I still find it bizarre the USA is only just dealing with this - the UK and most of Europe moved to chip and PIN years ago, and are now increasingly rapidly moving to using contactless payments.
What really baffles me is how inconsistent the rollout has been. Chip-capable terminals are everywhere, but maybe 3/4ths of them don't have the chip part enabled. So many times, I've inserted my card only to find that it simply doesn't work. Yesterday I made a purchase where they had taped over the slot so you wouldn't even try.
It seems like once you have the hardware, the rest should just work. I don't know what the hell is going on.
I was at a place the other day with a taped over chip slot, with a little note saying "please swipe". I asked what the deal was, and the guy said all chip purchases were being double billed (apparently due to some software issue). I commented, "at least they were being securely double billed". Chuckles all around.
I was in Iceland 2 years ago, and I could not get fuel for my rental car anywhere with my chipless and PINless card, and had to pay a large amount of money to have the agency fill it. Even though the USA has finally started to roll out chip based cards, half the places I go to have the chip slot, but say to swipe instead. It is confusing. We also still do not have PINs so if your card is lost, it can still be used for fraud.
