May 30, 2005

Chip and Pin, if you have not already received your new with this new facility, then a quick call to your credit card issuer should be on the agenda, as you should really have had your old plastic replaced by now.

If you do not relate to that first paragraph and are wondering what this new Chip and Pin system is, then I can only imagine that you have had your head buried in the sand for the last year or so.

So what is Chip and Pin you ask?

Well Chip and Pin is a new system that has been brought in by all issuers to combat the rising levels of credit card fraud. It will replace the old metallic strip, swipe and sign system that was open to fraud, due to the fact that all your credit card details were held within the metallic strip. This could be done on a small hand held machine, under counters in shops as soon as you take your eye off of your credit card.

Chip and Pin will combat this by the way of the Pin (Personal Identification Number), this will be of a four digit number that will be only known to you and once this is punched into the card keypad in the shops, it will then activate the chip to release the relevant information to make the purchase.

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Chip and Pin – The True Cost
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Chip and Pin The Future

The system is being introduced to the U.K after the success of the scheme when it was first applied in France, were the credit card fraud there was cut by almost 80%, making the Chip and Pin a more secure way of making purchases as it is a lot harder to counterfeit a card that you are the only one who knows the Pin that has to be inserted.

The down side.....

The down side to the new Chip and Pin system is that due to the amount of new that are now being sent through the post, many are being intercepted by the crooks who the credit card issuers are trying to stop in the first place. These crooks are getting their hands on in transit before the can land on your doorstep.

There will be a minority of people who will be working in sorting offices up and down the country are doing this, probably to earn a little more cash and with little thought of the heartache that they could be causing the credit card holders involved.

You may wonder that it should not matter to much if they get a hold of your new Chip and Pin card as they will need the four digit number to make it work, well you will be wrong, as with this day and age of making purchases over the Internet or by telephone, this comes under the banner of “card not seen” transactions and this is where the credit card thieves will strike to use your card to gain them cash, by buying goods to sell on for ready money.

So if you have not received your new Chip and Pin, then I will repeat what I stated at the start of this article, CALL your credit card issuer right away to ask if your cards have been sent out and when, this could stop any fraud being attributed to your cards and will mean that your credit card issuer can cancel the ones that have been sent out already and supply you with new ones, with new Pin’s.