Chip and Pin Credit Cards – How Much?

The new Chip and Pin system has come at a cost of £1.1 billion to banks and retailers, as they aim to move away from the old metallic strip system that was becoming more and more open to abuse from the credit card fraudsters of this world.

This may look to you or I, to be an obscene amount of money, but when you line it up beside the amount of cash that was being lost through credit card fraud, then in the long term future of credit cards, it will hopefully be money well spent and will actually mean savings to the banks and retailers.

Last year saw credit card fraud amount to £424.56 million and with the current level of fraud rising in the rate that it is at the moment, then credit card fraud would reach the £1 Billion a year mark by the year 2010, so the system had to be looked at to plug the hole in which money was getting into the pockets of credit card fraudsters. So this is where the new Chip and Pin system is being looked upon to stem the tide and put a barrier between our cash and the credit card crooks.

The introduction of Chip and Pin is being hoped to eradicate the amount of cash that the credit card crooks are getting their filthy hands on, which will have other positives, where the crooks will have less available money to use in the buying of drugs and other illegal practices, so the Chip and Pin will help in more than just stopping fraud alone.

It is hoped that when the new Chip and Pin technology is up and running, then there will be a 60% reduction in credit card fraud, you may think that it still leaves a 40% level of fraud, but though Chip and Pin will cut it down to a level it cant cut it out completely due to “Card not Seen” transactions where we use our credit cards over the telephone or more commonly over the Internet, where the need for the four digit Pin is not required, a you will be telling or typing your details of the credit card to the person that is on the other side of the phone/Internet.

This is where you have to play your part and be more vigilant when you are dealing with your credit card in this manner, making sure that the website is safe and that you don’t reply to any e-mails asking for your details from companies who say things like the system is down and that they don’t have a record of you details, this is simply untrue and the fact is that this sort of e-mail is coming from a different source, that will use your details to relieve you of your cash.