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In Europe I've never used the magnetic stripe. Across 10+ countries, for the past 10+ years.

They still exist in the UK, but I've never seen one used.

I 'used' it once when Sainsbury's first introduced their self checkouts, for some reason it asked me to do it after I tried chip+pin.

Didn't work. Ended up having to pop outside to the cashpoint to get analogue money out.

I assume it's just one of those old weird technologies that just exists because solely it's not been removed yet like fax machines

This is about the US.

True, but the point was about the reliability of the tech. My point was that the chip can be just as reliable as the magnetic strip.

The chip is nearly 100% reliable (absent any manufacturing defects). It's the network in the U.S. that is stuck in the 1970s. Even with the supposed requirement to move to chip terminals, I still come across so many merchants who either (1) don't even have a chip reader, or (2) have a little sticky note on the payment terminal that says "chip broken".

What's really surprising is when a new store opens (restaurant, typically), and they don't have a chip reader on day one. They still swipe.

I've had my card skimmed more times than I can count over the decades. That we're still dealing with this problem in 2019 is maddening.

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