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by esej 4335 days ago
If the card supports it. Simplified: the card/chip has a list of "cardholder verification methods" ordered by preference If the terminal/reader supports one of these methods, the card/chip will use it.

Some cards are pin only - notably most of Maestro, Visa Electron and V-PAY cards.

A lot, a majority?, of chipcards issued in the U.S. prefers signatures - I'm uncertain what the percentage is for which doesn't support pin at all.
1 comments
techsupporter 4335 days ago
What's really frustrating is the preference for signature. It makes almost all US chip cards useless outside of the US and Canada because, for whatever reason, standalone terminals and even some online POS pads will trip over the "signature preferred" bit. It also means that cards like you list are not usable at a signature-only terminal, even one like SquareUp that can do online, live verification.

Why can't the US financial system just _follow_ the rest of the world for once?

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otterley 4335 days ago
I haven't run into the "signature preferred" problem yet with automated PoS terminals. Where did you run into this issue? I had no problem buying train tickets with my US-bank-issued EMV card at AMS airport using my PIN.
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techsupporter 4335 days ago
If I may ask, which bank issued yours? My (former) JPMC card didn't work at any unattended terminals like Luas stops in Dublin. When I went to some stores and used the PIN pad, the terminal spit out a paper for me to sign. I'm looking for a card that is confirmed to work as a PIN-primary card. So far, only the State Department FCU seems to have one.
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otterley 4335 days ago
Mine is a Barclaycard Arrival+ (http://www.barclaycardarrival.com/). It is not a PIN-primary card, but it absolutely works in PIN mode at automated PoS systems.

PenFed (https://www.penfed.org/visasignaturepoints/) also offers a true chip-and-PIN EMV card in the US (again, signature priority, but I've verified the PIN works at PoS).

I don't think your JPMC card has a PIN assigned to the chip. Its PIN can only be used at an ATM to get a cash advance.

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martinald 4333 days ago
Barclays is a British bank fwiw. They're likely to have all the infrastructure in place.
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