Please fill in this Chip and Pin Survey being done by some of my students.
<p>One or two of the questions could really do with a "Depends" option - they weren't straight yes or no answers for me (and possibly - probably? - wouldn't be for other folks either).</p><p>On the Sales Assistant questionnaire, the bit about chip and pin removing liability from the sales assistant/merchant might match what the banks and financial institutions say in their "we want everyone to use chip and pin" advertising blurb, but it doesn't match the practical realities of most merchant accounts. In most cases and for most of the merchant account terms and conditions that I've seen, the use of chip and pin actually places the liability for covering the cost of fraudulent transactions more firmly in the merchant's or customer's court and actually removes liability from the banks! They've having their cake and eating it with this one.</p><p>Like so many of these things, it's a pretty poor technological solution to a problem that can't really be solved by technology, short of doing something draconian and impractical. But it does give the banks and merchant account providers a mechanism to try to make the customer or the merchant pick up the tab for any fraudulent transactions, as opposed to the bank having to cover them.</p><p> </p>
Adrian