U.S. Retailer to Start Accepting Chip-and-Pin Credit Cards
| June 14, 2010 |
Over the last couple of years one of the hottest topics among merchants and issuers alike has been what is called the Chip-and-Pin smart cards. Currently used by many of our international counterparts these credit cards at one time seemed like they would stay out of the pocketbooks of majority of Americans. Instead it now seems that the push for the use of these smart cards has taken a drastic turn as one of the world’s largest retailers has recently announced they would start accepting these cards in their U.S. stores.
When it comes to who will start accepting the Chip-and-Pin smart cards, it is none other than retail giant, Wal-Mart. The company plans to adapt all of its payment terminals for compatibility with smartcard technology by early next year, and some experts predict it could be sooner than that. The reason why some believe it will be sooner is because of the international footprint Wal-Mart already has. In many of the countries that this retailer already does business in, these smart cards are already being accepted. As they already have the technology in place to accept these cards, relatively speaking there should not be any problems upgrading U.S. credit card terminals to accept these smart cards.
Although Wal-Mart has stated that they will be implementing these new smart cards, in the U.S. the Chip-in-Pin cards are something that others have tried hard to stay away from. For both credit card issuers and companies, the reluctance to allow consumers to make purchases with these cards stems from the cost which is associated with accepting these types of plastic. Issuers would have to issue new card to current cardholders, and merchants would need to replace or update existing equipment in order to accept these new smart cards.
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