credit cards

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we operate a gasoline service station and had someone present a 00 dated debit card a few weeks ago. i mention this because we had installed a brand new pay at the pump system just weeks earlier. when the card was swiped through the reader it immediatly wiped it out and ceased to function. three days later when the repairman showed up he stated that the equipment manufacturer(schlumberger) knew about the problem and was fixing readers as they went down because there weren't enough replacement parts to fix them all. he stated hopefully that his work load would ease up in the coming weeks. seems he had been working 7 days a week for a while. my question is this. since our supplier went with low bidder/how many others will meet the same fate???

steve

-- stephen t rushton (dvex@innova.net), July 19, 1998

Answers

I work in a small grocery store in a very small town (900 people), and we use a credit card "swiper" system for gasoline also. I've just begun seeing the "00" cards, and our system handles them just fine. does this mean that whatever computer is handling our credit card system is compliant? It should mean that, but I know little about the whole problem, frankly.

-- Deb Walker (yarddog@csn.net), July 20, 1998.

It does sound like your system is compliant. A lot of people don't understand this problem. If you aren't an engineer, it's hard to understand that a calculation gone wrong could cause a bridge (or utility provider, bank, etc) to come crashing down.

-- Amy Leone (aleone@amp.com), July 20, 1998.

we have a debit card that is also a "credit card" and it's expires in 2000. We have never had any trouble using it anywhere in town. Why is this?

Sylvia

-- sylvia britton (msbrit@usit.net), July 24, 1998.


In our small town (30,000) we have a grocery store that takes credit cards. The 00 cards work only because after the swipe the clerk edits the transaction before sending and makes the expiration date 99! They do this to avoid crashing the store's computer system. I've seen this same strategy at a resturant as well. Not everything out there is working as well as it seems.

LM

-- LM (latemarch@usa.net), July 25, 1998.


No really, I have been watching this card for three months now. Every time we use it, there is no hanky panky with the cash register keys. There's no changing of anything. Everything prints out correctly on the receipt. The clerks don't change the expiration date, we've even asked at Walmart, do you have to change the expiration date to get this card to work? They look at us curiously and answer no.

So what is going on? Anyone? Sylvia

-- sylvia (msbrit@usit.net), July 27, 1998.



The credit card companies, especially Visa, are as up to speed on Y2K as anyone in the industry. It takes time, however, to get all the swipe card readers updated in the millions of locations in the US. Therefore, you will hear stories from around the country about problems with swipe card readers, but the majority of retailers won't be affected.

My daughter went through 5 ATM cards with expiration dates of "00" that didn't work. She changed banks and the ATM card she was given has an expiration date of "12/48". I called the bank to see if this was a mistake and the VP of the bank got on the phone and assured me it will work in any Y2K compliant ATM. I have since switched all my accounts to this bank because this VP was intelligently conversant on Y2K, backs every transaction up on PAPER and makes all decisions in-house, right in my local neighborhood.

Blessings!

-- Pastor Chris (chrisbr@ptinet.net), July 27, 1998.


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