New Credit card

[JudyJB]

I am not familiar with RFD cards. Both my Visa cards have magnetic strips only. A chip and pin card will not have a magnetic stripe, I am pretty sure. But it is also different than the RFD cards in that it does not contain personal information.

I did find this Snopes.com article however: http://www.snopes.com/fraud/identity/pickpocket.asp

The chip and pin cards are supposed to be secure because the pin you enter must match the chip in the card. They cannot be used with just the chip, although I wonder how these will be transitioned if not every merchant has the technology to read your chip.

One very important thing we should all do is to never carry our checkbooks with us. I once had a purse stolen and the credit card was easy and fast to cancel. The checks, however, continued to be passed for over a year, in spite of the checking account being immediately closed. My bank, soon to be my ex-bank, just sent the checks back marked insufficient funds, so that the credit agencies soon had me down as passing bad checks. Every time someone passed a bad check, I would get a threatening letter from the credit agency, and would have to send a notorized letter, along with a copy of the police report. It was almost three years before I could pay for anything in a store with a check. I could pay my bills, of course, with my new account, but since I was listed as high-risk and a bad check passer by the credit agencies, no one would take a check. This was 20 years ago, and I am much more careful about where I store checks.

[VickieP]

I am not familiar with RFD cards. Both my Visa cards have magnetic strips only. A chip and pin card will not have a magnetic stripe, I am pretty sure..

Judy, on page 2 of the article I found this..

Part of the trouble is that chip and PIN cards still have magnetic strips as a secondary method for making purchases, leaving retailers open to the same kind of cloning and stolen card schemes perpetrated before the advent of the system.

[JudyJB]

The ones in the UK and Europe do not have a strip, but I imagine that they have to put them on the U.S. and Canadian cards because merchants don't have the right equipment.

I also read that in the U.S. some of the chip and pin cards being issued are also signature cards for the same reasons. Canada is further ahead in the transition, so it will be interesting to see how I have to use my U.S. cards there this May. Hopefully, they will eventually be able to fully transition these cards to remove the strips and get rid of that fraud opportunity.

They say fraud from credit cards has dropped 80% in the UK since they went entirely chip and pin.

[Excel]

My new Visa card has the 'Smart chip technology' and....the strip on the back....As it appears that all banks etc. will be providing these cards, guess I'll just bite the bullet & use it....covered with foil till my 'sleeve' arrives....Also my new drivers license has some kind of strip so I'll put that in a sleeve too..........my second call requesting a 'regular' Visa card from BofA was also denied....