowed there or not.
(Extra comma in panel 4, after “I will”?)
The ‘king’ in panel 2 has some similarity to a Futurama character but, much unlike other card machines, I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe that’s because all machines look alike – or would that make me a machinist?
That pun is absolutely horrible. I love it.
I think it reminds you of King Roberto: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/en.futurama/images/6/69/1_%283%29.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120424202709
Ah good ole USofA only two generations behind in technology that is actually useful.
They just implemented chip tech within the last year while the rest of the world has gone tap’n’go for quite a while now.
IIRC, someone in the US (VISA?) trialled something like tap’n’go a decade ago, but it never went anywhere.
Probably because of the usual problems; i.e. inertia, critical mass, loonies that scream about the mark of the beast on their credit cards etc.
Basically people were paranoid about the old tap cards because they thought people could rig up a laptop and antenna to steal people’s card numbers and info.
Those loonies weren’t entirely wrong, you could easily extract a scary amount of information with a few dollars worth of equipment. That’s one of the many ways banks are completely useless, they only thought about their own risk assessments, fuck everyone else. (because if someone slurps your CC number, and uses it, you’re obviously negligent and at fault, by definition).
They are trying, but they can’t really play that game as they want to play it east of the pond.
That is one of the few times a tinfoil hat would actually be appropriate – well an aluminum foil liner in your card wallet – if you were rich you would use a mu-metal foil shielded card / passport case – and block those annoying near field scanner signals – mind you it will freak out the TSA when they scan you.
You think that is bad? My mom still pays for eveything with paper money.
So you’ve decided that the Bug Martini page is your outlet for your anti-US sentiment.
Personally, i like the united states.
Where do i go to make fun of canada?
You can do that just aboot anywhere.
Gee, a little critical observation and equate that to hate and end up reinforcing a negative stereotype. Good job.
I love how the irony of your statement went miles over your own head 😀
I hope you realize that the tap payment allows for unlimited purchases below a certain threshold – which, in Canada at least, is anything under a HUNDRED DOLLARS – without the security of a user-decided PIN. Just because it’s newer doesn’t mean it’s better.
We’ve had the chip for a few years now. Definitely seen tap and go so I’m not sure why you think we don’t have it.
Well I admit that I don’t travel the states extensively so my direct exposure has been limited to NY, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. I sometimes forget that states are more diverse when it comes to how things are done between one place and the next.
The sheer number of credit card devices that need replacing here makes a rollout take a lot longer than in other places. By the time we get any new technology implemented, it’s 20 years out of date.
I like the chip. But yeah, some locations can be annoyingly slow with it: blame their data lines, or card processor, for that.
I don’t wait for the reader to tell me to remove the card. I gain a second at each transaction by removing the card just as it says that the payment is done B)