Shoppers are reluctantly making the switch to the new EMV chip cards, even though many people find the new card readers much slower than swiping.
"They're a little inconvenient," one grocery shopper told us.
But you'll understand why stores are making the switch to chip when you see a video just released by the Miami Beach, FL police department.
3 Second Switcharoo
In the video, you see a man on the right, stand behind a paying customer.
As the clerk turns around to grab a pack of cigarettes, he snaps an illegal credit card skimmer on the top of the stores card reader.
It takes just 3 seconds for him to turn the machine into a hacker's dream: from that point on, he is secretly recording every customer's credit card number, until he comes back a few hours later to remove it.
Main Reason for Card Switch
This is the main reason for the switch to EMV chip cards. Once everyone is using these new chip cards, those credit card skimmers will become useless.
And thieves will have one less way to compromise your card.
Randy Vanderhoof is with the consortium of banks, businesses and card issuers who decided to make the switch. Vanderhoof says the new cards cannot be duplicated by card skimmers.
He said "there's been no successful hack or breaks in technology and we don't anticipate that there will be."
Shopper Melissa Sipples says while the new cards are slower, she's OK with it if it prevents this type of theft.
"I think a lot of people are upset about that, but they need to realize its for their own good, and it's more security for them in the long run," she said.
If you don't have a new chip card yet, you should have one in the next few months, so you don't waste your money.
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