Kroger now forces debit cards to use their pins

Date: Feb 8, 2016

Kroger now forces debit cards to use their pins

mega-kitteh · Guru

That's why I use cash and only use my debit/credit cards if ABSOLUTELY NECESSSARY. Because NONODY really needs to know my PIN or have acsess to it for ANY reason. Idgaf what they think. Slip ups can and WILL happen.

Date: Feb 8, 2016

Ive been using a debit card ever since i started back working at this stinking company back in august. Ive always had to use my PIN.

Date: Feb 8, 2016

It's not just Kroger. All chip enabled bedit cards will have to use pins no matter the retailer by mid year. That one of the reason why Kroger heard off because originally we were told you had the option to do credit or debit. We did not want to have to retrain our customers twice. again it's not just Kroger.

Date: Feb 8, 2016

Oh how I loathe those chip readers. Not only do they take MORE TIME to do, but this forced pin BS has pissed off a lot of customers at our store. Many of them don't have pins attached to their card because they only use the credit option, so they're forced to walk out because they literally have lost the ability to pay. Last week alone I had 10 people leave upset and without any of their groceries.

FrontEndSlave · Guru

I've always had to put in my PIN with my debit.

Date: Feb 9, 2016

The chip on the chip-and-pin cards is set to run as either credit or debit, depending on the card used. If it is supposed to be run as a debit, the bank will provide the PIN number to you. If it is supposed to be run as credit, they won't provide a PIN. How the chips are set up on the card is up to the bank. This is not decided by Kroger.

4hourrush · Guru

if they're using a debit card, i could be wrong, but i'm pretty sure they HAVE a pin attached to the card, thats what a debit card is. they just don't know their own pin.

FrontEndSlave · Guru

There are some places where I have not had to worry about a PIN number.

Burger King, for instance, takes my debit card but requires no PIN.
But every time I have gone to Kroger rather as employee or former employee, whenever I used my debit, I had to put in the PIN number.

Date: Feb 9, 2016

FrontEndSlave wrote:
There are some places where I have not had to worry about a PIN number.

Burger King, for instance, takes my debit card but requires no PIN.
But every time I have gone to Kroger rather as employee or former employee, whenever I used my debit, I had to put in the PIN number.

They are running your card as a credit. At Kroger, if it's under $50 I always choose credit so I don't have to sign or put in a pin #.

Kenny Powers · Senior Member

Anonymous wrote:
Oh how I loathe those chip readers. Not only do they take MORE TIME to do, but this forced pin BS has pissed off a lot of customers at our store. Many of them don't have pins attached to their card because they only use the credit option, so they're forced to walk out because they literally have lost the ability to pay. Last week alone I had 10 people leave upset and without any of their groceries.

They're too stupid/lazy to remember/use their PIN.

Date: Feb 9, 2016

Anyone can run a card as credit and sign for it. Maybe they are using someone else's card and that is why they don't know the pin number.

My daughters borrow my card to shop, I tell them if they forget my pin to just run it as a credit.

DanielleNicole94 · Guru

Chip or not, you have to enter your pin with debit cards.

SCO · Senior Member

I can see how this is odd because we're so used to running our debit cards as credit.. but isn't the point of all this security? and isn't it more secure to enter your pin?? because anyone can steal your card and run it as credit.

Date: Feb 10, 2016

DanielleNicole94 wrote:
Chip or not, you have to enter your pin with debit cards.

At our store, you can swipe your debit card, then push the credit button. Under $50, you don't have to sign. Over $50, you have to sign. So you can use your debit card as either a debit or a credit. You don't have to use a pin if you don't want to.

Date: Feb 10, 2016

Anonymous wrote:
DanielleNicole94 wrote:
Chip or not, you have to enter your pin with debit cards.
At our store, you can swipe your debit card, then push the credit button. Under $50, you don't have to sign. Over $50, you have to sign. So you can use your debit card as either a debit or a credit. You don't have to use a pin if you don't want to.

If a debit card has the Master Card or Visa logo, you can use it as a credit card.

DanielleNicole94 · Guru

Anonymous wrote:
DanielleNicole94 wrote:
Chip or not, you have to enter your pin with debit cards.
At our store, you can swipe your debit card, then push the credit button. Under $50, you don't have to sign. Over $50, you have to sign. So you can use your debit card as either a debit or a credit. You don't have to use a pin if you don't want to.

If you run it as debit then you HAVE to enter your pin.

Date: Feb 11, 2016

DanielleNicole94 wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
DanielleNicole94 wrote:
Chip or not, you have to enter your pin with debit cards.
At our store, you can swipe your debit card, then push the credit button. Under $50, you don't have to sign. Over $50, you have to sign. So you can use your debit card as either a debit or a credit. You don't have to use a pin if you don't want to.
If you run it as debit then you HAVE to enter your pin.

Danielle, you don't. You are not a cashier. I worked for Kroger as a cashier for almost 4 years. I shop at that store 3 or 4 times a week. I use my debit card as a credit half the time. So do not tell me I have to use a pin when I know fully well that I don't have to. I do it all the time. Quit telling everyone that. I do it at other stores besides Kroger and it works every single time. If you debit card has a Visa or Mastercard logo you can use it as either a debit or a credit.

4hourrush · Guru

Anonymous wrote:
DanielleNicole94 wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
DanielleNicole94 wrote:
Chip or not, you have to enter your pin with debit cards.
At our store, you can swipe your debit card, then push the credit button. Under $50, you don't have to sign. Over $50, you have to sign. So you can use your debit card as either a debit or a credit. You don't have to use a pin if you don't want to.
If you run it as debit then you HAVE to enter your pin.
Danielle, you don't. You are not a cashier. I worked for Kroger as a cashier for almost 4 years. I shop at that store 3 or 4 times a week. I use my debit card as a credit half the time. So do not tell me I have to use a pin when I know fully well that I don't have to. I do it all the time. Quit telling everyone that. I do it at other stores besides Kroger and it works every single time. If you debit card has a Visa or Mastercard logo you can use it as either a debit or a credit.

Instead of attacking her slow down and read the post buddy. She specifically said if you run it as debit not credit

Date: Feb 12, 2016

4hourrush wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
DanielleNicole94 wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
DanielleNicole94 wrote:
Chip or not, you have to enter your pin with debit cards.
At our store, you can swipe your debit card, then push the credit button. Under $50, you don't have to sign. Over $50, you have to sign. So you can use your debit card as either a debit or a credit. You don't have to use a pin if you don't want to.
If you run it as debit then you HAVE to enter your pin.
Danielle, you don't. You are not a cashier. I worked for Kroger as a cashier for almost 4 years. I shop at that store 3 or 4 times a week. I use my debit card as a credit half the time. So do not tell me I have to use a pin when I know fully well that I don't have to. I do it all the time. Quit telling everyone that. I do it at other stores besides Kroger and it works every single time. If you debit card has a Visa or Mastercard logo you can use it as either a debit or a credit.
Instead of attacking her slow down and read the post buddy. She specifically said if you run it as debit not credit

That goes without saying. Danielle like to butt in and play the big important boss who knows everything. You don't have to use a pin if you don't want to.........choose credit. My statement is true.

ProduceDumbass · Veteran Member

I'm glad it forces the use of a PIN. Signatures are not a security method. Chip-and-PIN is a hell of a lot more secure than running as credit with a magswipe.

vicmc · Member

So we're all getting angry that we're catching up with the rest of the world? At my store our chip readers don't work (on new machines) so we have to swipe our cards still. The rest of the world has used chip and pin for a long time, we're just catching up. Slow your roll guys.

kroagrr · Guru

Date: Feb 18, 2016

Can any of you mouth breathers comprehend written English. The original poster described the situation, and Danielle confirmed it. I experienced the same thing. I have a wells fargo debit card with a visa logo and a chip. I could not runit as a credit card, i was forced to use the debit function, which means entering a pin.

Date: Feb 19, 2016

No, just Danielle thinks you have to use a pin all the time. You only have to enter a pin number if you have one of the new cards with a chip. If you have an older card with no chip, you can run it as a debit or a credit, even with the new machines. You only have to enter a pin if you have a card with the chip.

Date: Feb 20, 2016

Will not shop at Kroger disbelief any more. I have been a loyal customer for 30 Years and was told tonight that I will be forced to enter PIN number if I use my bank card. I refuse to be forced to give anyone my pin number, so I regretfully will no longer shop at kroger. How dare they force me to give up secure information against my will. Data bases are hacked and PIN numbers compromise on a daily basis. This should not be legal. At best it is unethical.

Date: Feb 20, 2016

All cards will use chips and it is impossible to get one at Wells Fargo without a chip. Kroger does not allow the choice to use it as credit hmm

Date: Feb 21, 2016

Anonymous wrote:
Will not shop at Kroger any more. I have been a loyal customer for 30 Years and was told tonight that I will be forced to enter PIN number if I use my bank card. I refuse to be forced to give anyone my pin number, so I regretfully will no longer shop at kroger. How dare they force me to give up secure information against my will. Data bases are hacked and PIN numbers compromise on a daily basis. This should not be legal. At best it is unethical.

Well if you have a chip card then that's the way it is. Is it only Kroger that does this? I think the problem is you and your card. Go to your bank and tell them you want a card that doesn't require a pin ANYWHERE because you don't want to use a pin. Problem solved. It's called a credit card!

Date: Feb 27, 2016

URGH.. Kroger SUCKs - Strong arming a PIN! IS so WRONG on many levels. If the chip is suppose to be the best measure against fraud then why do you need my PIN.

Date: Mar 5, 2016

Anonymous wrote:
URGH.. Kroger SUCKs - Strong arming a PIN! IS so WRONG on many levels. If the chip is suppose to be the best measure against fraud then why do you need my PIN.

EMV chips can't protect against physical loss of your card. If you lose your card and whoever finds it uses it at a terminal where it can be run as credit, all they have to do is sign. The more terminals that require PIN, the safer you are if your card is physically lost/stolen.

Date: Mar 8, 2016

My wife had the same problem today. She has a new card with a chip that is a Visa check card (attached to a checking acct). The reader would only allow debit as an option with the new card. Since banks typically charge for each debit/ATM style transaction, we may be forced to go elsewhere for our groceries.

Date: Mar 10, 2016

I hope more people get ticked off and fill up carts\ just to object to forced PIN # requirement and abandon cart load of groceries atthe register so they eventually have to hire more staff just to put crap back. YES, for now Kroger is the ONLY retailer requiring this, somy $400 /mo + for groceries now go toWalmart.

Date: Mar 10, 2016

this doesn't work either. Kroger lies to you when you can't use debit/credit card without a pin, they tell you it is YOUR BANK requirement when I confirmed it is NOT. All this to save the difference between a 50 cent debit swipe or 1.25%or less surely for such a large account, on a credit swipe. All that, so they make more $ and still won't pay staff more per hour! They lost my business entirely but then I willonly gain because shopping at Walmart has already saved me approx$6 a week for things I buy andIF there's a mere chance that Kroger or other stores inarea have a sale price that's better,I get the difference back through theDAILY savings catcher. So,adios idiot Kroger.

Date: Mar 10, 2016

Before you storm off, Walmart also forces you to use just your PIN. They do not offer the option of credit with your debit card either. These are the only two merchants that I'm aware of that no longer give you an option.

Date: Mar 11, 2016

Um, our WM *does* allow us to use our debit card as credit...

Date: Mar 12, 2016

Thats a LIE. I have used my chip card at several other retail outlets. Kroger is the ONLY store that forces you to use your pin. The clerks play dumb as if they dont know why, I even had a cashier tell me I have to call my bank to ask them to disable the forced pin option... My bank advised me the pin option is set up at the retail level NOT by the bank. This is Krogers way of being cheap and not paying the higher fee to process credit cards. Similar to gas stations that charge you more to pay with credit instead of cash.

Date: Mar 12, 2016

And when Kroger has a big data breach because it is forcing EVERYONE to use their pin , then what? It is safer to run as credi( merchants should require an ID if they want to be sure the card belongs to the user. Using a pin does not absolutely confirm that the person swiping is the owner of the card.

4hourrush · Guru

How is it safer to run as credit? If anyone grabs your card, they can swipe it as they're not going to be checking id for every small transaction.... i'm pretty sure the same people complaining about having to use their pin would be complaining if they had to get their id out for every transaction.

Kroger does a lot of f'ed up things but on this I think people need to pick their battles.

ProduceDumbass · Veteran Member

Anonymous wrote:
And when Kroger has a big data breach because it is forcing EVERYONE to use their pin , then what? It is safer to run as credi( merchants should require an ID if they want to be sure the card belongs to the user. Using a pin does not absolutely confirm that the person swiping is the owner of the card.

Well for starters, PINs aren't stored by retailers, debit transactions are made over the payment network in real-time. Plus they're encrypted immediately upon entry, before the PIN pad even sends them to the POS terminal, typically with the triple DES algorithm, with both hardware and software methods to kill the private keys used for this encryption if the pad is tampered with.

Your PIN is secure. Your signature, who the **** even checks those?

AnonymousCutter · Guru

This isn't the fault of Kroger, but rather the banks. They've installed these chips to prevent fraud out of our own convenience. Apparently europe has been doing this for years, but it prevents thieves from making magnetic strip cards with your numbers attached to it.

If its a bank card it'll force you to run it as a debit card. I had to make a purchase at Walgreens and it was an emergency and my chip was damaged and malfunctioning.

They told me if it doesn't work this time they can't help me. I started getting angry and they said we're not suppose to do this, but they allowed me to manually enter in my card number.