New Credit Cards And Credit Card Readers Designed To Prevent Fraud
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Here's a question for you. Should you swipe or should you dip?
As consumers get used to new credit cards embedded with computer chips and the machines that read them, it can cause a bit of confusion at the checkout line.
If you noticed the line at the cash register moving a bit slower than usual. The reason could be the new credit cards and credit card readers designed to deter fraud.
The cards are called EMV cards which stands for Europay Mastercard and Visa.
"The new chip cards generate a unique or dynamic security code with each transaction. What that means is every time you use your card that chip that's embedded in the card is going to generate a new security code that will not be repeated again when you use that card the next time," said Jason Oxman with the Electronic Transactions Association.
So how do you know whether to swipe or dip? For the time being unless a cashier tells you to otherwise, you should swipe your card as usual.
If the terminal does recognize the chip it will ask you to dip the card into the slot underneath the key pad. Just don't remove it right away, you'll need to leave the card in place for a few seconds until the transaction is complete.
These technology changes were mandated by the credit card issuers, not by the government. And if you're wondering about debit cards, the deadlines are different, but you can expect ATM's to be chip ready by next year.