A new chip on the block
The chips are considered virtually impossible to copy. Like a debit card, merchants will require that you punch in your PIN at the point of sale.
Using your credit card is about to become a whole lot safer for consumers, now that the first chip cards have at last been launched in South Africa.
Criminals can easily swipe your credit card through a hand- held reader and copy the data contained on the magnetic stripe on the back of your card. In a matter of minutes, they can make a clone of your card — a counterfeit that enables them to make purchases on your account.
This method of defrauding bank customers has met its match, however, now that credit cards containing chips are finally available in South Africa.
Absa is the first of the big banks to launch a Visa chip- enabled credit card, with a magnetic stripe and a chip. The chips are considered virtually impossible to copy.
Like a debit card, merchants will require that you punch in your PIN (personal identification number) at the point of sale. You will no longer need to sign a receipt, which will also make transacting quicker.
Keeping your PIN safe is as important as ever, and cardholders’ liability for losses due to fraud remains the same — provided you keep your PIN secret and are not negligent with your card, you are protected from loss.
Walter Volker, the general manager for Absa group payment systems, said that Absa would gradually start re-issuing cards to all eight million of its customers, though this could take about two years. He said the familiar magnetic stripe would not disappear immediately, so there should be no problem transacting at points of sale where the new technology is not in place.
Volker told Money that there would be no extra charge to Absa credit cardholders, and that the lowering of the incidence of card fraud would probably make up for the costs involved in re-issuing cards.
But it is not just about increasing the safety of credit- card transactions. EMV cards (referring to Europay, Mastercard and Visa’s initiative in 1996 to set up a single global standard for transacting on cards) is a global project, so this will bring South African credit cardholders into a system that will be familiar when they transact around the world.
Visa envisages that all countries will one day use a common method of cardholder identification.
“Chip technology also allows for new value-added services,” said Volker.
Nick Essame, Visa’s vice- president and head of business development: South Africa, said that 10.8% of global transactions were chip-based.
An advantage of the chip technology is that it allows for cardholders to make transactions at points of sale even when the merchant is offline. The Absa chip card can approve or decline credit transactions depending on the cardholder’s credit limit.
Chip cards will eventually have more than one application, so that you will be able to have one card that acts as a debit card, credit card and garage card.
In future, it could also help in making low-value transactions, such as those at vending machines, which currently require cash.
Standard Bank says it will be adding chip cards to its range of credit cards from next month.
Doug Walker, director: card at Standard Bank, said that the cards were a further leap forward in customer convenience, choice, product options and security.
The bank said the cards also presented the opportunity for new applications, such as instant rewards at the point of purchase.
Walker said huge investments had been made to ensure that all supporting infrastructure still operated effectively, but Standard Bank would not pass these costs on to its customers.
Your chip-card guide
- When you’re ready to pay for your purchases, the cashier will insert your chip card into a card reader — you might need to tell the cashier not to swipe your card through a reader.
- Though most merchants have readers that can read chip cards as well as magstripe cards, you might encounter places where you can only swipe — which is why the new cards will retain the magstripe.
- If you are using the chip functions only, you will be asked to key in your personal identity number (PIN). Unlike your signature, this cannot be forged.
- Purchases at a point of sale will be approved if the numbers you key in match the PIN stored on your card.
- Make sure nobody can see the keys you press when entering your PIN on the keypad.
- A transaction slip will be printed once the purchase is approved. You might have to sign it.
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