Chip & Pin Cards

Chip and PIN is the new and improved style of credit card winging its way to you shortly. It’s easy to use and it’ll make your high street shopping a whole lot safer. When you’re paying for something at a till, instead of signing a receipt to authorise the transaction, you'll be asked to type a four digit personal identification number (PIN) into a special keypad.

Why is it all changing ? Chip and pin has been brought in to bring more security to your credit card and offers excellent protection against credit card crime. No one other than you will know your Personal Identification Number, better know as a PIN. Credit card fraud has been a big issue It has increased by more than 30 per cent a year in the UK and more than £420 million of fraud was committed on UK cards in 2002

Chip and Pin had a successful trial in Northampton in a wide range of stores and due to this success is now going nationwide.

The launch of the second phase of advertising coincides with three in five cardholders already having a new chip and PIN card and over 350,000 businesses accepting credit or debit cards already switched over to chip and PIN. The chip and PIN rollout began in October 2003 and by late 2004 it is expected that the majority of all UK cardholders will have a chip and PIN card.

The rollout of chip and PIN continues throughout the year and the majority of card transactions will be chip and PIN transactions by the end of 2004. Cardholders do not need to do anything now as card companies will contact them when they are ready to issue new cards.

Your card will look the same as it does today. Many cards today are issued with a "chip" in them, and so you may think you have a chip and PIN card. However, not all of these cards ask you to enter a PIN when you pay for your goods and services. When your new card is issued, you should read the letter or the literature that accompanies your card or PIN to check if it is a chip and PIN card. If it is not a chip and PIN card, don't worry. Chip and PIN cards are being sent out at the moment and you will be receiving yours soon.

Chip and Pin Credit Card Pitfalls - We all realise how important the new Chip and Pin style credit cards are going to be to combat credit card fraud, however, to a large majority of the chip and pin credit card holders there are some major pitfalls that they will do well to avoid.......read more