Well, I got my first EMV credit card today

[thewayne]

October 1 is the deadline for merchants to be switched over to the new readers in the USA, otherwise they can be liable for any theft that takes place. But what is utterly ridiculous is that THEY DID A HALF-ASSED IMPLEMENTATION OVER HERE. No, correct that, quarter-assed. They would have to improve their implementation to be half-assed. THEY DO NOT REQUIRE A PIN! So if someone lifts your wallet and you have an EMV card, they can spend their way to heaven until you cancel the card.

I am curious how European cards, which have PINs, will work over here. Likewise, I wonder how our PINless EMV cards would work in Europe.

Comments

[silveradept]

So, we're upgrading the cards to have better security, but then basically ignoring all the security things that go with then?

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Sounds damn crazy not having a PIN. We have them all the time on our cards.

[cp.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought the whole idea was that we were changing from swipe-and-sign to chip-and-PIN, but so far I have yet to see a PIN. I found that strange.

A while back my AmEx had some fraudulent activity, so I called and they took care of it. The rep was about to end the call, and I was like, "Uh, should I maybe get a new card with a different number?" Like that didn't even occur to her! Anyway, they sent a new card with the chip, but no mention of a PIN, and the few times I've used it with the chip there was no PIN required. I get that the chipped cards are harder to counterfeit than a simple mag stripe card, but as you say, that's no protection if someone swipes the card itself!

When I was in Canada earlier this year, they seemed to take security seriously. Since my card had no chip then, I had to sign for every transaction using the card--couldn't even use the pay-at-the-pump readers when buying gas. You would think our financial industry would be a little more motivated to protect themselves from fraud since the technology is out there and everyone else is using it!

[cp.livejournal.com]

To be fair, the chipped cards are much harder to counterfeit than magnetic stripe cards. But as Wayne said, that's not much comfort if someone gets your actual card! It definitely seems silly to implement the chip but not the PIN.

[silveradept]

It also suggests that online data breaches won't be changed by this shift, either, and it seems like that's the main focus these days.