American Express metal card killed chip reader

[FoBP_John]

Anyone else have trouble with metal AMEX cards?  We had one damage the inside of our chip reader, preventing all other cards from scanning.  Ugh!

[VanKalkerFarms]

so far no problems on well over 100,000 transactions in 4 chip readers, there are a lot of heavy-duty metal cards out there now, main thing is to make sure none get put in backward.

[xabiaizpuru]

Hi,

I wanted start a general thread about something that a friend merchant shared with me.

She just started her own shop and few hours into her first day, her chip reader broke. This is the chip reader that comes with Square Register.

i verify with Square, and apparently Amex has created a card that is thicker that regular, and it destroys the readers if not careful. We have been using the Register and we haven’t had any problems, but I’m worry that it will happen very soon.

Has anyone have the same experience?

Which type of credit card is it so we can be aware?

Can we just carefully insert the chip and remove it gently?

It will be quite a nightmare if a reader goes down.

Thank you!

[ashc]

Hi @xabiaizpuru! Welcome to the Community.

I merged your post with another existing thread I found about this.

It's important mainly to be careful when inserting the metal cards and not to put them in backwards as @VanKalkerFarms mentioned.

As long as you don't do so- the chip reader should remain in tact as they're made pretty durable!

[xabiaizpuru]

Thank you!

[GailE]

Not true.  The regular metal cards fit but the new Amex cards do not. They are too thick.  Customer pushed it in and killed it. 

[hapalijax]

Yes, it just happened to us tonight. Were you able to fix it, or did you have to buy a new one?

[Joe]

Hi @hapalijax - if you happen to experience this issue with your card reader, we would recommend flagging it over directly to our Support Team for more assistance. 

We will keep an eye out for your contact!

[FIXCoffeebar]

This also just happened to us. Customer forced a metal AMEX card in the reader and now it will not work for card insertion but still works for tapping. Can this be repaired or is it now junk?

[hapalijax]

Our card reader stopped working after the metal was inserted. I contacted square and they sent a new one out. Super easy. You just have to return the damaged one. They send you a label so it's free to return. If you don't return it though, they will charge you.

[GailE]

Nice. They didn’t do that for me. Wanted to send me another strip reader.

[GailE]

Yes!  It is the AmEx metal cards.  Square tech acted like they had never heard of the issue. 

[Krs123456]

Just happened to us as well, metal card was inserted and broke the card reader, then the card reader was useless, it bent the pins/metal. Square is sending us a new one, next day shipping:)