Why you haven鈥檛 received an EMV-chipped credit or debit card yet
Those new credit cards with anti-fraud chips are coming 鈥� really. 聽But according to a聽聽commissioned by the payments company ACI Worldwide, nearly three in five U.S. consumers with one or more credit or debit cards reported they hadn鈥檛 yet received a new chip-enabled card.
The findings from a scientific poll of about 1,000 U.S. adults in late August, suggests the U.S. transition to EMV 鈥斅犅犫�� technology on Oct. 1 might not be as fast聽as some imagined.
EMV chips, shiny little microprocessors embedded in credit and debit cards, help encrypt payment information when used at EMV-capable terminals and make聽聽almost impossible. After Oct. 1, the party that doesn鈥檛 support EMV 鈥� either the issuer or the merchant 鈥� will be聽聽for fraud that occurs at point-of-sale, instead of the issuers.
There鈥檚 a financial incentive for issuers to switch as soon as possible. So what鈥檚 the hold up?
A gradual shift to EMV
Seth Ruden, a senior fraud consultant at ACI, a company that聽sells聽electronic payment processing software, says one reason some people are still sporting magstripe cards is because banks are issuing chipped cards in waves 鈥斅爊ot all at once. If you have a low credit limit, for instance, your chipped credit card might take longer to get.
鈥淏anks may reissue cards to people who travel internationally or have higher credit lines first,鈥� Ruden says.
In some cases, the process has taken longer not because of the banks, but because the vendors, Ruden adds. With millions of cards to reprint, filling orders tends to take more time.
In the weeks leading up to Oct. 1, issuers are rushing to get more chipped cards out. If you haven鈥檛 received聽one yet, there鈥檚 a good chance you鈥檒l get one聽soon.
Debit cards are聽slow to transition
While you鈥檒l likely get most of your credit cards reissued before the Oct. 1 deadline, don鈥檛 expect to get a chipped debit card by that time, Ruden says.
Because of聽,聽debit card issuers are required to offer聽at least two payment routing options for merchants. Credit cards require just one.聽It鈥檚 taken longer to develop a chip that can support multiple options, so most聽banks have had to delay聽their聽EMV-chipped debit card rollouts.
Only 25% of debit cards are expected to be migrated to chipped cards by year鈥檚 end, according to a聽. By the end of 2017, nearly all debit cards are expected to be reissued with chips.
Next steps
Regardless of whether your credit card has a chip, the cost of fraudulent charges will fall to the merchant or the issuer after you report them 鈥� not to you. For debit cards, you鈥檒l have the聽聽for fraudulent purchases as you would with a magstripe card.
But if you鈥檙e among the 59% who haven鈥檛 received a chipped card yet, and are planning an international vacation, or if you just want to thwart a potential counterfeit card operation, you may want to聽call your issuer to request an updated card. Typically, it takes about a week or two to receive a new card in the mail.
Don鈥檛 get too eager about using聽your chipped card at an EMV-enabled terminal, though.聽Only about a quarter聽of card-accepting merchants will have EMV-capable terminals by Oct.1, according to a聽聽by The Strawhecker Group. Until more merchants transition, you鈥檒l likely be swiping your EMV card in old card readers, instead of doing chip-enabled transaction on new terminals.
Ruden says, 鈥淲e have a very long transition ahead of us.鈥�
Claire Tsosie聽is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email:聽claire@nerdwallet.com. Twitter:聽.
