Re: chip and signature cards

Serena Blanchflower wrote:
On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 23:28:08 +0000, Palindr☻me wrote:


I would suggest always put such things in writing. It saves a great deal of time and trouble, for the cost of a stamp.


I did put it in writing, with both banks.

I emailed Bank #1, through their secure email, and was promptly offered
a chip and sig card, told that my existing card had now been cancelled
and that the new card, not having a PIN, wouldn't require online
verification when it arrived. What arrived was a new Chip and PIN card,
which did require online verification. I then went through this loop a
few times more, AFAIR, they ended up sending me three or four new cards.
This was partly because, even when they did actually send the right
card, the letter with it described it as my new Chip and PIN card!

Bank #2 got a letter but their response was to forward it to my branch,
who phoned me. This was the person who denied that there was any such
beast as a chip and sig card. She also kept trying to suggest ways I
could remember my PIN - mainly things which would give the bank's
security department a fit of the vapours, such as setting it to the
first four digits of the card's number! When I refused all her
suggestions, she said she would have to discuss this with her manager.
Five minutes later, I had a call back from a specialist from the Call
Centre, who sorted it out without difficulty and sent me a new card.


My reasons for not using chip and PIN are simple - I do not want to advertise that I have cards that can be taken to a cash machine and used to get large sums of money. After, of course, persuading me to tell all and with one of them keep me company whilst the others have fun at an ATM or two.


I very much doubt that it will do anything to reduce that risk. As the
chip and sig cards (or at least the two that I've got) are identical to
their chip and pin brethren, I suspect that, if mugged, you and I would
be assumed to be trying to be awkward in not telling our assailants the
PIN number.


Chip and PIN is all to do with reducing bank losses, by transferring the risk to the retailer and to the customer.


It is certainly to do with reducing bank losses, which isn't a bad
thing, but I'm not convinced that it increases the risk to either the
retailer or the consumer.



My chip and sig cards arrived with chip and PIN letters - I assumed that it was all too difficult for them to do otherwise and a quick pop into Tescos verified what they were.

To explain my reasoning - I don't use outside ATMs. I don't use supermarket "cash back" for the same reason - it is too public and too many people can see the money being handed over. I do use an ATM in the bank because only a very, very few people can see me do so.

This is all possibly due to me having lived and worked overseas in countries where such street robbery is very, very common. And also, maybe due to having been mugged three times whilst living and working in a poorer part of London. Paranoid? Moi?

I fear that that several of those who currently make a living with stolen cards are going to be looking for how to continue to make a living from chip and PIN - which cannot be cloned and have to have a PIN. I hope that I am wrong and that they will simply give up crime or at least target foreigners with non-chipped cards. But we don't get many of these down here in the South West, especially at this time of year.

So, what are their options?

Shoulder surf and pocket pick? Looking at the number of PINs I have seen clearly as they are entered - this looks a good career move, at least until people wise up. Well, they aren't going to shoulder surf me.

Target chip and sig customers? They are going to be so few and far between, hardly worth trying to find one.

Follow people they see use a card and PIN, into the street and mug and extract the PIN? A good career move that will still work even after people start covering up their PIN entry. But what to do with a chip and sig user? I think ignore, as being all too difficult and unexpected.

Just mug people at random in the street? Well, those incidents should decrease as a chip and PIN card is near worthless without the PIN. The odds are that a random person won't have a chip and sig card. Robbing people leaving an ATM is a much better bet.

So, if I am right, other people will be shoulder surfed and pocket-picked and not I - whilst I will still be protected from other crimes by the herd of chip and PIN users.

If I am wrong? Well, in a few years, after things have settled down and new crime patterns stabilised, I will discover that I can use a chip and PIN after all, or not.

--
Sue




















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