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.