Credit Cards UK

Chip And Pin Credit Card Problems

The new Chip and Pin system that has been brought in to try and combat the threat of fraud on credit cards, should be fully up and running by now and hopefully it will be an improvement on the old metallic strip system, that was becoming increasingly targeted by the credit card crooks, who with a simple “Skimming” machine could have all the details of your cards in a split second and then used either to make a copy credit card or the details used to buy goods over the Internet or phone, which is regarded as “card not seen” fraud.

So how will the “Chip and Pin” system work to fight the menace of credit card fraud? The answer to that is that with the introduction of the Chip, this will hold al of your relevant information that is needed to make a purchase with your credit card and this cannot be accessed without the need of the Pin, which is a four digit number that will need to be punched in to release the information from the chip.

This will fight the chances of your credit card being “Skimmed” as you cant use one without the other, but the down side is that if your card was to be lost or stolen, then it could still be used in “card not seen” transactions.

Another little bone of contention, is having a few different credit cards, which will all have different Pin’s, say for example that the credit or debit cards that your credit card issuer has sent out send out the four digit numbers for both cards at the one time (though these numbers will be sent out at a different time from the cards), the credit or debit card issuer will not state which set of numbers is for which card.

This will be left to you to work out using the old trial and error method, as long as you can remember the two sets of numbers in the first place and given that you will only get three attempts at getting it right before your card is chewed up at the ATM, the card issuers should maybe look at sending out each card individually, as with the Pin’s to cut down on the inconvenience of the customer.

Add to this the chances of you already having to remember the Pin for any bankcards that you may already have, and then the chances are many wrong numbers around the land are going to be punched into keypads.

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