In recent months there has been a bit of debate among card issuers over whether to stick with credit cards as they're currently constituted or to swap them out for a newer technology that experts say is more secure.
Credit card issuers have begun slowly rolling out a more secure offering to some of their more affluent borrowers because the payment technology is more or less the only one used overseas, but there has been considerable discussion over whether a wider rollout is feasible, according to a report from Credit Union Times. The new technology - known as chip and pin or EMV - has been widely used in Europe and Asia for years, and the U.S. is the only developed country not to rely on it. The debate over whether to begin issuing these cards, which store payment data more securely, has been ongoing.
Supporters of the technology say that it will lead to less fraud and make overseas travel more convenient for everyone, but others say the cost of swapping out the hundreds of millions of cards nationwide would be considerable, and of a negligible benefit to consumers, the report said. The current payment technology in the U.S., which uses a magnetic strip to store account data, is largely useless overseas because nearly all foreign issuers switched to chip and pin technology years ago. These days, it's very difficult to find a foreign business that can accept a U.S.-issued card.
"Since most U.S. payments technology already supports online validation of transactions, the additional level of fraud protection provided by a PIN is less attractive," Aris Jerahian, vice president of client relations for The Members Group, wrote in a recent paper on the debate, according to the website.
However, some major American credit card issuers have been offering a small number of their clients cards that can use either magnetic strips or chip and pin technology to complete a transaction. However, it's unlikely that anyone besides those that travel abroad frequently will be able to receive this type of card, as there would be little use in granting them to those in America. Most businesses are not set up to accept chip and pin purchases, and the cost of an infrastructure changeover would likely be considerable.
