Visa cards to combat fraud

ALMOST one-in-five Irish credit card holders has been the victim of card fraud, according to a new survey by payments giant Visa.

But fraud will plummet by the end of the year with the roll-out of more secure cards, which contain embedded chips that make it almost impossible to create fake copies, the company said yesterday. New-style cards have already been sent to half of the country’s cardholders, with the remainder expected to get their chip-enabled cards before the end of September.

The cards are similar to the Eircom-issued callcards that were widely used in public payphones in the 1990s, but will retain traditional credit card features such as the cardholder’s signature and a magnetic strip to contain information.

Shops around the country are currently being fitted with new machines to recognise the chips. Customers using the cards to pay for goods will key in a four-digit PIN at a handheld machine at the counter, in the same way as a PIN is used to withdraw money from bank cash machines.

The new technology, which has been used in France for over 10 years and is currently being introduced in Britain, will cut queues in shops by shortening the time taken to process a card transaction. Cardholders will no longer be asked to sign dockets to authorise a payment.

Visa yesterday launched a consumer awareness roadshow that will take in Dublin this weekend before visiting Cork’s Douglas Court shopping centre from February 24 to 27. Shoppers will be invited to try out the new technology and go through the steps involved in using a chip-enabled card in transactions.

Visa country manager for Ireland Greg Twitcher said shoppers had coped well with the euro changeover and expected the transition to chip and PIN technology to be relatively smooth. “With the introduction of chip and PIN, using payment cards will be just as simple as before, but with some added benefits - like making payment faster, more convenient and reducing time at the point of sale, as there is no need to sign a receipt. Consumers will simply key in a four-digit PIN and the transaction will be complete.”

Customers will continue to be given a receipt for each transaction as before, to allow them to check monthly statements.