eli5 How did Credit/Debit Cards work before Chip & Pin Machines?

Question

eli5 How did Credit/Debit Cards work before Chip & Pin Machines?

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Answer 1

Before chip and pin machines, credit and debit cards were used in a variety of ways. Most commonly, merchants would manually enter the card number and expiration date into a terminal and then manually compare the signature on the back of the card to the signature on the receipt. This method was vulnerable to fraud and was eventually phased out in favor of chip and pin machines. Chip and pin machines require the user to enter a PIN in order to complete the transaction, making it more secure and reducing the risk of fraud.