Personal Finance

is it possible to use an chip-based debit card around the world to make purchases?

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  • Jan 9th, 2010 6:08 pm
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Deal Expert
May 30, 2005
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Richmond Hill
angel_wing0 wrote: the Dollarama at 48 + 16 takes mc iirc before they close down.
Didn't know there was one there, must be the first non-ghetto Dollarama I've heard of in the GTA :lol:

Honestly, everyone I've been to are like... in ghetto Scarborough, south Markham, or west North York.
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Deal Addict
May 11, 2005
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Ajax, ON, Canada
Jon Lai wrote: Didn't know there was one there, must be the first non-ghetto Dollarama I've heard of in the GTA :lol:

Honestly, everyone I've been to are like... in ghetto Scarborough, south Markham, or west North York.
A competitor to Dollarama, called "Buck or Two" accepts Visa/MasterCard/Interac at my place on Westney and Hwy. 2 (Kingston Road) in Ajax. As for the Ajax and Pickering locations for Dollarama - they only accept Interac and Cash.
Deal Addict
Nov 18, 2008
3271 posts
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Jon Lai wrote: Didn't know there was one there, must be the first non-ghetto Dollarama I've heard of in the GTA :lol:

Honestly, everyone I've been to are like... in ghetto Scarborough, south Markham, or west North York.
Square One in Mississauga is definitely NOT shady... nor is the one near my house but maybe I'm deluding myself. :D
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Aug 18, 2005
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Burlington-Hamilton
tng11 wrote: Square One in Mississauga is definitely NOT shady... nor is the one near my house but maybe I'm deluding myself. :D
LOL, I have seen some shady customers at the SQ1 Dollarama, but that store is my favourite shop in the whole mall! (Apparently I'm not cool enough to enter Guess, or any other place with a live in-store DJ.)
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Dec 11, 2005
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Jucius Maximus wrote: LOL, I have seen some shady customers at the SQ1 Dollarama, but that store is my favourite shop in the whole mall! (Apparently I'm not cool enough to enter Guess, or any other place with a live in-store DJ.)
Any store that can afford an in-store DJ is just broadcasting how much their stuff is marked up IMO :P
To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. -- E. E. Cummings
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Feb 21, 2004
1584 posts
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Montreal
Without US Card Issuers going the CHIP way, we will continue to have the magnetic stripe on the card and therefore have it prone to card-cloning.

Got my Chip card 3 months ago along with multiple documentation saying how secure it would now be bla bla bla.., card got cloned 1 month later...

Removing the stripe is not an option since it would make these cards unusable in the US.

Basically, Canadian Card issuers went the chip way for very little added security.
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Nov 18, 2008
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HoTiCE_ wrote: Without US Card Issuers going the CHIP way, we will continue to have the magnetic stripe on the card and therefore have it prone to card-cloning.

Got my Chip card 3 months ago along with multiple documentation saying how secure it would now be bla bla bla.., card got cloned 1 month later...

Removing the stripe is not an option since it would make these cards unusable in the US.

Basically, Canadian Card issuers went the chip way for very little added security.
Yeah... and besides even when everyone is on chip, they'll just move to fraud where the card is not present.

In the UK where chip has been in full use for years, online fraud just skyrocketed and gangs just used cards in overseas countries without chip. Sure, domestic fraud decreased but they just used the cards elsewhere.

Some banks in the UK have a card reader device where you have to insert your chip card and generate a password every time you logon internet banking or make purchases online.
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Aug 18, 2005
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Burlington-Hamilton
tng11 wrote: In the UK where chip has been in full use for years, online fraud just skyrocketed and gangs just used cards in overseas countries without chip. Sure, domestic fraud decreased but they just used the cards elsewhere.
Yeah, but if it's out-of-country fraud, it's easier to screen.
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Deal Addict
Nov 18, 2008
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Jucius Maximus wrote: Yeah, but if it's out-of-country fraud, it's easier to screen.
True, but sometimes banks do a crappy job at this. On the UK version of RFD 1/2 the people complain their bank is too sensitive and the other 1/2 complain their bank sucks at picking up fraud when it comes to overseas transactions. In other words, there's no pleasing everyone with fraud systems.

HSBC in the UK has a pretty interesting feature on their internet banking- if you're travelling abroad you can enter the dates you'll be overseas and which countries you'll be in and if you don't notify them, it's likely they'll deny the transaction.
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Dec 11, 2005
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HoTiCE_ wrote: Without US Card Issuers going the CHIP way, we will continue to have the magnetic stripe on the card and therefore have it prone to card-cloning.

Got my Chip card 3 months ago along with multiple documentation saying how secure it would now be bla bla bla.., card got cloned 1 month later...

Removing the stripe is not an option since it would make these cards unusable in the US.

Basically, Canadian Card issuers went the chip way for very little added security.
You have bought into the CC marketspeak. Chip cards can be cloned just as normal cards can. They are more secure at the transaction level, but they can still be cloned. The whole chip / PIN thing is just a bunch of security theatre to justify the liability switch from the card company to the issuer when card fraud occurs on the card.

You see, with a stripe based card, if the customer reports a fraud, it is up to *THE STORE* to prove the customer actually did the transaction (by providing receipt). With a chip card, it is up to *THE CUSTOMER* to prove that they did not share their PIN with anyone. Do you know how hard it is to prove a negative ?

This is why chip cards SUCK.
To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. -- E. E. Cummings
Deal Addict
May 11, 2005
2182 posts
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Ajax, ON, Canada
Do you lads find it ironic (, tedious) and weird that certain chip-card transactions took longer to process if the PIN pad/POS terminals rely on dial-up as opposed to the high-speed IP-based network?

When I did a debit card transaction the other day paying with my chip card, the transaction took me a full 20 seconds to process. The similar path is true for credit cards with chips on them.
Deal Addict
May 11, 2005
2182 posts
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Ajax, ON, Canada
brunes wrote: You have bought into the CC marketspeak. Chip cards can be cloned just as normal cards can. They are more secure at the transaction level, but they can still be cloned. The whole chip / PIN thing is just a bunch of security theatre to justify the liability switch from the card company to the issuer when card fraud occurs on the card.

You see, with a stripe based card, if the customer reports a fraud, it is up to *THE STORE* to prove the customer actually did the transaction (by providing receipt). With a chip card, it is up to *THE CUSTOMER* to prove that they did not share their PIN with anyone. Do you know how hard it is to prove a negative ?

This is why chip cards SUCK.
You are not alone, mate. And most likely not the only one who think that chip cards could hit a "snag". There's one person who went to Australia and attempted to use a Chip card there (it's a Visa chip credit card) and it didn't work.

The problem? He didn't notify his bank that he is going abroad. The full story can be founded here: http://www.thestar.com/travel/article/7 ... umer-curse
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Dec 12, 2001
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Jon Lai wrote: For one thing, all the GTA locations are in "ghetto" neighbourhoods with abnormally high rates of crime.
That's not true.
There's Dollarama on Yonge Streeet (near Yonge & Bloor) and it is not in a ghetto neighbourhood.
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