Roland Perry wrote:
at 13:59:00 on Sun, 26 Feb 2012, Adam H. Kerman remarked:

I routinely spend amounts of the order of a thousand dollars at
retailers by Chip and PIN card, and it's a one-shot process.

If that's true, then I suspect your credit limit is stored on the card.

It isn't. What you have to accept is that things are done differently in
USA vs the rest of the world.

No, I don't believe that your purchases aren't getting authorizations,
sorry. The account has to be verified as active and that your
available credit is sufficient for the transaction. It's basic fraud
fighting.

They are getting authorised, but by C&P, not by the "two step process"
you were speculating about.

Which has nothing to do with checking to see if the account holder has
exceeded his available credit, which you told us is not maintained on
the card. You're missing a step.

There's one step each way, if that's what you are being pedantic about.

I was being pedantic, when YOU were claiming that the procedure was
different than here? It took you an amazing five followups to convey
specific information about authorizations; that was helpful.

My one step: Enter PIN which is checked, and terminal asks CCC
for auth for the exact amount, checking for stolen
cards, floor limits and available credit.
Their one step: [Usually] CCC sends auth to retailer's terminal, which
displays "accepted".

Does the retailer also receive a transaction ID number, a number that
also appears on the cardholder's monthly statement?

If so, then the procedure is comparable to what happens here.