[nfbwatlk] credit and debit card retail terminals

[Mary Ellen]

The Bank of Montreal is adopting "smart card" technology to try to prevent
credit card fraud. An electronic chip is imbedded in a credit or debit card
with pertinent information about the individual's account. This system is
intended to replace the magnetic strip on the back of current cards.
So why is this of any particular interest to blind people? Because these
chip cards will require the owner to enter a pin code onto a machine when
the card is inserted for payment. A similar system has worked for debit
machines in Canada for years. There's no problem. You just push the buttons
on the machine to tell it whether you want your checking or savings account
debited and enter your pin. 
So what's the problem. The Gap has adopted a new point of sale pin pad which
is completely flat; if you can't see the numbers on the screen, you can't
independently use the machine. I'm told that the new machines designed to
accept both debit and credit cards will be the same touch screen technology.
If this information is accurate blind Canadians will lose their ability to
independently complete transactions. We'll have to tell someone our pin so
that they can enter it for us.
I don't like that, but I could live with it if I absolutely have no choice.
There is a new wrinkle, however, that is even more troubling. With the new
technology, if you share your pin with anyone for any reason, and the card
is ever used fraudulently, you're liable for the charges. Suppose you live
in Victoria and give a store clerk your number to enter for you. Six months
later a hacker in Newfoundland who has never been anywhere near the clerk
who entered your pin hacks into the system somehow and uses your card.
You're still responsible for paying the bill because you gave out your pin.
Of course, you could simply say that you never gave it out. How would they
know? Well, if they know you're blind and that purchases have been made on
touch screen terminals, you're hooped. It's likely that the situation will
never arise, but banks are doing whatever they can to reduce fraud and to
get out of paying the price when fraud occurs. Perhaps I'm being paranoid,
but I told the bank I didn't want a chip card. They granted my request,
although all non-chip cards from the Bank of Montreal are supposed to be
automatically inactivated on July 14.
I told the bank employee who granted my request that the bank should
actively encourage, even insist, that all point of sale machines in Canada
be independently usable by blind people. He promised to pass along my
comments and to get back to me with the name and address of the appropriate
person to contact to make our feelings known.
I'll keep you posted as I hear more. 
For those of you in Washington who're reading this, I understand that these
touch screen machines have been prominent in the U.S. for several years now.
I'd be interested in how they work, how you work them, or any difficulties
they pose. Are there terminals which can be used independently? What's the
state of the struggle to change the situation. (I think I remember a
resolution about it a few years ago.) I know that bank machines are much
more accessible than they used to be in the U.S. The Bank of Montreal just
got talking ATM's within the past three months. It looks as though point of
sale machines have been more workable in Canada than in the U.S. but that
talking bank machines have been available in the U.S. longer. I would hate
to see us lose our independence with point of sale "debit" machines just as
we're beginning to get talking automatic teller machines.
 
Mary Ellen