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Comment by marcv81 | Hacker News Reader

I'm 35. I felt old talking about floppies and cassettes a few days ago. But I'm still young enough to not have known swipe cards :)

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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 don't think credit cards are widely used outside US - most use debit.

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.

IIRC France had an earlier chip system called something like "B0 Prime" or "B Zero Prime". It predates the EMV cards that came in mid-late 90s.

Maybe Australia or NZ - they're a bit quicker to roll out new-ish card tech than UK I think

I'm a 24 year old Australian and I certainly knew swipe cards when I got my first bank account...

Like a few others who replied, I grew up in France. Technically debit cards indeed. Not sure card which do exclusively credit are a thing there.

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