Visa makes a bold step on Wednesday March 24 as it pushes forward its agenda to phase out the need for signatures on credit card receipts hoping to help stamp out credit card fraud. Visa is hoping to introduce chip and PIN technology for all Visa cards by 2014 and plan on having the signatures completely phased out at checkouts by 2012. Visa’s New Zealand manager is working with banks and retailers to upgrade over 2.6 million cards as well as thousands of point of sale terminals and ATM machines.
New Zealand is the first in this new phase of credit cards. They feature securely embedded smart chips to give consumers a heightened sense of security and will be embedded in all cards starting in April of 2010. After these changes are made Visa will also be making changes to their debit and re loadable prepaid cards by April 2012.
These chips will also provide benefits such as faster services and transactions. Some innovations also include contact less payment and rewards information will be able to be stored on their cards. This plan also includes moves to enhance online security. A few websites already have updated security measures that require a password to access online transactions and payments and these retailers will be required to capture the three-digit cardholder verification number and small and medium businesses will be required to have even more security features in place.
The new technologies available make it easier than ever to control and even stop credit card fraud overseas.
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