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There are two components to this. First, the chips themselves are more difficult to both install and program. This means that mass cloning of an EMV card is harder than one with a magnetic strip. This is the part that most US financial institutions care about. The second component, which is more applicable overseas, is that that information needed to verify the legitimacy of the card is contained on the chip. This means that the card reader doesn't have to be online. In the EU, for example, internet connections are not unlimited and an "always on" connection is very expensive. So many merchants perform transactions all day "off line", then do a bulk data upload at fixed times. In the US, where data is cheap, most merchants have their card readers connected to the internet and use verification from the issuer to confirm the legitimacy of the card. I believe this is why most US financial institutions will adopt "chip and signature" instead of "chip and pin". Chip and pin is only useful if you are off line at the time of the transaction.
It's also supposed to reduce fraud for chip and PIN cards because it is easier to forge someone's signature than to guess their PIN. Then there's a whole host of issues about shifting of liabilities for fraudulent transactions.
@Walt_K wrote:It's also supposed to reduce fraud for chip and PIN cards because it is easier to forge someone's signature than to guess their PIN. Then there's a whole host of issues about shifting of liabilities for fraudulent transactions.
Oh so the pin is encryted in the chip? And are these still contact chips (like no need to swipe)?
If you don't travel internationally, you don't need one. It will be quite awhile before they are adopted on a mass-scale in the US.
@CreditScholar wrote:If you don't travel internationally, you don't need one. It will be quite awhile before they are adopted on a mass-scale in the US.
+1
LS: The Chase Freedom does not have an EMV-enabled version as of yet. Chase only offers this on some of their co-branded travel cards (Hyatt and British Airways I believe, maybe one or two more) and their JPM Select and Palladium credit cards.
@Revelate wrote:
@CreditScholar wrote:If you don't travel internationally, you don't need one. It will be quite awhile before they are adopted on a mass-scale in the US.
+1
LS: The Chase Freedom does not have an EMV-enabled version as of yet. Chase only offers this on some of their co-branded travel cards (Hyatt and British Airways I believe, maybe one or two more) and their JPM Select and Palladium credit cards.
I doubt the Freedom will get one, and if it does it will be because all of Chase's cards will have gone this way.
Since the chip is used only by those who travel outside the US, chipped cards will typically come with no forex fees. The freedom charges forex, so it defintely wouldn't be a good candidate for a chip until it's mandated.
@CreditScholar wrote:I doubt the Freedom will get one, and if it does it will be because all of Chase's cards will have gone this way.
Since the chip is used only by those who travel outside the US, chipped cards will typically come with no forex fees. The freedom charges forex, so it defintely wouldn't be a good candidate for a chip until it's mandated.
I would've agreed with you a few months ago; however, BOFA has pretty much done it for most of their popular cards, including their Cash Rewards card which I believe is still saddled with a 3% forex fee which to my knowledge may be the highest in the industry.
I have to admit being rather surprised seeing that on the BOFA page, and some cards vis a vis Chase Sapphire Preferred not having one for some reason. I'm not certain that EMV adoption by primarily US-based credit card issuers follows any rhyme or reason at this point; however, with the Freedom being the entry level credit product to all that is Chase you're probably right that it won't get one unless they all do.
@bobebob wrote:I would like to get new versions of my cards that have the additional security the embedded chips give.
But since I don't travel out of country, I was wondering if it was worth the effort.
I am under the impression that the US is very slow to adopt the technology.
Is this likely to be of any benefit in the near future?
I got one of my cards upgraded with the chip just because it looked cooler with it. haha Im crazy right.
Most US issued EMV cards are chip + signature, but even the US issuers that do chip + PIN also include chip + signature on their cards.... which, evidently, gives the card the same security as a traditional swipe card.
I wonder what the logic for not having the chip on all cards (EMV) seems like more security for the consumer in this age of identity theft and fraud.