Mastercard ditching magstripes

[Jan]

Mastercard ditching magnetic stripes on cards

Payments processing network Mastercard announced that it will begin phasing out magnetic stripes on its cards within the next three years.

The company said the decision was motivated by a decline in magstripe payments.

 

[NarrowBandFtw]

... only about 20 years overdue

 

[Happy Days]

@Hanno Labuschagne

Typo in fourth paragraph

“By 2033, no Mastercard credit ....

 

[D.B.Cooper]

About bloody time.

 

[Johnatan56]

... only about 20 years overdue

In the US it was still extremely popular, this is 2019's stats for Visa:

Same was for most places, only in the last year or two as the machines got swapped can you truly move away from magstripe, trend was 8%/year:

https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/global/visa-everywhere/documents/visa-emv-chip-infographic-Q4.pdf

so they should be hitting close to 100% and can start migrating away.

For financial institutions, it takes years to deprecate something, you're talking about large customers that probably net Visa/Mastercard tens of millions of dollars of revenue and up.

 

[Tim_vb]

It been a long time coming ... I think this announcement announcement is the warning shot that big retailers who haven't been keeping up to date

 

[SlinkyMike]

Replaced by the Pfizer chips?

 

[charlieharper]

And for the past few months I haven't ever used a physical card, except to withdraw at an ATM (once).... after that I just get cash at the till when doing my groceries.

 

[NarrowBandFtw]

For financial institutions, it takes years to deprecate something, you're talking about large customers that probably net Visa/Mastercard tens of millions of dollars of revenue and up.

I'm well aware, I'm also well aware that MasterCard and Visa both dictate regular updates even to those slow moving financial institutions

non-compliance is often met with severe consequences to the bank in question (e.g. when PCI rules were rolled out, there was no 20 year, maybe required someday, timeline)

the card networks have always had the clout and capability to significantly accelerate migration to EMV, they just never did it, if memory serves MasterCard announced the end of magstripes ages ago and walked back on it then ... hopefully this time is different

hell it doesn't even need to be a forceful move:
- make magstripes entirely optional
- change liability shift rules such that issuers who produce magstripe cards automatically inherit some liability

 

[pinball wizard]

I look forward to inserting my magstripe-less chip card at a point of sale, only to be told by the cashier that it must be swiped. Oh, joyous day.

 

[Nod]

New card and old POS equipment always results in a swipe.
Make it easier, inexpensive the upgrade/replace old POS equipment, and most of the problems will go away.

 

[Tim_vb]

New card and old POS equipment always results in a swipe.
Make it easier, inexpensive the upgrade/replace old POS equipment, and most of the problems will go away.

In SA? its been years since I had a magstripe purchase - fraudsters made sure merchants saw the light

 

[Nod]

In SA? its been years since I had a magstripe purchase - fraudsters made sure merchants saw the light

There are a few places in town, including the Municipality, where I'm forced to use the magstripe as their POS system is too old. The machine simply does not accept the chip on my card.

 

[Kosmik]

I think some of our local banks don't even allow the magstripe, or merchants. It must be verified by chip/pin.

 

[Tim_vb]

I think some of our local banks don't even allow the magstripe, or merchants. It must be verified by chip/pin.

Merchants are allowed to use magstripe but they hold the can in cases of fraud since magstripes are so easy to copy. Most merchant (wisely) don't accept it for this reason