Accepting Card Payments: Chip and PIN

Chip and PIN is now the most secure and favoured method of making a face-to-face card payment transaction. Although it has taken four years and a number of steps to get to maturity the effort has been worthwhile.

There are more than 120 million Chip and PIN cards in issue in the UK and over 90% of face-to-face transactions are verified using PIN. Counterfeit and lost / stolen card fraud has dropped significantly.

Retailers and cardholders find it simple to use and in most cases quicker than the magnetic stripe and signature format.

The option to by-pass PIN was withdrawn by most card issuers in February 2006 but due to the nationwide publicity given, the public readily accepted this without the need to force the change.

Streamline was at the forefront of the rollout programme and provided a free upgrade to the merchants that rent a terminal from us. We also ensured that most of the biggest names in the high street were able to accept chip and PIN transactions successfully by testing and approving their integrated shop points of sale to industry standards.

During the changeover there was some confusion regarding card acceptance so for clarity :

• Retailers should continue to accept all cards whether magnetic – stripe, chip and signature or chip and PIN.
• Some chip and signature cards have been issued by banks specifically because cardholders are unable to use PIN, and cards issuers overseas, particularly North America, have not yet deployed chip and PIN.
• “Dip the Chip” - your terminal will prompt for a PIN if the card is capable.
• Requests to “by-pass” PIN by a cardholder can be processed but will almost always be declined. 

If your terminal is still not chip and PIN capable you will be liable for misused lost / stolen cards and counterfeit fraud where a Chip and PIN terminal could have prevented this.

For full details view the Press Release
View Questions & Answers about Chip and PIN

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