In an effort to reduce counterfeit and credit card fraud more than 200 million payment cards have been issued with embedded computer chips in the U.S., ahead of a Oct. 1 deadline for the switch to such cards, according to the Smart Card Alliance.
Credit card companies have set the October deadline which will require U.S. consumers to carry a new kind of card and retailers across the nation to upgrade payment terminals.
Randy Vanderhook, executive director at the Smart Card Alliance which counts Visa Inc (V.N), MasterCard Inc (MA.N), American Express Co (AXP.N) and Discover Financial Services (DFS.N) as its members told Reuters there are many more chip cards in the hands of consumers than there are merchant locations that are equipped to accept them.
“Many people have multiple cards in their wallet,” Vanderhook said.
“So even if people get one card in their wallet that’s their primary shopping card then it doesn’t matter that there are still hundreds of thousands of other cards that have yet to be replaced.”
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