This is the 13th debit card issued on that account. My old one, #11, was wearing out, so I took it to the bank a week ago and requested a replacement. They gave me a temporary card, which was #12, while the permanent one was prepared and sent to me. I lost one card, and wore several out, and there was that confusing period a couple of years ago where they sent me two in a row by mistake and I managed to destroy the last one, leaving no active card, so then I had to get another card. Each time that happens, I got a temporary card.
My new passport has one of those things in it. It creeps me out. AND when I used it, it didn’t get me through customs any faster. I thought they would scan it and be all “welcome back to America, you fine upstanding citizen, you!” but no, they made me stand in line like everyone else.
Does your passport have an RFID chip? These debit cards do not; their chips have to make contact with the reader. Ontario is issuing optional ‘enhanced’ driver’s licenses with RFID chips, but they cost $40 extra and you don’t need one if you have a passport. And our passports don’t have chips.
The enhanced driver’s license has a shielded folder it fits into so no-one can read it until you take it out.
Here, we’re just changing to chip-and-PIN from magnetic stripes; my credit card and debit card now both have chips. But Canadian debit cards used PINs from the beginning; it was the credit cards that used signatures.
I have a debit card with “pay pass.” I think it must have a chip because at certain terminals you’re just supposed to tap the card on the terminal. I tried it once, and it ended up with me banging the card repeatedly against the terminal like an idiot while nothing happened. Perhaps mine is broken.
Looked it up. PayPass is Mastercard’s RFID system. Like other RFID systems, it uses a chip buried in the card that can respond to a signal sent out by a reader.
It seems to be targeted at smaller payments, ones below the limits at which you have to sign or enter a PIN. I’ve seen the readers here in Canada, but I’ve never had a card with the feature, and I know people who have refused them.
I get the impression that PayPass just returns an ID number to the reader, but I could be very wrong on that. The visible non-RFID chip in my cards apparently does a more complex back-and-forth with the terminal, which takes a few minutes.
My debit and credit cards are still the old-fashioned ones, but both credit cards expire later this year, so I assume sooner or later the banks will send me new ones. I’ll wait and see - I figure it’s their job, not mine! My husband has one VISA card that has the chip, which he likes, because he travels to Europe a lot for his job and they look at him funny when he uses the old magnetic cards, as if he’s from the Stone Age or something!
I’ve had the same physical debit card since I opened the account, in the fall of 2000. Go me!
My MasterCard has the PayPass chip in it, and I’ve only ever used it for gasoline purchases. Hold it up to the logo on the pump, hear it go beep and select the octane and pump. I love it, and get annoyed when I have to swipe the card at gas stations that don’t have the PayPass! I am not paranoid about RFID chips, and find them very convenient (they also are used for our bus passes now…so convenient!)
(Two years on…) I just got a debit card in the mail for my business account that had a chip and the new Interac contactless RFID feature, “Flash”. Now all my cards are chipped.
