credit card use - do you always tap?

I'm in Canada, our banking system is different. Swipe is on the way out. Most merchants have only tap and insert. Ones that have swipe are old technology here.
The USA is traditionally way behind other countries in banking due to their decentralized system.
They still use cheques!
 
How is tap more 'secure' than sliding/swiping/inserting your card? When those functions are all done by one machine, what is different about how it reads your info?
It creates a one time, transaction specific, encrypted code and your card is never in the machine. Chip is nearly as secure. No one should be swiping their card anymore, it’s the least secure and most vulnerable. Everyone should also have the apps for their cards on their phones with alerts turned on so that you can shut down your cards in a heartbeat if necessary.

I guess technically I use tap to pay 99% of the time. I use my Apple Watch or my phone and tend to avoid places that don’t accept mobile payment. It’s by far the most secure. If my phone falls into the wrong hands it would be useless as you need my face and/or a long passcode and 2FA to get into it. Physical cards not so much. I look forward to the day I don’t have to carry one “just in case.”
 
It creates a one time, transaction specific, encrypted code and your card is never in the machine. Chip is nearly as secure. No one should be swiping their card anymore, it’s the least secure and most vulnerable. Everyone should also have the apps for their cards on their phones with alerts turned on so that you can shut down your cards in a heartbeat if necessary.
I'm with @_19disnA. Why couldn't the software be written to do the same for swipe as it does for tap? There's got to be SOME kind of ID on your card. That ID gets transmitted to the machine somehow (swipe, insert, tap). Are there different IDs for each method? Some IDs are encrypted and some aren't?
 

Why couldn't the software be written to do the same for swipe as it does for tap? There's got to be SOME kind of ID on your card. That ID gets transmitted to the machine somehow (swipe, insert, tap). Are there different IDs for each method?

I agree. Thought the reason for adding the chip to the card was to make things more secure? Apparently swiping is less secure since it reads whatever is coded on that magnetic strip, but I don't see what is different about tapping vs inserting a chip card. Machine has to be reading something from the card to create the transaction. Tapping seems like another way to read the chip.
 
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I'm with @_19disnA. Why couldn't the software be written to do the same for swipe as it does for tap? There's got to be SOME kind of ID on your card. That ID gets transmitted to the machine somehow (swipe, insert, tap). Are there different IDs for each method? Some IDs are encrypted and some aren't?
I have no idea why it couldn’t be done. Magnetic strips can be skimmed and cloned.
I agree. Thought the reason for adding the chip to the card was to make things more secure? Apparently swiping is less secure since it reads whatever is coded on that magnetic strip, but I don't see what is different about tapping vs inserting a chip card. Machine has to be reading something from the card to create the transaction. Tapping seems like another way to read the chip.
The slight difference is that you are inserting your card into the machine with chip vs “tapping” or hovering with contactless. Both are one time, encrypted transactions. Swiping sends all your info.
 
Ours are - every single one. Bank/debit cards and credit cards. Absolutely no need for swipe. It's literally been years since chip-and-pin was incorporated into everything. I guess there's no harm in the machines still having the swipe option but it would never be used by anybody except a tourist who's card doesn't have a chip and that's pretty unlikely in most places.
My HSA card is swipe only.
 
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