My bank sent me a message the other day noting that there had been some kind of potential security breach, etc. As such, they were sending me a replacement credit card, just in case.
I got the card today, and was very surprised to find that there is no number on the face of the card. I’ve never seen that before, nor had my wife. The full credit card number, expiration date and security verification code are all printed on the back. And while the credit card number itself has just a very slight amount of texture to it when you run your finger over it, it is vastly more subtle than the raised digits you’d find on a normal credit card.
So, what gives? Is this just a style choice, or is this a new form of fraud prevention? If so, what crime or crimes are they specifically trying to prevent this way? I can see how dramatically reducing the topography of the digits could prevent someone (like a waiter) from getting the numbers by doing the pencil/paper method. But why put the number on the back of the card?
I have several cards, and only 2 do this (Discover & Capital One debit). I think it is stylistic, and is only happening now because the carbon-copy machines aren’t really used anymore.
Cards are usually placed on a bill face-up, swiped face-up, etc.
So having info printed only on the back is slightly more secure. That’s why those 3-digit verification numbers are generally printed only on the back.
Since all the machines I’ve used in years only read the magnetic info on the card, I expect I could soon see a card with none of the personal info (name, card #, etc.) printed on it at all – just my picture and the card company logo & address. I can’t see any technical reason such a card wouldn’t work just fine.
Yes, my cards started coming this way a few months ago. Nothing on the front other than the bank name, the chip and the card logo (Visa, etc). I think it should help prevent people from copying the card number during purchases.
Not only cheaper, but faster. I had to replace my credit union’s debit card and went to the branch near me. Five minutes after walking in, I was leaving with the replacement card, with just printed numbers on it. Unlike Asimovian’s case, the numbers and the rest of the printing including the expiration date were in the traditional places on the front; all that was unique on the back was the hot-stamped CVD. As has happened with past replacements, the card number was the same “series” – The first twelve digits were the same and in the last group, the third digit was incremented by one* so I have no doubt the card had just been printed up on the spot rather than picking a pre-printed card from a boxful of them.
*The last digit is a checksum so there was no relation with its predecessor.
Given the ubiquity of high res cameras in ceilings and on phones, any time you pull a conventional design credit card out of your wallet, its darn likely that somebody somewhere has a usable image of those front-side large embossed numbers.
The explosion in those cameras is IMO the big difference. “Shoulder surfing” is far easier now than it was. Industrial scale shoulder surfing is even easier.
Of course the presence of chips, the elimination of carbon paper ka-chunk machines, etc., are all elements of the enabling tech to get the raised numbers off the front.
Eventually, contactless credit card technology will catch on in the USA. Having the numbers on the back means no one will see it, since I’m just tapping it on the reader, front side up.
It has nothing to do with security, it’s just cheapasses who don’t want to bother with embossing the information on the front of the card anymore. It’s a backwards-incompatible change, and ugly as shit to boot.
No, most businesses don’t even have the card imprinter machine, or the forms that go into it anymore. They could just have people sign paper credit charges, and then process them later. (The business pays a higher fee since the card isn’t present, but it still gets paid.)
But really, what kind of business could stay open with the electricity off? Very few, I’d think.
It’s been at least 15 years since I’ve seen the credit card imprint machine and that was on some small shuttle company for a trip to the airport in some small town.
I know of an auction company that takes an initial, refundable deposit from each bidder (say, 500$ for a public car auction). They take credit card imprints using an old imprinting machine and the traditional carbon form (a payment of 500$, signed by the customer). A typical attendance is 1000 customers per auction.
As the auction progresses, people who have just bought a car come to the front office to pay (using the credit card electronically this time, or some other form of payment) and the morning’s credit card form is torn or shredded. Those who don’t end up buying anything can also come to the front office to see their form be destroyed, but most just skip the waiting line and walk out knowing that it will be destroyed. The only forms that actually get sent to the credit card processor are for those people who win an auction for a car and then refuse to pay (there are a few every time).
That whole system could be done electronically, but somebody would have to process 1000 deposits and 1000 reimbursements (no possibility of walking out to save time: each customer would need to slip their card into the reader to void their deposit), and the credit card processor would surely charge fees for 998 voided transactions.
I’m remembering one other place where I still see the card imprint machines: taxis. Some older cabs still don’t have updated systems, and I know there was a time earlier this year that I was surprised to have the driver whip out one of those machines.
After the rash of credit card data breaches, several merchants started going back to the old knuckle-busters for a time. The largest was probably PF Chang’s.
Obviously the non-embossed cards won’t work in those. The merchants would have to fill out a card slip manually. (How many do you think know how to do that anymore?)
One card that really pissed me off had the information printed on the back across the width of the card. So you had to hold it vertically to read it. Because some marketing genius in a bank somewhere thought that was totes rad. Because why not make a credit card with a user interface 90-degrees different to every other card in the history of human civilization.
Thankfully I was able to get rid of that card quickly; I only opened it for miles.
I had this experience too at my credit union, it was great not having to wait for the card to be created somewhere and mailed to me. In my case, I went because the chip in my card had stopped working reliably (3 our of the last 4 attempts, on different machines). So I got the same CC number, which was nice, because I hate having to change all my auto-pays.
Hijack: a pox on auto pay sites that don’t accept checking accounts. Even if nothing else goes wrong, debit cards expire and get re-issued periodically, with new numbers, and as mentioned immediately above, I hate having to change auto-pays because they don’t accept checking accounts. I have a list, but I always seem to miss one. End hijack.