I'm mildly curious as to where you live? I thought the UK was one of the first countries to get EMV/Chip and Pin. I'm 32 and I had a swipe before a Chip and Pin card.
The earliest worldwide public trials and rollouts look to be ~ 2003, that would mean you didn't have a bank account with a card until you were ~21?
Is that normal where you come from?
I think I had my first swipe ~16, second swipe ~18, the bank switched me to Chip and Pin roughly a year later if my memory serves... which it often doesn't ;-)
Not OP, but I'm 32, French, and I never even saw my parents use a swipe card. My earliest memories of credit cards are chip and pin (and I still remember their code). Apparently this started in 1992 here, though I guess it wasn't technically "credit cards" but the national debit cards system.
"though I guess it wasn't technically "credit cards" but the national debit cards system"
Well yeah sure, but we're talking credit cards here. Either way, many parts of Europe used swipe-style debit cards (with pin) until a few years ago; I'm pretty sure I used them in France too, < 10 years ago (although I can't remember for sure).
I was not trying to talk other countries down. For what it's worth you can't survive in France without a checkbook: it's the only way to pay for some transactions. Sad.
Also the debit cards we're talking about do both credit and debit. Not sure they disqualify.