Yh, the USA only introduced chip & pin like 4 years ago!
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With Starling, I once had to turn on magnetic stripe to use an ATM, wouldnāt accept my card without it
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In Bootle.
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Only time Iāve needed that recently for was toll booths on the French autoroutes.
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I have, although often itās a problem with the card reader rather than your card.
This used to be a particular issue at John Lewis, where it would happen fairly regularly back before they supported contactless and used older (and seemingly less reliable) card readers. I knew it wasnāt the card as it worked fine before and after, and the issue happened more than once at the same terminal in John Lewis.
To be fair to the USA, the liability shift has really improved rates of EMV adoption there. Africa is also doing surprisingly well at supporting EMV these days.
The finger is squarely pointed at the Asia-Pacific region, these days, as the laggards in adoption.
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I was going to say this; I never withdraw cash now, but in the past it always seemed to be cash machines that would scratch up the chip.
Card reader devices from certain banks also seem to do this. My Barclays PINSentry is fine, but a card reader from RBS really chews up the chip (so I tend to always use the Barclays one instead; itās also easier to use with the bigger buttons).
Ordinary card readers in shops rarely scratch the chip badly, and sometimes I have ended up with pretty scratched chips that have still worked so itās not always an issue, but Iām sure ATMs generally contribute the most towards card failure.
They are much more dangerous in terms of delaminating the plastic as well.
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Apologies for the triple post, but my comments above aside this is a welcome change.
With recent moves to enforce 3D Secure much more online, and cardholder not present transactions other than online being rare, the magstripe is the one thing still remaining on most cards which is a huge vector for fraudulent use.
Cards will be much more secure if the magstripe (and signature strip with it, presumably) gets phased out, and thatās good for everyone.
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The signature strip has already been optional for s couple of years, I believe.
The back of the card is going to be quite empty at this rateā¦
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It has, youāre right.
I just got the feeling that banks were reluctant to drop the signature strip if the magstripe was still there, as merchants would potentially refuse to process the transaction (even though they shouldnāt have done).
Now that the magstripe is on the way out, I expect the signature strip to go at the same time. Probably at next card redesign after 2024 for most issuers.
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When I last visited Japan they still loved their cash (weirdly hard to find ATMs)
Although value things different so love CDs/DVDs over streaming as an example. Physical over virtual.
I wonder if Covid situation has shifted cash to cards/phones.
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I think itās a bit more card friendly, due to an aggressive push by the government to improve card acceptance, but still much more cash-centric than somewhere like the U.Kā¦
I havenāt been though, so that impression is only based on what Iāve read.
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Iāve only been twice 2003 and 2016 and it was about the same situation payment wise 
In fact everything was pretty much the same. In 2003 the atmosphere in Tokyo/Osaka felt bleeding edge but it feels like tech has slowed down in innovation over the last ten years, compared to the prior ten with phones, tvs etc.
The only major difference was Himeji Castle gone from having about 10 tourists whilst walking around, to about 10,000 Chinese tourists in a procession.
Hereās to 2029 and another visit 
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While a lot of magstripe transactions still processed are in the US, a surprising amount of low value transactions are processed worldwide. Parking is a big industry that uses magstripe readers in a lot of countries because they donāt really care about fraud. Itās only rare in Europe because the regulators essentially banned most magstripe transactions.
Even in Canada, which started its transition to Chip and Pin in the mid to late 2000ās and finished around 2012/3, still has magstripe on most parking meters (although they usually also accept contactless) and even some vending machines are magstripe or contactless only.
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Iām sure those sorts of uses were a big part of the reason why they have announced a date so far into the future.
By the final end of magstripe, even long-lasting devices like parking metres will have been upgraded at least once already as part of their natural lifecycle - so should not have a problem with other payment methods.
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I guess thatās the point: Now that Mastercard has announced āmagstrip is deadā everyone will be forced to upgrade.
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Exactly, but theyāve given people enough time to upgrade fairly organically, and not have to rush out and upgrade more quickly than they probably would have done anyway.
Based on the concept image in the article, published by Mastercard, it looks like they are also expecting embossed numbers to go away as cards are modernised (so both magstripe and zip-zap machines will be out by the deadline).
By then there should be, at least theoretically, universal global coverage of decent broadband so all payments should be able to be processed fully-online in real-time.
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I was under the impression that a UK chip card wonāt allow the magatripe to be used in a card machine with a chip reader. So if the chip fails, you canāt use the card for payment at shops.
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Itās been a good few years since Iāve used magstripe after the chip failing! Prior to Barclays Apple Pay support. But if I recall, at the time, magstripe worked just fine after the chip failed a few times in a row.
Perhaps that wonāt work now?
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It allows it if the chip fails even once, Iāve swiped my Monzo card before in the co op as it SCAed then the chip wouldnāt work. Cashier didnāt even know you could do that.
Still got the signature checked by the manager so the embarrassment of it all.
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This isnāt true.
Magstripe and signature is called āfallback authenticationā; it is only allowed if you have tried the chip first and itās failed.
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