[slashink]

Fully agree, the few times i visited the U.S. it always surprised me that a country with such technological speed still relies on the "unsafe" magnetic swipe. Not saying the chip is foolproof in any way but it's a good step from the magnetic system in place.

The same problems was raised when countries in the EU switched to chip but it was mostly vendors who was on old cash registers with no interfaces for the new card systems. That was solved through a manual total price entry into the EMV system, acting as it own system basically.

And as the parent comment mentioned, contactless payment is just really nice for smaller transactions. The ability to buy a coffee without opening your wallet (goods under $20) makes lines in stores so much faster since no signing/code entry is needed.

[tyoma]

I'm curious, what happens if you have more than one credit card -- do you get to pick which gets charged?

[davb]

In this UK (at least), this is known as "card clash". You can't select which card is used. I'm not sure what the EMV contactless specification actually says, but anecdotally terminals will either fail to process the transaction (general card read error or a more specific collision message) or unpredictably select a card to charge.

Most card issuers (and companies like TfL - Transport for London, the transport authority who use contactless travel cards) recommend taking your card our of your wallet if you have more than one contactless card.

[run4yourlives2]

You are tapping the card you wish to charge in "contact-less" payment.