CC question

[Philip]

I like the newer cards tap feature, no swipe or insert needed.. It's slowly making its way to more and more POS terminals.

[Easto]

I like the newer cards tap feature, no swipe or insert needed.. It's slowly making its way to more and more POS terminals.

It wasn't until recently that I noticed that my new CC has the tap feature. It makes a transaction a little bit easier but I'm hoping that it somehow avoids being taken advantage by a CC skimmer. Although I haven't looked into it I'm pretty sure the tap feature includes a higher level of safety against misuse .

[Humboldt]

I love the tap feature.

Until this last card I only had one, so I'd just hold my leather wallet to the terminal.

Would read it fine and the cashiers were almost always blown away.

[Humboldt]

It wasn't until recently that I noticed that my new CC has the tap feature. It makes a transaction a little bit easier but I'm hoping that it somehow avoids being taken advantage by a CC skimmer. Although I haven't looked into it I'm pretty sure the tap feature includes a higher level of safety against misuse .

Not sure about skimmers, I assume there's a way the data can be grabbed or spoofed but chips are "supposed" to bypass many of the security issues of swipe/PIN.

Speed-wise, tap chips are MUCH faster (I work retail) than insert chip cards, which are much faster than swipe cards.
Night and day, especially depending on the cc terminal software/support.

And whatever they're using in their tap tech upgrades, this card is fast.

[Philip]

Many newer wallets include some RFID protection, that would prevent card skimming, and you from doing the tap without taking it out of your wallet. Also, not sure what happens with a couple of tap cards in there, luck of the draw?

[Easto]

I'm going to try that thing with leaving it in my wallet and see if the machine will read my "Tap". I only have 1 card with this feature so I don't think there should be any confusion. But I am a little concerned about people that might be near me being able to scan my card while it's in my wallet, in my pocket. My wife is doing some international travel soon and I was thinking about the possibility of getting an RFID protected sheath for her Passport.

[Philip]

International travel is the one time when I try to be aware of card skimming, you're right. There are RFID sleeves for cards and RFID protected wallets out there.

Other than that, when using the chip, or the "tap" feature, you're kind of protected, a one-time code is used instead of your card number/name/details that are on the magnetic stripe. Both tap and the chip use the same protection.

[Philip]

Just got the card btw .. In the process of making it the default payment method in my Amazon profile, monthly internet bill, etc.

[MadDoctor]

It's ok to have a couple of idle cards.

I just put the idle cards in a firebox (the farmer has a nice one).

[Philip]

Used it to renew my auto insurance, so I guess I reached that 1k the same day I got it.

[Philip]

I just put the idle cards in a firebox (the farmer has a nice one).

Fireboxes work... I may do that.

[Easto]

Used it to renew my auto insurance, so I guess I reached that 1k the same day I got it.

We usually pay our various insurances through our bank app. But now that the wife has the Costco card I may just pay a few of those bills with the CC. Between the various insurances, monthly bills, gas for the cars and food I can hit $1k on a card every month with my eyes closed. I guess I might as well try and start to get something back.

[Mark]

i use my amazon Visa card for almost everything i can, i just use the points to buy stuff off amazon, it's like free money LOL

[Humboldt]

Not sure about skimmers, I assume there's a way the data can be grabbed or spoofed but chips are "supposed" to bypass many of the security issues of swipe/PIN.

Speed-wise, tap chips are MUCH faster (I work retail) than insert chip cards, which are much faster than swipe cards.
Night and day, especially depending on the cc terminal software/support.

And whatever they're using in their tap tech upgrades, this card is fast.

Speaking of which, we had a cc terminal brick on us last week.

One of 2 retail registers, happened right before closing thankfully.

Swapped with a spare which functioned but when it printed you couldn't read the total dollar amount, which made cash-out a bitch.

If it was $1234.56 run on the terminal you could read $123*.*6

New terminals, $750 each, are just like cell phones.

On the clerk side the display looks like a cell phone in calculator mode.
Exact same size and shape. Even has a damn flashlight.

Staff loves them, they're much quicker for swipe (slowest), chip and tap (maybe 2 seconds).

Have to say I love the tap.
Compare that tech to the old mechanical ka-chunka sliders into the early 90's, with an imprint of your card and multiple layers of carbon paper.

[Philip]

Argh, I remember those mechanical sliders with the carbon paper, I feel old now, thanks

[Humboldt]

Right?

What's the first gaming console you remember?

Mine was my friend's Commodore C64, about '83.

[Philip]

The first actual computer with a monitor I played on extensively was in the mid-80s, I was in middle school.. The machine was an eastern european Apple II+ clone (Pravetz 8M), dual-processors with different speeds (6502 clone at 1.018 MHz, very similar to the C64 CPU.. and a secondary Z80A at 4MHz), 64K of DRAM, 16KB EPROM, external 5.25" floppy disk connected with ribbon cable. We used to cut off the 5.25 floppies write-protect slots so we could flip them and record more data on the bottom.

[Easto]

A roommate of mine bought an IBM with 1 floppy drive. I remember going with him to buy a 2nd floppy drive and we carried it home as if it was a newborn baby. Although it was his computer we felt as if the world was ours with 2 drives installed. I remember playing Microsoft Olympics and all the text based games like Zork etc. It was unimaginable that life could get any better.