What's the big whoop with the emv chip?

[Anonymous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

This may be a dumb question.   But why are people so excited when a CCC issues their cards with the emv chip.   Ive done a little research and yes from what I've read the cards will be more secure.  But not fool proof.  I may be totally missing something. So if anyone can enlighten me, please feel free.  Because I know there's people a whole lot smarter and knowledgeable  than I am on here.

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Others have answered why EMV is good (at least for issuers!)   But I am still amused at the posts here "Card X has a chip now!!!" and people contact the issuers to "upgrade".  Soon, like say the Visa hologram, it will be a universal feature and the excitement will seem odd.   In many ways, seen one, seen them all!

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That was kinda my point in a roundabout way.  Lol.   Everyone will soon have the chip.  Just don't share the excitement like some do.  But then in haven't been outside the US in twenty years.

[Jarrodpd]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I have yet to find any retailer (big or small) in Houston that has this feature active.

I've been to Lowes, Home Depot, JCP, Best Buy, Kroger, HEB, Subway, Academy, Ross, Kohls, countless restaurants and gas/convenience stores here in Houston and have only come across 1 place that uses this now. A gun range in Cypress, just NW of Houston.

I asked Visa and Chase when this feature would be more prominent, they said about 2 years for it be be more widely used.


From what I've seen, the equipment is THERE (can slide card in to read chip) it's just not functional and ANY of theee places.

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The only retailer I have noticed in Houston to do it on a wide basis is Walmart. But the issue with theirs is that it completly defeats the purpose of the chip. It never asks for a signature or pin. Colour me stupid. I went to a nail shop off the beltway in Fallcreek and their terminal was fully functioning with emv and pay wave. They swiped my amex then it displayed the NFC card symbol then they put the card in the terminal and it processed the payment. 

Target has their terminals set up for EMV, but they only except the welfare cards through it. It really infuriates me that the government has put protections on cards like those but not normal hard working people that keep the economy going, I have heard great things about Amex fraud resolution but still someone always slips through the crack and is on the hook for fraud if determined not to be by the card company. 

[rcrdoeva]

It's a bigger deal for those of us that travel outside the U.S.

[Anonymous]

Around here Wal-Mart is the only one that has it that I'm aware of actually working.  Possibly Target, but I'm never at either of these stores to try it myself.  Everywhere else I've tried it it does not work yet. 

The REASON for this push is that as of October 2015, so three months from now, the card companies have to have this rolled out.  If there is then a problem with fraud the blame will lie at the location of the weakest part of the process.  If the card has the chip, but the retailer does not read it then the retailer will have to foot the bill for fraud. So retailers will have to upgrade ASAP if they do not want to be stuck with the bills of fraud and chargebacks.  No one wants to be the weakest point but as of now retailers have a long way to go.  Cards will want to be ready as they can then pass the buck so they should have some more profitable quaters coming soon lol!

I have been researching upgrading card swipe terminals for my company - There are three major players in the chip and reader game.  They are not really interested in helping the smaller places get online and intergrate the software in many cases.  There are so many people trying to upgrade they can literally only take the biggest and fatest contracts right now.  You want to only upgrade and intergrate 100 readers, HA!  Sorry, we are backed up trying to help bigger fish and you'll have to wait.  By wait I mean maybe two years or more.  No chip readers coming to my employer any time soon, intergration will require custom software and a redo of the hardware of the machines it is connecting to.  Needs it's own network interface even.  Overall it is a mess, but a good mess if you are selling chip tech right now! 

Here is an interesting quote for those interested in the weak link thing I mentioned above.

The “liability shift” is a big moment in the changeover. Can you explain what it means?

Part of the October 2015 deadline in our roadmap is what’s known as the ‘liability shift.’ Whenever card fraud happens, we need to determine who is liable for the costs. When the liability shift happens, what will change is that if there is an incidence of card fraud, whichever party has the lesser technology will bear the liability.

So if a merchant is still using the old system, they can still run a transaction with a swipe and a signature. But they will be liable for any fraudulent transactions if the customer has a chip card. And the same goes the other way – if the merchant has a new terminal, but the bank hasn’t issued a chip and PIN card to the customer, the bank would be liable. The key point of a liability shift is not actually to shift liability around the market. It’s to create co-ordination in the market, so you have issuers and merchants investing in the migration at the same time. This way, we’re not shifting fraud around within the system; we’re driving fraud out of the system.

[jawbrkr]

Yeah, always hated the raised print on credit cards. It all looks so old school. 

[Anonymous]

I actually have a website/Google Map where I (and others) are tracking the places that have working chip readers. I don't know if it's okay to link here though. FWIW all Walmarts and Home Depots accept it and I hear all Targets will by August 17th, if you can't find any other places near you.

Anyway, it's crazy that it took decades before some banks finally decided it was okay to get rid of the raised letters/numbers on (some of) their cards. I bet I'll end up running into a place one day with my CSP that still uses the knuckle buster. 

[woodsie1]

Two major places that use it here, in the DC area are Target and Walmart. Used my quicksilver at both.

[core]

The big whoop about EMV is that it protects the fat cat credit card companies, and those same companies have done an excellent job of fooling the consumers into believing it's good for them.  My hat goes off to those companies' marketing departments.  Just look at all the threads around here expressing such "excitement".  I'm trying to think of a time in history when the wool has been pulled over the eyes of so many people so successfully, and I'm not coming up with one.  Except for maybe the moon landings.

As for magstripes being around since the 40's (but not in use for credit cards at that time), I'm not sure what that proves.  Sliced bread has been around since 1928 with the exception of a short WWII ban, and I don't see anyone saying to get rid of it because it's outdated.  Some things just work well enough that they can stick around for decades or centuries.

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This may be a dumb question.   But why are people so excited when a CCC issues their cards with the emv chip.

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Why are people excited or why is there a benefit to EMV?

The former is because it's new and people are excited by new stuff even if it's just the addition of EMV to a card.

There are a ton of resources on the latter but in a nutshell it's improved security.

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@Anonymous wrote:
I have yet to find any retailer (big or small) in Houston that has this feature active.

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Cantoni, Flying Saucer Pie Company, Al's Quick Stop.  Those are the ones I've run across so far.

[Anonymous]

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@core wrote:

The big whoop about EMV is that it protects the fat cat credit card companies, and those same companies have done an excellent job of fooling the consumers into believing it's good for them.  My hat goes off to those companies' marketing departments.  Just look at all the threads around here expressing such "excitement".  I'm trying to think of a time in history when the wool has been pulled over the eyes of so many people so successfully, and I'm not coming up with one.  Except for maybe the moon landings.

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EMV's still a good thing if you do any international travel because in some cases the difference is whether your card works/is accepted at all, not whether it takes a few extra seconds compared to swiping. And if it takes stores in the US adopting the necessary terminals to get cards that work everywhere again without having to join some random credit union, that's a good tradeoff.