chip and pin transactions going too slowly

Chip and pin technology looks and sounds great, and most of the time it works great as well. However, most retailers have experienced the sinking feeling when you've got a queue of customers and the chip and pin card processing machine "won't work".

I've certainly been in shops where I've been kept waiting over a minute for a chip and pin transaction to complete. This slow processing is a nightmare for retailers. Customers queues get long very quickly. Even normally patient people will give up on their purchases and walk away when faced with a queue that isn't moving. A disaster for the retailer.

Why does this delay occur? Normally it happens at peak times. Chip and pin machines are ultimately connected to the banks. There are only a certain number of connections to the bank, and during peak periods, there are not enough connections for all the requests, so the requests have to wait in a queue - causing a delay.

The other reason for the delay is the number of telephone lines involved. A lot of older chip and pin machines require a dedicated telephone line. This dials the bank for each transaction - just like an old fashioned modem to access the Internet. Of course, when your chip and pin machine phones the bank, there has to be a machine at the bank to answer the call! There are only a certain number of these, and sometimes there are not enough!

The first thing you must do is make sure you do not have a chip and pin solution that relies upon a phone line. Modern chip and pin solution providers usually work over the Internet via your broadband connection. Internet chip and pin machines usually get the job done 5 to 10 times more quickly than an old phone based machine.

These Internet based providers do not have physical limits on receiving equipment at their end, so part of the problem goes away.

At the end of the day, the chip and pin infrastructure in this country is not always up to the job. If something breaks and goes wrong, a lot of people can experience a lot of problems. There isn't really a way of avoiding this.

Despite your bank hating the idea, it is still possible to take money via the old style manual card imprint and sign devices we used when card payments were first invented. Mind you, you'll be liable for fraud, and probably charged a higher rate, but it is better than taking no money at all when the chip and pin service breaks down