Kiho said:
... so now we have chipped cards and merchants, card readers that can read the chip (although many still only use the magnetic strip because their bank has not integrated the software to read the chip).....but in the US, I have never been even given the opportunity to enter a PIN when paying by a US bank issued credit card. It is appalling, really. It is the banks that simply feel that it is too expensive to upgrade their hardware and software to fully implement the chip and pin system vs the cost of dealing with the current level of credit card fraud.
??? Since long before the chip system, there have been two ways to process bank issued cards. They are inappropriately referred to as "credit" and "debit". When processing as "credit", you don't enter a PIN. Instead, merchants may require a signature but many don't bother anymore. When processing as "debit", a PIN is always required.

From a merchant's perspective though, we've always preferred to process cards as "debit". The fees were lower that way.

I've never had a card that wasn't issued by a bank (I never liked the idea of accumulating debt). But I've heard (10-20 years ago though) that most such cards can only be processed as "credit" (they don't have a PIN).

From what I've seen, the chip system requires a PIN. At least, when using the chip I've never been given a choice and have always had to enter a PIN.

Our bank issues cards with both a chip and a magnetic stripe. All the merchants in the area have readers that can read both, but it seems the the banks' systems or the readers themselves have issues. A number of times at various locations we have been told to just swipe the card because the chip reader isn't working...