Is anyone else annoyed by chip and pin/signature technology? Buying anything lately feels like a real pain.
After the person ahead of me completes their transaction, it becomes my turn to struggle. It begins by swiping the magnetic strip and the reader buzzing. “Please insert card into the chip reader.” Ok, I do. But then I either remove it too soon because the screen flashes, or I outright forget the card while I’m grabbing my bags or packing the shopping cart. The cashier (who has learned POS does not represent point-of-sale in this instance) resentfully reminds me of the card, before handing over the receipt and beginning the sequence anew with another shopper.
Sure, these are trivial annoyances, but was the old ‘swipe the stripe’ system that flawed? It supposedly protects my identity and accounts better, but the only time they were ever stolen was because of the credit card company’s data breaches anyhow.
We know it as chip and pin technology, but technically they are called EMV cards after the three brands that worked together to create the technology (Europay, Mastercard and Visa). The consortium wanted a way to reduce credit card fraud, and locating an integrated circuit within the credit card was deemed to be the solution.
Did you know cashiers have the responsibility to check for the correct hologram on non-EMV cards? Cardholder identity checks were also supposed to be performed by comparing the card’s signature to the signature on the receipt. (This is why some folks write “see ID” on their signature line—and many times their identity still isn’t verified!) Yet I don’t think either of those ever happened, and because credit card companies were on the hook for fraudulent charges, they ultimately felt a card redesign was necessary.
The security upgrade stems from the fact the chip on modern credit cards is much harder and more expensive to duplicate. This chip also contains card and account information that must be read and processed by the card reader’s software, which is why the card must remain in the card reader for a few moments longer. When magnetic stripes were first introduced on credit cards in the 1970s, they too were cutting edge technology, but today a stripe reader/writer can be had on the Internet for less than $100.
The chip also communicates with the card issuer’s network to co-create a one-time transaction approval code, so if hackers steal transaction information, they cannot use the account numbers to make phony charges.
Also, most of the world that has upgraded to EMV cards—the U.K., Ireland, Canada, France, Finland, the Netherlands— and prefer to use PINs instead of signatures, which the United States still does, along with Mexico, Germany and the Philippines. In fact, the U.S. is well behind the curve on EMV technology, as it has been rolled out in Europe for over a decade.
What caused the sudden exodus to chip and PIN technology in the U.S.? As of October 1, 2015, credit card issuers will no longer take responsibility for fraudulent purchases, and the onus will be on the retailer for using outdated technology. It is expected that sometime soon all purchases made by credit card will require the chip, and the magnetic stripe will be phased out.
While EMV is drastically reducing potential fraud, it is also saving the credit card companies from having to cover fraudulent charges, which was the primary motivation in the switch to EMV. Yet keeping the magnetized strip, even for now, basically makes chip and PIN technology useless. It can still be easily duplicated, and any time a striped card leaves a wallet is a chance for copying the magnetic stripe.
So while I roll my eyes in the checkout line, I should at least be grateful it isn’t the 1960s, when the clerk would check my card’s status in a printed manual, call the company if it was a large purchase, and then make a carbon copy on flatbed card imprinter. Those were the days…
|