What if you use a Canadian card in the US?
They detect that and use swipe-authorization in those cases. But you can, and probably should, use the chip in Europe/Asia/Latin America where chip readers are widespread.
The banks have been distributing FAQs with all of these answers for years, btw.
> But you can, and probably should, use the chip in Europe/Asia/Latin America where chip readers are widespread.
It's still pretty common to have 2-mode readers there (wehere you can chip or swipe), though they're slowly becoming rarer and I can't remember anybody actually using swipe.
Re:Square Arrives in Canada
by run4yourlives on Wednesday October 24, 2012 @02:45PM
(#4694391)
It will be backwards compatible. :-)
If your card only has swipe (like US tourists), presumably their institutions will still accept a swipe as valid authentication.