On 25-Feb-12 15:48, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 15:28:15 on Sat, 25 Feb
2012, Stephen Sprunk remarked:
No, UK credit cards also have a magnetic stripe on the back, so
they can
be swiped through a US retail terminal. You just have to sign on the
transaction, rather than use your PIN.

Only if, as above, the transaction is above the merchant's floor limit.
When using my UK credit card in the US I only needed to sign for some
transactions.

There's some over-simplification here. While I agree that some retailers
(especially high-margin ones like restaurants) may not require a
signature, there's a second floor limit above which they have to call
the credit card company. That limit seems to me to be much lower than
you'd get in the UK for a similar transaction verified by PIN.

By "call the credit card company", do you mean actually speak with a
human, or just do a standard automated authorization?

With a human.

Perhaps I just don't spend enough money to run into that ceiling, but I
regularly charge amounts up to ~USD 3k.

My bank does periodically call me /after the fact/ to verify atypical
transactions, but merchants never see that: their authorization goes
through normally.

The occasional machine, e.g. at gas stations, wanted to know my home
zip code (which, of course, I don't have) but I was able to pay in
the kiosk. (US gas stations need payment before dispensing fuel,
rather than afterwards, as in the UK.)

There's some over-generalisation here, it depends where you are in the
USA; some places need payment first, others don't. It depends a little
on the local demographic.

More specifically, it will depend on the drive-off (i.e. theft) rate at
that location or in that neighborhood.

And you can't predict that by the demographic, of course.

Was that sarcasm?

Yes, there are many demographic factors that correlate well with local
crime rates, and a customer can fairly accurately predict (from a brief
look around the area) whether prepayment is required at a gas station.
However, card processors don't care about demographics; they only care
about chargeback rates.

Notably, certain industries (eg. retail electronics) are known to have
high chargeback rates regardless of demographics; others (eg. fast food)
are known to have low chargeback rates. As a result, merchant policies
vary in ways that are _not_ consistent with demographics.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking