A question for the collective wisdom of LJ

[triskellian]

How does one authorise credit card transactions in the US - is it signature or PIN? If it's PIN, and you don't know the relevant number, does that render the card useless, or is there a way around it?

And while I'm posting, happy birthday to the five million people on my flist who have birthdays today! (That's undyingking, kesstrel and marnameow, I think. And happy birthday killalla for yesterday. Edit: and condign and cuthbertcross! Wow, that's a big clump o'birthdays ;-)

Comments

[onyxblue1.livejournal.com]

Signature. There are gas stations where you don't even need that if all you're doing is getting fuel, you can pay at the pump and not have to sign anything or put in a PIN. Kind of scary, isn't it?

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

You can do that in this country as well.
French road toll booths - person takes toll card + credit card, person returns credit card plus receipt, you leave.
Security? What?

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

What security is needed? If you've stolen someone's credit card and go on a driving spree, what's the most you'll spend in, say, a week? It has presumably been judged not worth holding up the traffic for that kind of money - and if the rules are anything like the UK, it's the toll booth assuming the risk, not the credit card company or the card holder.

Buying petrol is obviously more money, but again unless the petrol stations have some special kind of deal, it's they who lose out because without a signature or PIN, the card owner can in theory cancel the transaction at a word.

I don't think I saw a chip+PIN machine the entire two months I was in the States last year, but then I wasn't using my card a huge amount because travellers' cheques were cheaper. However, the smart card came unglued the first week I was out there, and on no occasion when I used it was it a problem that said smartcard was in my wallet instead of attached to the card, including when buying plane tickets, using it to check in for flights and hotels, and using it to collect Amtrak tickets bought online. It was always magnetic swipe plus signature. Some merchants didn't even know what the smartcard was, or why anyone would want one on a credit card.

[onyxblue1.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what a smart card is. I'll take your word that they exist.:-)

Mobil Oil has a little doohickey you can use to pay for gasoline that they will link to your gas card or your Visa. At first, you'd go up to the pump, wave this little wand at the pump, and it would charge the purchase to your card. Then they set up something inside the station, so you could go in, purchase other stuff, including cigarettes (and presumably at some stations, alcohol), and just wave the wand in front of the reader, and it would charge it to your card. No signature needed. Then they set up a deal with McDonald's, so you could use it there. Again, no signature needed. At least, that's how I understood what they were doing. I don't know if they still do it that way or not. You could charge up an awful lot in a few hours with that thing: lunch for you and ten of your friends, cartons of cigarettes, cases of beer, and don't forget to fill up the tank on your dad's H2 gas-guzzler!

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

The smartcard is the Chip out of Chip and PIN (the gold square on the left, with the horizontal lines), but we had (older, less smart, but identical to the naked eye) smartcards on many credit and debit cards long before Chip and PIN was introduced. They were read by ATMs, but not by ordinary point of sale card readers.

Anyhow, Triskellian's concerns about needing Chip and PIN in America are probably unfounded if most or many Americans have never even heard of it...

This Mobil doohickey sounds a bit suspect, security-wise, but to me the important question is, does the person who chooses the security mechanism assume the risk? If so, then it's not something to get worried about, because that person just has to be sensible. If not, and if they are as easy to abuse as it sounds, then whoever does assume the risk should be getting cross.

So the question to ask is, "if my doohickey is stolen and used, does that still cost me money or do I just report it missing and the money is paid back?" If the answer is "it costs you money", customers shouldn't get them (unless you can set a low limit on how much money can be spent on it. Then it might be OK, no worse than losing a bit of cash), but if the answer is "you're covered", then in practice it's none of our business how secure the thing is. This page is doing its best to imply that the risk is assumed by Mobil and/or your credit card provider, without actually commiting to saying that. So I'd want to know the details before getting one myself.

For my comments about French toll booths, I was guessing that credit card owners are covered. And in theory, in the UK, we're covered against someone using a credit card without signature or PIN, at a petrol pump or elsewhere.