Hello, carders!
You won’t surprise anyone with a bank card for a long time – it has ceased to be an indicator of “coolness” and now almost everyone has it. But few people know that she has come a long way in her development. Appearing in 1914 in the form of self-written cardboard from the Mobil Oil company and having gone through the wilds of evolution through metal plates with embossed letters and symbols, modern plastic cards have become an indispensable attribute of everyday life for most of us.
But it is possible that magnetic stripe cards will also soon become nothing more than an anachronistic relic of the past. Who, if not you, habrapeople, should know that technology does not stand still - chip cards are already gaining popularity with might and main.
Russian banks now issue only combined cards (combining both a magnetic stripe and a chip). This, as usual, is due to the underdevelopment of the infrastructure: not all devices in our country are capable of reading information from a chip. But this problem is being solved: payment systems are pushing banks in every possible way to switch to cards with chips.
It must be said right away that issuing and servicing a chip card for a client is, as a rule, no more expensive than cards with a magnetic stripe. Although this is, of course, more expensive for the bank.
The main advantage of chip cards over magnetic stripe cards is increased security. If the information is encrypted in a magnetic stripe, it is easy for fraudsters to copy it and make a duplicate card. It is almost impossible to read information from the chip, and even if it is possible, it is a completely useless exercise. Here's the thing. If fraudsters read information from the magnetic stripe of your card and carried out an operation through a terminal that does not read the chip, but operates on a magnetic stripe, you can appeal such an operation through your issuing bank (the bank that issued your card). Of course, you will receive compensation only if the bank's investigation proves that you are really the victim and not a swindler who tried to defraud the bank.
Another “plus” of chip cards is the ability to write additional applications (fuel, transport and others) onto the chip. This is very convenient - such a card can be used not only for non-cash payments, but also get various benefits from its use. Cards with contactless chips (NFC technology) are also gaining momentum in Europe. With their help, you can pay for goods and services by simply presenting the card to a special terminal.You and I can only believe and wait for progress to reach us. But we are no strangers... Soon these technologies will become available to us too.
It would be dishonest to tell you about the “pros” of chip cards and keep silent about the “cons”. A chip card will not protect you from fraud when making transactions online. Therefore, it is better to get a virtual card for these purposes. Also, when dealing with a chip card, be prepared for a longer wait for a terminal transaction or manually entering a PIN code, which not all of us always remember. But these are such little things - safety comes first!
By the way, if you unwisely arrive in France with a card with a magnetic stripe, you will have to try very hard (perhaps take a couple of “extra” walking tours around the city) to find an ATM where you can withdraw cash, or a store (cafe, restaurant, hairdresser ), where you can pay her. France is the first country to switch almost completely to chip cards, and it is already very difficult to find a device there that accepts cards with a magnetic stripe. In Russia, on the contrary, things will be worse for foreigners with chip cards - we do not yet have the appropriate infrastructure to service them.
You won’t surprise anyone with a bank card for a long time – it has ceased to be an indicator of “coolness” and now almost everyone has it. But few people know that she has come a long way in her development. Appearing in 1914 in the form of self-written cardboard from the Mobil Oil company and having gone through the wilds of evolution through metal plates with embossed letters and symbols, modern plastic cards have become an indispensable attribute of everyday life for most of us.
But it is possible that magnetic stripe cards will also soon become nothing more than an anachronistic relic of the past. Who, if not you, habrapeople, should know that technology does not stand still - chip cards are already gaining popularity with might and main.
Russian banks now issue only combined cards (combining both a magnetic stripe and a chip). This, as usual, is due to the underdevelopment of the infrastructure: not all devices in our country are capable of reading information from a chip. But this problem is being solved: payment systems are pushing banks in every possible way to switch to cards with chips.
It must be said right away that issuing and servicing a chip card for a client is, as a rule, no more expensive than cards with a magnetic stripe. Although this is, of course, more expensive for the bank.
The main advantage of chip cards over magnetic stripe cards is increased security. If the information is encrypted in a magnetic stripe, it is easy for fraudsters to copy it and make a duplicate card. It is almost impossible to read information from the chip, and even if it is possible, it is a completely useless exercise. Here's the thing. If fraudsters read information from the magnetic stripe of your card and carried out an operation through a terminal that does not read the chip, but operates on a magnetic stripe, you can appeal such an operation through your issuing bank (the bank that issued your card). Of course, you will receive compensation only if the bank's investigation proves that you are really the victim and not a swindler who tried to defraud the bank.
Another “plus” of chip cards is the ability to write additional applications (fuel, transport and others) onto the chip. This is very convenient - such a card can be used not only for non-cash payments, but also get various benefits from its use. Cards with contactless chips (NFC technology) are also gaining momentum in Europe. With their help, you can pay for goods and services by simply presenting the card to a special terminal.
It would be dishonest to tell you about the “pros” of chip cards and keep silent about the “cons”. A chip card will not protect you from fraud when making transactions online. Therefore, it is better to get a virtual card for these purposes. Also, when dealing with a chip card, be prepared for a longer wait for a terminal transaction or manually entering a PIN code, which not all of us always remember. But these are such little things - safety comes first!
By the way, if you unwisely arrive in France with a card with a magnetic stripe, you will have to try very hard (perhaps take a couple of “extra” walking tours around the city) to find an ATM where you can withdraw cash, or a store (cafe, restaurant, hairdresser ), where you can pay her. France is the first country to switch almost completely to chip cards, and it is already very difficult to find a device there that accepts cards with a magnetic stripe. In Russia, on the contrary, things will be worse for foreigners with chip cards - we do not yet have the appropriate infrastructure to service them.
