Chip Technology

The chip contains the exact same information that’s stored on your mag stripe card.

Chip cards, also known as smart cards or EMV cards, contain embedded microprocessors that assign unique transaction IDs for each transaction. They also provide strong transaction security protection and other features not possible with traditional magnetic stripe cards. Chip card technology provides an added layer of security to help minimize cardholder impact when a data breach occurs. While this technology can’t prevent all security breaches, a chip card is an important first line of defense.

You can use chip-enabled cards at millions of places that accept VISA credit cards, at home and abroad. (Select international transactions may require the use of your PIN.)

If a merchant is not yet chip-activated, you can swipe your card to pay. Most chip-enabled terminals will prompt the cardholder to chip-in when a chip is detected.

No. There are no additional fees to use a chip-enabled card.

The cost for merchants to upgrade to chip enabled terminals is very expensive. Many merchants are slowly upgrading terminals, but it may be an even slower process for some smaller merchants.

Over time, most, if not all, merchants will accept chip cards because of the liability involved if a fraudulent act were to occur. By issuing chip cards, financial institutions will no longer be financially responsible for counterfeit fraud losses, therefore making it very important for merchants to upgrade to chip enabled terminals.