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milkytron

None of mine have a PIN as far as I'm aware.

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They do have a PIN, you probably just don't know the number.

Go on your Credit Card website and there will be a place to request that they send you the number.

How do you authorise payment?

You have the card. Not a joke, that's really it

Debit cards have PINs; credit cards don’t (edit: or maybe they do, but I don’t know what mine is). For credit cards usually just presenting it physically is enough to authorize anything. Online you usually have to provide the card number, verification code (printed on the back of most cards), and postal code of the billing address.

Just insert your card.

That's it. Occasionally they ask you to sign on the past or hit the ok button but usually not even that.

If someone steals your wallet, or just picks it up off the street after you drop it, what stops them burning through tens of thousands of dollars before anyone notices? I know you can claim it back due to consumer laws... but who's covering the actual goods and services that are consumed until they get to your credit limit?

Nothing. And algorithms.

I've had a card number ripped off via an online retailer and Visa figured it out on the first fraudulent charge.

Right... but someone somewhere must be paying the bill? If I buy a sandwich with a card I found on the ground and get away with it who's paying for that sandwich? The card owner? The store owner? The card provider?

In the UK it's the store... unless they made you use chip and a PIN. Which is why they all use the chip and a PIN. Then it's the card provider, but it's not because the chip and PIN prevents fraud before that point. I think the card provider eats contactless payments because they encourage more of them so it adds up in the end.

In the US, if it was a chip and nothing transaction, the bank probably covers it. If it was a magstripe transaction not at a gas pump, the merchant covers it.

Card holder liability on timely reported loss or stolen card is capped at $50 or something.

US only uses chip (and chip is optional in many places!!!! , if you scratch it out it'll fail a few times then let you swipe) (and signature).

There is generally no chip and pin. Some older terminals hard crash on PINs on credit. Some older terminals hard crash on PINs exceeding 4 chars

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