All these advanced European civilized people and their magic voodoo credit cards...
Americans could have used that stuff the same time as you, or even before, but solutions without problems are not popular here. If you want proof, see how rarely the chip slots are used at payment terminals even though they've been around a few years. Nobody needs them.
They also remove a level of control, where the buyer is asked to confirm the payment amount. Americans have sticky fingers and don't trust a machine to manage their money. Computers can and do make mistakes.
I see a lot of people, including myself, going back to using cash more often. Banks have a reputation for poor digital security, even when they aren't defrauding their customers by opening unauthorized accounts for them like Wells Fargo did.