Three Things to Know About Your Chip Card

As popularity of the chip card grows, traditional magnetic-stripe cards will continue to be phased out. Consumers and business owners alike prefer a chip card because of the enhanced security it provides. The card’s technology, called EMV after its developers Europay, Mastercard and Visa, is a small embedded microchip that essentially enables the chip to act as a “smart card.”

Town and Country’s Andrea Moore, Deposit Services and Fraud Manager, shares three helpful things to know about the card in your wallet:

1. The chip allows for two different transactions: chip and PIN (Personal Identification Number) and chip and signature. If using a debit card, you will most likely be asked for a PIN while credit cards are most often chip and signature. While it may all be the same to you, those transactions are processed very differently behind the scenes.
2. Traditional magnetic-stripe cards could be duplicated easily, but that’s much harder to do with the chip. The technology produces a specific code each time it’s used that is sent to the card’s financial institution. Those unique numbers make it impossible to duplicate. If a business does not have a chip-card reader, you can still swipe your chip card, but you lose that protection enhancement. PINs and signatures also provide a layer of security.
3. While technology makes chip cards more secure, it still won’t protect you if the card is lost or stolen. While it’s hard to replicate someone’s PIN, it’s very easy to forge a signature. Online shopping, which only asks for card numbers, also poses a risk. That’s why at Town and Country, we urge you to contact us right away if a card is missing so we can take steps to reduce the risk of fraud.