How to Make Your Chip Credit Card More Secure
Tips for how to protect your chip credit card in-store and online.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Delivered daily
Kiplinger Today
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more delivered daily. Smart money moves start here.
Sent five days a week
Kiplinger A Step Ahead
Get practical help to make better financial decisions in your everyday life, from spending to savings on top deals.
Delivered daily
Kiplinger Closing Bell
Get today's biggest financial and investing headlines delivered to your inbox every day the U.S. stock market is open.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Adviser Intel
Financial pros across the country share best practices and fresh tactics to preserve and grow your wealth.
Delivered weekly
Kiplinger Tax Tips
Trim your federal and state tax bills with practical tax-planning and tax-cutting strategies.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Retirement Tips
Your twice-a-week guide to planning and enjoying a financially secure and richly rewarding retirement
Sent bimonthly.
Kiplinger Adviser Angle
Insights for advisers, wealth managers and other financial professionals.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Investing Weekly
Your twice-a-week roundup of promising stocks, funds, companies and industries you should consider, ones you should avoid, and why.
Sent weekly for six weeks
Kiplinger Invest for Retirement
Your step-by-step six-part series on how to invest for retirement, from devising a successful strategy to exactly which investments to choose.
Major issuers are finally rolling out credit and debit cards with microchips (a system known as EMV); 400 million are in circulation, according to Randy Vanderhoof, director of the EMV Migration Forum. Chip cards have been highly touted as more secure than magnetic-stripe cards because data transfer between a chip card and an EMV-ready terminal is unique each time, making it far more difficult to counterfeit cards. But EMV deters fraud only in face-to-face sales. Criminals can still use stolen card numbers to make unauthorized purchases on the Web or over the phone.
For added protection when you shop online, ask whether your card issuer offers the option of an account number that changes with every transaction (Bank of America’s ShopSafe and Citibank’s Virtual Account Numbers are two such programs). With eligible cards from MasterCard, you can sign up for SecureCode; you’ll receive a PIN to enter each time you check out at participating merchants. Similarly, Visa cardholders can register with Verified by Visa to receive a password for online purchases. Or you can make payments online through an intermediary, such as PayPal, so your card number isn’t directly involved, says Andrew Luca, of professional-services firm PwC.
Unlike overseas, most chip-card issuers in the U.S. require only a signature at the register rather than a PIN. So determined crooks may get away with using a stolen chip card at a brick-and-mortar store if the cashier fails to ask for ID. Bottom line: Continue to monitor your credit card and bank statements for suspicious charges, and have the issuer notify you if it detects any unusually large transactions or a low bank account balance.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
