Community Chat

[Pearlee]

So...yesterday I watched a presentation of a Shark Tank person with more RFID protector thingys to purchase.  Those are just one of many items - including a lot of Travelon bags - that QVC is touting as having RFID protection.

I can't help but wonder, whenever I hear such a presentation, just how long it will be before the crooks get around that type of proteciton so it will all be fairly worthless.

Remember when radar detectors come on the market?  The police kept developing other ways technologically  to detect speeding that "beat" the latest radar detector so you had to get a different kind of radar detector.  

I think the same thing will happen shortly with detecting info from the chips in the credit cards.  The crooks won't let RFID protection stop them.  They will find another way!

To summarize: I think purchasing products with RFID protection will soon be  a waste of money.

[ChynnaBlue]

Right answer, wrong reason.

The US has never made wide use of RFID credit cards and are already phasing them out and replacing them with the more widely spread Chip and Pin system.

I've never once had an RFID card, but all my cards have the chip used for the Chip and PIN system. Most stores are now rolling out the Chip readers and will soon begin requiring a PIN for use with all cards. If your store card reader requires that you insert the card into the device instead of sliding it, that's the Chip and PIN reader. You'll see more of these as the major credit cards are moving to this system and NOT RFID.

You can read more about the Chip and PIN cards here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/the-basics-of-chip-and-pin-credit-cards/2013/05/16/9...

That's from 2013, which just shows how slowly these things happen. Most of my local stores just installed Chip and PIN terminals in the last 6 months.

[Venezia]

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@ChynnaBlue wrote:

Right answer, wrong reason.

The US has never made wide use of RFID credit cards and are already phasing them out and replacing them with the more widely spread Chip and Pin system.

I've never once had an RFID card, but all my cards have the chip used for the Chip and PIN system. Most stores are now rolling out the Chip readers and will soon begin requiring a PIN for use with all cards. If your store card reader requires that you insert the card into the device instead of sliding it, that's the Chip and PIN reader. You'll see more of these as the major credit cards are moving to this system and NOT RFID.

You can read more about the Chip and PIN cards here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/the-basics-of-chip-and-pin-credit-cards/2013/05/16/9...

That's from 2013, which just shows how slowly these things happen. Most of my local stores just installed Chip and PIN terminals in the last 6 months.

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That's because, from January 1, 2016, if they do not have these terminals installed, any financial loss from fraud becomes the responsibility of the retailer and not the CC company.

[SharkE]

wonder if walmart will change to a chip card? My Target Visa is now Mastercard.

Think we will always have crooks amongst us. Easier then working. If they can find ways around being a productive earn your own way citizen this business will always be around.

[mima]

As far as I know, we will be using chip and signature machines and not ship and pin machines at least for now.

Maybe in the future pins will be required but for now signatures is all that is needed even if your card has a chip in it.

[Nightowlz]

I have never had a credit card with an RFID chip in it either. My main card from the credit union has the new EMV technology but there are no chip & pin terminals around here. Our card was changed earlier this year. The credit union says these are safer. We will see. Just how long do they think it will take for the crooks to figure out a way to get your info from these cards too? My card has been used twice before. Each time we still had our cards. Most of the shopping was done online. The merchants were charged back for the fraudulent charges because the person making the charges did not actually have the credit card. Since these charges are spread out to several merchants the merchants are out the money & don't do anything about it because it would cost them to much money. As long as this stays the same the crooks get away with it so they keep doing it.

[NickNack]

What I don't like is that they don't tell you how to tell if you need RFID protection with your credit card.  I saw a presentation the other day where they said that it was really hard to tell if you had an RFID chip, so you should get the protection just in case.  It isn't hard to tell at all.  You can easily Google it for a picture.  I thought about getting the sleeve protectors until I Googled it and realized I don't have an RFID chip in my cards.

[Venezia]

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@mima wrote:

As far as I know, we will be using chip and signature machines and not ship and pin machines at least for now.

Maybe in the future pins will be required but for now signatures is all that is needed even if your card has a chip in it.

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Not true where I am.  All the Walmart stores have the new card readers and, if your card is a "chip and pin", you must enter the PIN.  You are no longer allowed to just slide your card and sign.  Their system does not allow it and you would have to use a different payment method.

[Pearlee]

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@Venezia wrote:

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All the Walmart stores have the new card readers and, if your card is a "chip and pin",

The WM where I shop doesn't have the new readers yet.  Even though my Sam's Club MC (good at WMs too of course) sent me the new card with the chip.