I recently got a new credit card from my bank with one of these ‘fantastic’ new smart chips on it.

Wow, all shiny and pretty this thing must be good!

Wrong.

I knew this card required a PIN as opposed to my previous one, seems simple enough, I can deal with that :)

I went to three, different shops this Saturday to spend my hard earned money and at the first shop, *swipe* *try to use chip* “Sorry its not working…”. Next shop, *swipe*, call the supervisor, supervisor manages to get the transaction through! And the final straw was when I simply went to the Spar, you would think a big retail chain would be fully ready to deal with these new cards. Nope. Supervisor again, enter passwords and all sorts of things.

So yes, the bank tells you all the things that are great with this card. Its secure, safe and shiny! What they don’t tell is that the shops are not ready to use it properly, and that it will completely inconvenience you and waste your time every time you shop!

My recommendation is to avoid getting one of these for now wherever possible!

http://www.chipandspin.co.uk/