Since our laws dont allow credit card companies to hold us liable for stolen cards, these security issues are solely to protect the banks.

That is good question, actually, is it because of some liberal law (damn liberalas) that doesnt allow these horrid and vile bloodsuckers to make us pay for stolen card charges?

The damn liberals is sarcasm of course, given almost every single thing any of us or you have you can thank a liberal for.

fact

The laws you refer to only apply to credit cards. Not debit cards.

Someone uses your credit card fraudulently, and the bank absorbs the cost. Someone uses your debit card fraudulently, and you get to absorb the cost. Even if the card is run as "credit".

My Wells Fargo card was used fraudulently a few years back (I'm so stupid -- I left my card in the ATM) and all my money was immediately replaced during the period of the investigation and the issue was resolved in my favor at no cost.

I understand that's not always the case, of course.

Which banks wont do it? And why would ANYONE do business with them when its easy enough to do business with chase, WF, etc.

If you aren't profitable enough, you're not going to get that treatment.

Second, no bank makes it very clear when they will do this and when they won't. So there's no way to decide to only do business with a bank that will.

I keep about $2000 in my debit account, I noticed about $200 in charges that were not mine. Called chase, and the money was reimbursed during the phone call. The only question asked was "have you been to these stores before?" I said no, and that was it.

and $2k when you don't use expensive services is quite profitable.

I am a real big shot. I wonder what else they would bend over backwards and do for me. But back to the main question - which banks DONT reimburse people for fraudulent activity, and why would anyone ever use them?

I got ripped off at a gas station and then issued a credit and then a permanent one after the investigation. It was a debit card. A credit card is better to use at gas pumps for, example, where a lot of fraudulent activity sometimes goes on. Hopefully chip enabled cards will solve all of this.

How does the chip prevent someone from using your card when they have your pin, which they would have to have, chip or no chip?

What good does the chip do if someone steals your card?

Oh wait, you mean they could use it as a credit card and that would cost you, but how does the chip prevent a stolen card to be used by the thief?

Of course I have a credit union and they called me about it so that may have helped. It did take 3 days to get the money back to the account but that was not a big deal considering the alternative of losing it completely.

(which took all of a couple hours) they moved almost as quickly as the older card transactions. It adds maybe one to two seconds to the electronic transaction period.

Sometimes "training" the customer on how to conduct the transaction adds a few seconds, but we'll all manage to work our way through this terrifying First World Problem.

a bit of confusion because the chip reader is not enabled, but the slot is there.

The clerks here have been very helpful. I think as people get used to them it will be fine. I'll be glad when gas stations all have them. A card reader got me at one gas station, ended up with about $500 in fraudulent charges from two gas stations. My bank took care of it. Gave me immediate credit and then it was about a month before their investigation was finished and the credit was permanent.

among the thousands every Christmas season telling us about the horrors to come.

Most stores I use have the slot readers installed and maybe half have them activated. One or two seconds of confusion is the worst I've seen.

Haven't they been used in Europe for years with few, if any, problems?

When it comes to monetary technology, the US is a third world country, immensely backwards. People still use check books, for heavens sake. In Norway, we got rid of those in the early 90s. Here in Europe, they're going over to cell phone payments - swipe your cell phone over the payment machine, with an app connected to your bank card.

I've had some experiences with chip readers since my main card was reissued with the chip.

I think it is POSSIBLE that the process is slower. The old method was to swipe and the transaction was approved pretty quickly. Now you have to insert the card and the approval process happens. If you pull out the card too early you have to start over. I've heard from a cashier at Trader Joes that she's seen cards declined a bunch of times for no reason. Mine was initially declined, but I think I pulled it out too early.

The machine will not end the transaction/print a receipt until the card is removed. So if the customer isn't paying attention this will add time.

Chip readers aren't turned on at all stores even if they are installed. The cashier needs to control the process and inform the customer.

At stores that accept card readers, they will not accept a swipe if the card has a chip.

Other than that, there isn't much of a difference. But a few seconds here and there in a big store like Target or Costco can really add up. Time can be saved if cashiers manage the process.

and yet retailers aren't bemoaning that "problem" this season.

And there's no tracking of what and where I bought.

Every reader I have used takes more than 2 seconds. They are very slow. I don't know the reason but a lot of stores that have the new readers have you swipe. It's like they turned off the chip reader.

I think part of it is that cashiers get frustrated at customers who don't know about the chip readers, so the cashier just tells them to swipe. I also read a while back that many stores (including some medium-large sized chains) are waiting for their software vendors to provide the software required to use the chip readers.

I believe the law is that if fraud is traced back to a store that used the swipe method, that store is on the hook for the fraudulent chargers (as opposed to the bank). If that starts happening enough they will get software updates quick

You are right on basically all you've said. Merchants do not have to become EMV/chip/pin compliant- it is totally up to them. However, if they are not using the chip/pin technology and the card is chip ready then they are on the hook if that transaction is charged back due to fraud. Many software vendors are not EMV ready- you figure each vendor would have to certify to each processor and some software companies have said outright they are not going to certify because of the cost.

Now if a customer has a chip enabled card and does not know their pin (yes this happens all the time) and they bypass the pin and the card issuer approves it- the merchant is not on the hook for any charge backs resulting in fraud.

Some of my merchants have decided against upgrading to the EMV technology because the cost of new equipment far outweighs the cost of additional charge backs.

Trader Joe's recently got them, and the cashiers are still developing the muscle memory involved. So they're not hitting the buttons right away, realize what you're paying with, etc. The lines at my local store have been completely out of control since instituting the new readers. Sometimes I'm just hanging out at the register while the cashier gets it together.

They'll get used to it, though.

I just use Apple Pay whenever possible. I'm lazy.

Does it work if you're smoking? Or breastfeeding? Or if your pit bull tries to use it?

Once you're familiar with the slot readers, it takes little longer than the old swipe method - which also had problems, if the machine was dirty or over-used.
About a quarter of the time that I've swiped, I've had to swipe the card several times.
I'd rather have the security of the chip transaction.

Haele

and handed out e-readers like we have in Europe.

I was in Miami for three days and my sis had to insert more than once

It will cost the retailers.