Chipped Credit/Debit Cards

What good are they?

I received one in the mail and honestly, I would think they could be compromised easier than non chipped cards. Add to it the fact that many merchants are not equipped to handle this type of card, so you still have to run the magnetic strip through a reader. Or with online purchases, it's still give out the information on the card. So now someone with a reader of some sort in their backpack or purse could retrieve the information and use it. In my opinion, it is just another avenue for the theft of the credit/debit card information.

I also don't care for them being forced on you. My regular card will be canceled on the 21st of this month and I will have to activate and use this new thing. All I know is something isn't right. Windows 10 being forced on you and now these chipped cards? BTW, I never did upgrade to Windows 10 and have no intention of doing so.

 

There is probably no getting around these new cards
There have been chips in car keys for 20+ years.

 

I too despise Windows 10. The chipped cards also make me nervous. I saw something where a guy was walking through a crowd with a phone and was able to get info or outright make charges to cards in people's pockets. They are also a tracking device. RFID scanners such as the ones at Walmart entrances know when that card passes through them. I have been shopping for an RFID blocking card wallet as my bank just sent a letter indicating I will soon have one in my debit card.

 

Chipped cards are a solution for a nonexistent problem. Someone is making money somewhere.

 

The chipped cards are more secure. I have them but they still have the magnetic strip as well. Merchants have a certain amount of time to make the change. If they don't then they will be on the hook for fraudulent charges instead of the bank. The chipped cards create a one time transaction code for each purchase (not sure that it works online). Europe has been using them for years, with a PIN # instead of a signature. The good part is that it is more secure. The bad part is that it takes longer to physically check out. Formerly one would swipe their card and be done - or swipe several times.... With the chip readers, it takes a little while for the connection and transaction.

 

Most merchants have equipment that handlesthe new technology, but they either don't know how to use it or it isn't activated.

 

We have been using chipped debit and credit cards in Canada for years now with no more issues than one may have had with just mag strip cards years ago. I almost can't remember the last time I had to use the swipe in Canada. In fact, the last time I had an issue with a credit card was when it got scammed while swipping at a gas station when I was in California 3 years ago. Bank caught the issue long before me and had the issue resolved before I got home.

We are so used to the chips here that I hear often from other Canadians returning from the US about the lack of chip use in the States.

Also a big fan of the tap and go card now for small purchases.

 

Star Gazer, try this site. After reading this, I understand better but I still couldn't 'splain it good 'nuff.

Does That New Credit Card Chip Really Protect You?

Edited it to say this is what I googled to find a fair answer and this popped back when I clicked on the actual link. Click on one of the first ones put up by Forbes because that's where I went to read about the security of the new cards and I thought that one provided an appropriate and plausible answer.

 

I don't trust them.

RFID Credit Cards and Theft: Tech Clinic

 

They are a HUGE benefit to us as consumers.

The chip cards give the vendors a one time transaction code. The mag stripe gives them your full card info. Target, Home Depot and countless other vendors were storing all the data from the card swipes and then got hacked turning over tens of millions of names and credit card numbers to criminals. Even with no liability for fraudulent charges, I have incurred expense and wasted time from having compromised cards cancelled and new ones with new numbers issued, sometimes multiple times per year.

With the chip cards, Apple and Google pay and other "new" systems, if a vendor gets hacked, the one time transaction codes are useless.

 

Chipped credit/debit cards are mandated by the BSA - Bank Security Act, part of the renewed/revised Patriot Act.

 

Chipped & RFID are two different things. An RFID scanner can read the necessary magnetic swipe card information to make a transaction without actually touching the card. Problem is that the scanners have been hacked to copy cards as you walk past the scammer's scanner. I removed the RFID circuit from my cards as I received them. If you know where it is a hole punch cleanly removes it.

The CHIP cards have a micro chip that communicates with your financial institution to generate a one time approval code. It also stores the last code used. The chip & its traffic are encrypted to make it difficult to copy. Usually by time it is decrypted and copied another transaction has occured with the original and the bank realizes there are multiple cards with the same chip. Even if they are successful in copying the card and chip they can only use it until the original card is used again. Once there are two copies of the same chip trying to get approval the bank sees the difference in approval codes and blocks both cards.

User & vendor liability for chip cards is lower than for swipe cards. Vendors that still use swipe readers now have higher liability for fraudelent transactions.

KaptJaq

 

Nothing is 100% secure but things have changed since that article was posted over 6 years ago. I just replaced my debit card and my previous card had no RFID, just a chip that required a pin (which is more secure than a signature), but my replacement debit card has the RFID (tap and go) option. I had the option of enabling or disabling this feature when I got the card.

 

According to these FAQs, 8 FAQs about EMV credit cards most of the cards issued in the US will be chip & sign rather than chip & PIN. Also noted is "dual interface" technology (tap & pay or near field communication) which will come in the future. As that type of transaction grows more popular, the card dock or swipe interface will likely disappear because we all know we're just too dammed busy to type a pin or sign our name. My current employer uses a chip & sign machine as we are small time and don't have the customer interface keypad/screen.

Also, the Pop Mech article being older means that the criminals have had 6 years to improve their methods IMO.

I'm not saying that the sky is falling on this, but it seems that the more convenient we try to make transactions, the easier it is for someone to take advantage. Maybe we need to go back to the "kerchunk" manual device.

I am interested in the hole punch method and will investigate further. I do have a question though...how is the chip's encryption method used on an internet transaction where there is no scanner?

 

The fact that for most transactions the card is updated with the approval code makes them more secure. Even RFID transactions can have that feature enabled.

Online and over the phone transactions are riskier but the vendor now assumes that risk, not the bank anymore. The vendor will probably be a lot more careful. An example is that they can make sure the ship to address is the card's billing address. There are many validation tools offered by the financial institutions. Since, before the new law, it was the bank's loss, the venders did not take advantage of them. Now it is out of the vendor's pocket so they will put some effort into it.

I have used chip & pin in Europe for years. In many places there is no one at gas stations on Sunday, chip & pin is the only way to get self-serve gas. Credit card loss percentages there are radically lower than here. We just want convenience. The banks wanted our business so they absorbed the losses. Cash is on the way out and card business has grown. So have the losses. The problem is that the losses have grown at a much greater rate than the business. The banks have their card in your pocket, you are hooked, now they want to cut their losses...

 

This is all much too heavy for my wore out brain. But I'm glad others can wrap theirs around alla this crazy stuff !!

I'm not sure I really wanna anyway ....

 

I use cash for almost all B&M transactions.
I may make a tin foil hat for my CC though.

 

The chips are the exact(well nearly the same) as the SIM card in your cellphone.

You can worry about all the nefarious uses your card company has in mind for them, or the fact that magnetic strips have been compromised and are readily reproduced by common crooks daily.