No matter what the problems are for these card companies, they are doing it. You’re saying — There are problems! There are problems! — and yet, here they are doing it already. I’ve been through a limited version of it in Dallas - just “waving it” and walking out. You say, “there are problems” but there I was, and everyone else in the program doing it.
You say, again, “there are problems” and yet here is the BIGGEST OPERATOR of gas station/convenience stores in to town doing transactions with no pin and no signature!
It appears that regardless of your view — “There are problems” — they’re moving full speed ahead.
That’s what I mean with “direction” and “movement”. It’s happening regardless of the perceived problems.
Card companies don’t always think long term, the fact that chip and pin has been out in the world for a decade and the card companies just NOW (after the Target debacle) decided to push it hard here shows that. So the fact that they are currently allowing a glaring security hole doesn’t mean they won’t figure it out and change their tune. Or maybe the stores will change their tune, according to Wiki in the UK the retailer carries the liability for fraudulent charges involving CNP cards.
There are problems, and when the problems dig deep enough into the right pockets they’ll fix them. Much like the gas stations that started requiring the zip. You keep studiously ignoring that fact, we’re in Battlestar Galactica land, this has all happened before, this will all happen again. Companies HAVE done no contact card usage before, got burned, and brought back contact. Why QuickTrip chooses not to learn from the example Texaco, Shell, Chevron and Exxon I don’t know; but I’ve already seen how this plays out.