Correct. In the US, whenever I insert my card to use the chip, it takes forever (as you watch the Do Not Remove Your Card prompt). When I've used the same card for swiping (not using the chip), it completes right away.
What I love is you have to carefully watch the screen to pull the card out when it's done, otherwise it starts a really harsh a beep that's designed to prevent you from forgetting your card, but is just flat out obnoxious if you haven't.
And the screen's text are fairly similar regardless of what it's asking, and if there was some sort of error inserting it (damn things often trip before the card's fully inserted), then it makes the same gosh damned sound to remove it. I even had one beep to get my attention to not take the card out.
I feel awkward and foolish with it, since it's ostensibly so simple, but so inconsistent. Add in a watching-water-boil time delay, and it's just a great recipe for social anxiety. One wrong move can jam the works. (Like, I once pulled the card out too early when I heard it beep at a Target and the register had to cancel the order and restart.)
That's just really weird, because no where else is it that slow. I know others says 10 seconds, but it is much much faster than that. Here in Denmark tap to pay with credit card, well debit cards mostly, is practically instant. Honestly it's often to fast. I find myself think that I didn't pay because it to fast for me to register.
Tap to pay isn't what's slow in the US, it is the chipped cards that need to be inserted into a POS device. For whatever reason they are absurdly slow. That should be great news for NFC payment services though, Apple/Android pay seem like speed demons in comparison.
> it is the chipped cards that need to be inserted into a POS device.
Weird. In Germany, it's usually very, very fast (recently, using my Number26 CC, payment in three seconds including PIN entry, and ten seconds later I got the push notification on my phone).
But that may also very well be because it's rare here to see outdated terminals. Most retail chains change their card terminals every two or three years, because they listen to their customers who actively demand speedy transactions. Oh, and because stores usually don't own the terminals but rent them (cheapest solutions are at < 20€/month and terminal). Downside: CC fees for merchants can range up to 4%, most of it goes to the CC providers.
>CC fees for merchants can range up to 4%, most of it goes to the CC providers.
It mostly seems smaller merchants simply don't switch their acquirer to get cheaper rates and complain about "high costs". FWIW, credit cards are capped at 0.3% interchange (which is what the bank gets), debit cards at 0.2% since last year. Scheme fees for MasterCard/Visa are peanuts and even AmEx doesn't cost 4%.
That would certainly explain why chains like REWE actually set up their own card acquirer... and yes, with the cheap terminals I actually referred to C4L (disclaimer: not related by work, just a happy customer).
> But that may also very well be because it's rare here to see outdated terminals. Most retail chains change their card terminals every two or three years, because they listen to their customers who actively demand speedy transactions.
The only terminals in the US that take the chipped cards are brand new (because the cards themselves are new and the deadline to accept them isn't quite here yet). I don't know why they are so slow, but they are all brand new machines.
I asked the manager at the local grocery store why they had chip readers but didn't enable them. They want to be ready in case the system becomes less awful. He described exactly the problems mentioned here.
It's so slow that some vendors are electing to stay with swipes. It's evidently cheaper to eat the fraud than slow down lines by ~2x. It probably translates to adding 2x cashiers.
For example, the Wawa chain of convenience stores on the East coast are very good at moving people through the registers. Around 10-15s per transaction sustained throughput is common: one or two items, beep beep good day. If someone pays by check or chip, the whole thing grinds to a halt and everyone taps their foot.
I've seen some grocery stores with double grocery belts, so the cashier can start checking out the next customer while the first one is finishing payment, they just sweep a divider over so the groceries go down the next belt.
This was well before chip-and-pin, they probably did because of the slowness of writing checks.
Though maybe this is all moot with self-checkout since the store doesn't really care that much if it takes you a bit longer to check out. Especially if they can show you ads while you wait.
That's not inherent in the chip technology. Terminals in Sweden do the same processing with the same cards faster than you can blink. They also allow you to insert the card and enter the PIN while items are still being scanned. You just need to confirm the total amount and can directly take your card without waiting.
The chip also enables contactless transactions which is even faster.
Top tip. If you damage your magnetic strip but the chip is fine, don't go to the Coromandel without another payment method. They don't have chip readers there.
I think it depends on the particular POS system. I'm in the US, and some stores let you swipe while your things are being rung up and others make you wait until the end. I also haven't had to wait a long time for my chip to work, but I haven't used it much.
My workplace cafeteria, located in Austin, Texas, just switched the registers to always use the chips on cards. The result: the lines are 2-3x as long, they have hired another cashier, and they have created a cash-only line in order to speed up the process. It's mind-boggling how slow the chips are. The cashiers have started doing two customers at once- while you are waiting for your card to validate, they are ringing up the next order.
Maybe; but it's been ages since I've seen a swiped card transaction go that slow, and the card swipe uses the same card reader hardware, the same network technology, and the same "and so".
As far as I know US banks use the same chip standard as European banks (EMV) and in some countries those transactions are pretty fast (in others less so).
The card swipe doesn't use the same reader hardware as the chip reading (well, it is in the device) and there is more processing going on with more round trips to the bank if using the chip. Likely different parts of the software are used both at the reader and the bank as well.
Canada has them, too, and they're great at restaurants. Great for tipping since they just hand you the device at that point with common percentage options on screen (or the option to customize it).
The American experience of server collects your card, comes back with two receipts, mental arithmetic to figure out the tip, write it down on the receipt, hand the receipt back, and server types in the tip amount just seems clunky in comparison.
In general, though, I carry cash for tips since I know those probably won't be taxed.
Maybe. I don't own a US card but heard of such stories.
But I can tell you that my German card is quite slow in Germany (not as slow as US transaction though) but blazingly fast in Sweden, Denmark, or France.
Normally it's under 10 seconds for me with a chip and PIN debit card, the by far most common card payment method in Germany and the UK. Most credit cards here (Germany) are chip and signature, but they are used less commonly in stores. My credit card has a PIN, but I've never used it.
