I just tried lying with my MasterCard on board a train where they swiped the card but it showed an error, indicating that the card was blocked. I can’t see anything in the app. Does the magnetic strip need to be activated? I can’t find the setting to do so.
AliMasterThe magnetic strip is automatically enabled & disabled based on the country you are in. In Europe it's disabled; the chip should always be used.
@Ali#46566 wow wait a sec... this feature is fully automated based on GPS? How cool is that!
AliMaster@JohnDo#46568 Apologies, on the country you enabled :)
DaveFlashProdigy@Ali#46569 so a) the country need to be added to the list of allowed countries and b) if that country uses chip should it not still be disabled by default for safety? c) i liked to old way of being able to disable or enable the magstripe myself, will that come back in some way, shape or form Ali?
@Ali#46569 Well Ali, now you created some expectations for Update10 🤣💪🚀🌈
Well unfortunately not every terminal seems to support chip. So if I want to use the strip in Europe I have to enable USA?
@AnDue#46698 No, it says you cannot use it in Europe. This is not a limitation by bunq.
@L#46699 So this is a MasterCard limitation? But why did the terminal say it accepts MasterCard and only accepts the strip? 🤔
Anyways. Ill just have to use cash for these cases I guess. My VISA worked fine btw
@AnDue#46701 oh, now I'm confused. I thought you could not use the mag stripe with an EMV card in Europe at all. Your VISA has an EMV chip 🤯
Hi Guys, it seems there is some confusion around how this works, let me clarify 😊
We enable the cards magstripe based on the countries you have decided to allow for your cards. So if you chosen to have your cards enabled for the US, the magstripe will be enabled for US payments. As soon as you remove the US as an allowed country, magstripe will be disabled for US payments, protecting you from potential card skimming 🔒
Therefore, it's important to monitor the countries you have allowed to ensure your money is safe!
I hope that clarifies your question, feel free to respond if anything is unclear 🌈
@Neihana#46706 Thanks! Just two more questions: there is no way to pay with the magstripe for payments in Germany, correct?
And is there a list of countries where I could look up where it’s enabled?
RoeshimiWizardHow does bunq determine where to allow magstripe and where to not allow? Is it based on laws? experience? Best practice?
@AnDue#46709 Independently from any bunq specific handling - EMV enabled cards almost always prefer EMV over magstripe (Service Code 2xx), so if you swipe any card at an EMV enabled POS with a working chip reader, it will almost certainly ask you to use the chip instead. Magstripe payments in those cases can only work in the fallback scenario when the POS detects some fault in the EMV system when you use it with the chip, it might ask you to swipe instead then.
Also bunq cards - all to my knowledge, I may be corrected here in case I‘m wrong - don‘t allow offline payments via the magstripe either (chip only for Mastercards), so this can only work in a very specific situation where you have a faulty EMV system with working and online magstripe system as fallback - or a magstripe-only POS that is online (highly unlikely to find in countries like germany).
Mileage may vary though, it‘s a pretty complicated system these days.
MarkAceI am currently in the US and the magstripe is working. Only thing I am curious about is, that I never have to enter a PIN, the payment is always accepted after swiping. Although I need to sign mostly the paper bill, is this payment not reversable while not using the PIN?
Hey @AnDue#46709 👋
If you have Germany enabled as an allowed country, then the magstripe will be enabled for payments in Germany. However, as mentioned by Sascha above, chip payments are almost always preferred over magstripe payment due to the enhanced security that comes with chip payments. Therefore, although it's possible to make magstripe payments in Germany, it's quite unlikely that you will be in a situation where you will need to.
You can see all the countries enabled for your cards in the cards screen, as shown in this post. All the countries that are in that list, have magstripe payments enabled 🌍
