topic Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out. in Credit Cards

AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

Prodr222 — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 00:23:24 GMT

http://chipandsignature.americanexpress.com/

It seems like the only ones that can receive it are the platinum and centurion. Hopefuly the rest will get them along with NO FTF´s on the rest of their cards. well one can dream lol

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

nagisa — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 01:32:37 GMT

Reminds me of 2002 in the UK, when some relatives got their Centurion card with the EMV chips in (though they were Chip and Signature then, as Chip and PIN hadn't yet been launched in the UK) ... oh how far behind the US is *sigh*

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

RonDawg — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 01:42:06 GMT

@nagisa wrote:
Reminds me of 2002 in the UK, when some relatives got their Centurion card with the EMV chips in (though they were Chip and Signature then, as Chip and PIN hadn't yet been launched in the UK) ... oh how far behind the US is *sigh*

Don't get me started. I know how far behind we are, we are credit cavemen compared.

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

kekrre — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 01:45:36 GMT

It's quite the racket. For a $95+ annual fee and a lackluster rewards/benefits package compared to a platinum MC, it should be available on the Green through the Cent (and all the Blue's too!).

They just don't want to spend the money launching the chip across their entire range (and, I guess, don't want to offer it as a "call in" feature either). None of the banks want to spend the money to issue chips when the only people who accept them (near me, at least) is CVS. Still, I should be (that is to say, I am not) able to call in and have them run a Green through the drill machine for me. And they should be happy to do it for me. And they should thank me for choosing American Express and send me the card.

BoA is sending me a chip card for free and all I had to do was have a pulse when I applied (back in '07). I'm hoping USAA starts offering chips soon, but I'm not holding my breath.

CSP should also definitely be a chip card, but I'm not sure if it's a cost/care issue or a metal card issue (which Amex Cent seems to have solved).

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

GoldenloveNY — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 02:46:16 GMT

I wonder if Zync users would be able to get it....lol.

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

distantarray — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 03:46:07 GMT

@kekrre wrote:
It's quite the racket. For a $95+ annual fee and a lackluster rewards/benefits package compared to a platinum MC, it should be available on the Green through the Cent (and all the Blue's too!).

CSP should also definitely be a chip card, but I'm not sure if it's a cost/care issue or a metal card issue (which Amex Cent seems to have solved).

Platinum and Black are people who most likely travel quite a bit so they can take advantage of international acceptance, but there's no business reason in my opinion to offer it to green, Gold maybe cause it offers extra on travel points, some people get Platinum and Gold in the same wallet.

CSP being a chip card would be fine, but remember cost/case issue is $95 annual fee vs $450+ annual fee to $2,500+ so I don't know if it's cost effective but it makes it easier for Amex to swallow.

Edit: minor tweaking of suggestive content, nothing major. --Revelate

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

kekrre — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 04:19:47 GMT

@distantarray wrote:
@kekrre wrote:
It's quite the racket. For a $95+ annual fee and a lackluster rewards/benefits package compared to a platinum MC, it should be available on the Green through the Cent (and all the Blue's too!).

CSP should also definitely be a chip card, but I'm not sure if it's a cost/care issue or a metal card issue (which Amex Cent seems to have solved).
Platinum and Black are people who most likely travel quite a bit so they can take advantage of international acceptance, but there's no business reason in my opinion to offer it to green, Gold maybe cause it offers extra on travel points, some people get Platinum and Gold in the same wallet.

CSP being a chip card would be fine, but remember cost/case issue is $95 annual fee vs $450+ annual fee to $2,500+ so I don't know if it's cost effective but it makes it easier for Amex to swallow.

(Copying Revelate's edit, as below: - tinuviel)
Edit: minor tweaking of suggestive content, nothing major. --Revelate

Well, my point is that BoA is doing it for free (on all of their standard cards, including the 0% FTF Travel card). It's a matter of generating the card, drilling out the cutout for the chip, inserting the chip and QCing the card. The same machinery used to do the Plat/Cent could do Green/Gold on request (and probably will in a year+). If a bank, which houses a token amount of my money and I don't believe has ever broken even on me, can send me both a security token and a chip card for free, a bank that charges me $95/yr and prides themselves on their customer service can eat the cost of a chip card.

As far as business sense, it doesn't make sense to offer the chip except on request to anybody, regardless of the card type, because US chip acceptance is almost nonexistant.

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 03:55:09 GMT

Milking the market. It costs about $10 to produce each chipped card vs pennies otherwise apparently. So why not generate interest in your premium products before introducing it to the others.

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

nagisa — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 04:31:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Milking the market. It costs about $10 to produce each chipped card vs pennies otherwise apparently. So why not generate interest in your premium products before introducing it to the others.

It must be cheaper than $10 imo, since all European checking account debit cards have them and in the UK at least checking accounts are free.

EMV cards will cost about $2.35 apiece next year if they incorporate both contact and contactless capability, or about $2 apiece with only a contact function, according to forecasts by Mercator Advisory Group. That’s down from recent levels but still well above the approximate 50-cent cost of conventional mag-stripe cards.

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

trumpet-205 — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 05:01:57 GMT

Once chip credit card becomes a standard for every credit card, it will be extremely cheap to issue one (economy of scales). EMV chip is similar to SIM card or any IC card. You can buy a SIM card for as low as $2. So it will definitely cost less once it is mass produced.

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

cardslayer — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 05:03:29 GMT

Just ordered a chip & sig replacement for my plat. They said I will receive it by Thursday of this week (I didn't even bother to request expedited). I just requested it since I'm eligible and thought it would look cool, as I haven't seen any out in the wild myself. I was surprised when I requested it they asked me Lexis Nexis questions to verify. All in all, not too excited, as I don't quite get how the consumer experience is any different than the current swipe-and-sig that we are all familiar with. Chip & Pin, is of course, another story if/when it's ever available.

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

frugalQ — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 05:17:25 GMT

They should at least include it on their Corporate Amex products since most global companies use them for worldwide business travel.

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 05:46:58 GMT

@cardslayer wrote:
All in all, not too excited, as I don't quite get how the consumer experience is any different than the current swipe-and-sig that we are all familiar with. Chip & Pin, is of course, another story if/when it's ever available.

Yes, in my experience, in the UK anyway, using Chip & Signature is possibly worse than swipe. Most merchant's expectation seems to be that when you insert the card, you will enter a PIN and everything is automated. When the machine spits out something you have to sign (and they need to do something with) it is confusing! In tourist-visited areas, they are also familiar with the concept of US cards needing to be swiped and expect that, so chip&sig seems an inelegant solution that offers neither the security of pin or the convenience of swipe. Hopefully, real chip&pin will come soon.

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

Drew1980 — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 23:30:28 GMT

Great! I requested mine specifically because I'm going to London in a week.

@Anonymous wrote:
@cardslayer wrote:
All in all, not too excited, as I don't quite get how the consumer experience is any different than the current swipe-and-sig that we are all familiar with. Chip & Pin, is of course, another story if/when it's ever available.
Yes, in my experience, in the UK anyway, using Chip & Signature is possibly worse than swipe. Most merchant's expectation seems to be that when you insert the card, you will enter a PIN and everything is automated. When the machine spits out something you have to sign (and they need to do something with) it is confusing! In tourist-visited areas, they are also familiar with the concept of US cards needing to be swiped and expect that, so chip&sig seems an inelegant solution that offers neither the security of pin or the convenience of swipe. Hopefully, real chip&pin will come soon.

Re: AMEX Chip and Signature is officially out.

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:06:29 GMT

@Drew1980 wrote:
Great! I requested mine specifically because I'm going to London in a week.
@Anonymous wrote:
Yes, in my experience, in the UK anyway, using Chip & Signature is possibly worse than swipe. Most merchant's expectation seems to be that when you insert the card, you will enter a PIN and everything is automated. When the machine spits out something you have to sign (and they need to do something with) it is confusing! In tourist-visited areas, they are also familiar with the concept of US cards needing to be swiped and expect that, so chip&sig seems an inelegant solution that offers neither the security of pin or the convenience of swipe. Hopefully, real chip&pin will come soon.

Well, I didn't want to give the impression that it's terrible and you will run into problems. Just no advantage as chip and pin is what all the locals are using!