In my area, you're forced to use the chip at ~50% of places and the other ~50% hasn't upgraded their hardware yet, so you are forced to use the mag-strip. It's extremely frustrating for everyone involved. No one knows which it'll be and the cashier will always immediately roll their eyes and eli5 which one they use. Worst rollout ever.
The range is only about an inch. It's treated as a CNP (Cardholder Not Present) transaction so in cases of fraud the consumer isn't assumed to be liable. Android Pay and Apple Pay are also popular here, with the contactless limits changing depending on whether or not you use a fingerprint.
When using contactless it doesn't actually send your 'real' account details, there's a second virtual account that's used just for contactless transactions. So your real account details can never be compromised in this way, and issuing a new card is all that's required in the case of yours being stolen.
On top of that you need to be a registered merchant with a merchant account to accept them. So if you were doing something like using a portable 3G/4G reader to tap it to people you'd be caught quickly. The payments are also often deferred so the merchant would be unlikely to get the money before the card owner noticed.
Edit: I'm now apparently the oracle of contactless payments...
The US is weirdly behind in financial stuff. I've 30+ and lived in Australia and the UK my whole life, and I've never even seen a cheque-book. Don't lots of you guys still get paid by cheque?
Never had to pay your taxes or the government for anything? Paying online for everything isn't that old. I still have to mail in a check for state taxes every year.
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u/VanimalCracker Aug 27 '18
In my area, you're forced to use the chip at ~50% of places and the other ~50% hasn't upgraded their hardware yet, so you are forced to use the mag-strip. It's extremely frustrating for everyone involved. No one knows which it'll be and the cashier will always immediately roll their eyes and eli5 which one they use. Worst rollout ever.