Chip-based Credit Cards Start Rolling Out In The US

We have all seen and heard about credit card fraud before, where your credit card details like its number could be stolen, or your card replicated thanks to skimmers that will copy the magnetic strip on the back of the card. However the good news is that chip-based credit cards are slowly starting to roll out to users in the US.

This follows last year’s announcement in which credit card companies in the US promised that they would be making the switch to chip-based credit cards, and starting this Thursday retailers are expected to have upgraded their card-reading terminals, lest they end up being liable for any potential credit card fraud.

As it stands, any fraud prior to this would be the onus of the banks issuing the card, but after Thursday, any fraud would basically have to be footed and accepted by the retailer themselves. So how are these new credit cards more secure? For starters they use a chip which will in turn send one-time use encrypted codes for each transaction, making it harder for hackers and fraudsters to duplicate/hack.

The system isn’t new as regions such as Europe have already introduced a similar system back in 2005, along with various parts of Asia and Oceania that have implemented chips in their credit cards as well, but we suppose better late than never, right?

Tyler Lee
Categories: General, Shopping
Tags: Security