Dual Interface Chip Card

In Ye Olden Days (like, the early 2010s), you paid for stuff by swiping your credit card through a machine. Eventually, that antiquated relic of bygone commerce went the way of barter, bank notes, and actual cash. All thanks to the dual interface chip card.

Now, instead of swiping a card (like an ignorant rube would), we pay using the far more modern and sophisticated approach of sticking them directly into the reading machines. All the card information is held on a chip, which gets read by the retailer's device and sent to the credit card company for processing.

The "dual interface" part comes into play because the chip can be read in two ways.

There's the "sticking in" method (technical term), which, as discussed, involves shoving the card into a little slot on the reading device. But there's also the more elegant "no touch" method (also a technical term).

The second method involves vaguely waving the card near the reader, which can pick up the info from the chip through some trick of wireless technology.

However, there are some people who violate the "no touch" dictum and gently place the card on the reader device. It's considered gauche, and retail employees often snicker once the customer leaves. But the credit card company sends the money all the same.