Have chip-card debit credit cards been a failure in the US?

Asked by elbanditoroso (33146

) August 3rd, 2019

The last couple of weeks, every time I try to use the chip on either my debit or credit card, I get a “chip malfunction” message. You have to try the chip three times (and have it fail 3 times) before it will let you slide the card the old fashioned way.

This happens with several different cards. So I don’t think the physical card is the problem.

The end result is that a 20-second transaction turns into a minute and half.

Are we seeing benefits from the credit-card-chip revolution?

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6 Answers

I have had fewer problems with chip cards than I did with cards that only had a mag strip that got scratched and unreadable. And he problems seem to be the reader, not the cards.

My cards also don’t get bent or sat upon. I have a metal wallet that I carry in my front pocket.

zenvelo (39408

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Not had problem with them.

janbb (62859

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You may find the failure is the chip reading machine not the card with a chip. Also some software updates for the machine can cause reading errors ! I have a friend that owns a small retail business; in January he was on the phone to his credit care machine company with tech support for two and a half hours fixing a update that blocked chip cards from being read.

Tropical_Willie (31119

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Yes, I have that problem sometimes. My credit card will have a malfunction, so I have to use the debit (or vice versa). I do think the problem is likely with the readers than with the cards themselves. Wherever a place accepts Apple Pay I prefer to use that.

Demosthenes (14922

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