Earliest use of EMV Chips in America?

[Anonymous]

I have some old back issues of magazines I was looking at, and I came across this full page ad in a 1999 issue of Entertainment Weekly.

So it got me thinking from a more general standpoint, what would have been the purpose to have an EMV chip in your credit card in '99?  Were there any retailers/hotels/airlines/etc. that knew what a chip was, or could actually accept it back then?  If not, then why have it?  Anyone recall the first time you were able to use a chip for purchase?

Side note: It also got me wondering why Amex has not changed their card design for Blue; even in a little bit in nearly 20 years...

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have some old back issues of magazines I was looking at, and I came across this full page ad in a 1999 issue of

Entertainment Weekly.

So it got me thinking from a more general standpoint, what would have been the purpose to have an EMV chip in your credit card in '99?  Were there any retailers/hotels/airlines/etc. that knew what a chip was, or could actually accept it back then?  If not, then why have it?  Anyone recall the first time you were able to use a chip for purchase?

Side note: It also got me wondering why Amex has not changed their card design for Blue; even in a little bit in nearly 20 years...

*Would've embedded the photos here, but I lack the img upload button. Guess I would need an admin to do so.

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This article, https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/a-credit-card-loses-its-high-tech-cred/, suggests it wasn't EMV as we know it.   The user had a chip reader for use on the home computer, to authorize transactions on the internet.   Don't know from the article if it interacted with Amex (to authorize the use) or if merchants had to do something.

[Anonymous]

I had one.

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

*Would've embedded the photos here, but I lack the img upload button. Guess I would need an admin to do so.

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Hi @Anonymous, you have the correct permissions to attach an image, but you have to be on the full-version of the site to do so.

[UpperNwGuy]

Chip technology was being used in the US back in the 1990s, just not for credit cards.  I moved into a high rise apartment building in the late 1990s, and our laundry machines only took preloaded cards equipped with chips.  We had to load the chips with $20 bills at a separate machine.  I still have that laundry card.

[joltdude]

Supposedly one of the first uses of EMV cards was for prepaid services... A laundromat around where I live was known for being one of the first implementers of stored-value EMV cards for washers/dryers.. Really wish i could find an article online about it .. just remember reading it somewhere and it was actually talked about in the local tech circles... and this was long before you saw credit cards with it..

-J

[Anonymous]

@longtimelurker

Cool find with the article, they were ahead of the game in the chip respect, just not in the way I was thinking!  Everyone on the forum is talking about now now now, but I am always interested in the history!  ... Such as the paragraph in the same back issue that mentions an "Austin Powers" branded VISA was on the way in '99.  What I wouldn't do for a picture of that baby, yeahhhh!!

[Anonymous]

@navyitaly

Did you know what the chip was for when you had the card, did you ever use it, or did you see it as a gimmick?

[Anonymous]

Wow love seeing old ad's like that. I didn't know the BCE was around for that long.

[Anonymous]

According to wikipedia the earliest issue of an actual EMV card in the US was in 2010. 

Cards which had a chip to store info are a different thing and they weren't actually associated with the payment networks afaik.