What a card

[ewx]

[Poll #965137]

(I have two smart card readers on my desk, one is an unpackaged form of a newer design and is upside-down with respect to the packaged one. Consequently I have no idea which way up smartcards go any more at work, though I can still manage credit cards and so on.)

Comments

[gerald_duck]

One should get it the right way up after 1½ tries on average, 2 tries maximum.

But there are actually four possible ways to insert the card (either way up; either way round), no? In that case one would expect to get the correct orientation after 2½ tries on average, 4 tries maximum.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

You missed out: It's a touch reader; it doesn't need to be any way up.

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

Yes, but contextually it's well known that the chip contacts go deeper into the, ah, slot.

MENTAL FLOSS. NOW.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Also, try alternating between here and Sweden, where credit cards go in upside-down (and I think back-to-front too), and that'll soon sort out that disparity!

[armb.livejournal.com]

Though if the card is contacts down, and you mistakenly think it's that way because you recently used it, you might plausibly put it in without turning it over and not see that the contacts aren't going in on your first try.
(On some cards the printed back design makes it obvious, but not all.)

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

attempt K of N

*thwap*

[mtbc100.livejournal.com]

Pictures of how to insert credit cards here often confuse me because they seem to assume that you're looking at your right hand from its left, instead of, as I do, your left hand from the right.

[sparrowsion]

I failed to extract cash from an unfamiliar ATM last night due to inability to work out which way round to insert my card. Or maybe it was just flat out broken, and not displaying anything indicative of this on screen.