February 4, 2006

This next Valentines Day (February 14th) will need to be remembered for more than that special loved one, as while you are buying your sweetheart that bouquet of flowers, perfume or large box of chocolates (For the ladies only, or maybe not) remembering another special friend in your life will have to be done from that day forward.

I am talking about our little plastic friends, the credit card’s as this is the day in which we will have to all have to remember our Pin, when we wish to make a purchase and the signing option is taken from us.

From that day forward, if you can’t remember your Pin then you will find that you credit card will be declined, as you wont be given the chance to sign for the goods, the way that many stores allow at the present time.

There are some cases in which the signing for goods will be allowed, these being for disabled customers, purchases outside of the UK and if the credit card that you own has not yet been upgraded to a Chip and Pin card.

It his hoped that this move would cement the foundations that the new Chip and Pin system has set out, with credit card fraud down an impressive 29% in the first six months in which it has been functioning. The 29% reduction accounts for £36 million in less credit card fraud, than the same period last year and now stands at £89.9 million, where as last year the total from January to June stood at £125.9 million. This though only attributes to “card seen” transactions and does not include the figures for credit card fraud committed as “card not seen” transactions, which include Internet purchases, telephone and Mail order catalogues.

Though to defend the Chip and Pin system, it was not brought in to combat “card not seen” fraud and it seems to be working so far on card fraud committed at the point of sale (POS) and we should never be under the illusion that it will cut credit card fraud in all areas.

Most of us seem to be dealing with the transition from the old magnetic strip and sign system to Chip and Pin, with more than 90% of the credit card using population having their Chip and Pin cards and 87% saying that they find it easy to use, the date set for everyone to remember and use their Pin from that day on, is the next step in cutting the levels of fraud on our credit card even further.

Remember you will have still another four months to get your act together and begin to memorize those four digit numbers and to make doubly sure that you, the Chip and pin programme have launched a series of adverts and programmes to remind us of the impending day and the death of the old metallic strip credit card system in the UK, so look out for the I ♥ PIN campaign, it is there to make the change over as smoothly as possible for everyone.