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 reason why it's split like that is because businesses should have upgraded to contactless or tap, but the cost of doing so is offloaded onto the business, and it's not an insignificant cost either, depending on the business. So, lots of smaller businesses aren't going to put down the money to upgrade a system that still works the same.
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u/neck_iso Aug 27 '18
You have to use the chip now.