I opened the mail today, and in it was a new debit card. Which surprised me a bit, since my old one is only a year old, and still has two years left.
I’m going to call the tomorrow and ask, but I am a bit concerned about why, wondering if somehow I’ve been identity compromised. Does anybody have any idea why a credit union would do that? Does yours do that?
Is there a (computer) chip in the new card? That’s what happened to me on both my credit card and my debit card. If the chip is there, you should be able to see it. Here are some images.
It is not uncommon. Chip and pin is the reason why I got two Discover cards sent to me unsolicited in a short period of time, but there may be other reasons and this is not in itself a reason to worry.
In the last few months all of my credit cards have been updated to chip cards ahead of the October deadline for retailers to accept chip cards or face higher fees. I have not received any debit cards with chips.
No, there is no chip, unless it’s super camouflaged.
What has changed?
When I did a lost/stolen on a debit card, only the last 4 (of 16) digits changed.
If digits towards the front (high-order for the geeks) of the number have changed, maybe a new issuer?
Any instructions as to how to activate/what to do with old?
Do you throw out routine “promotional” mailings? Every once in a while, one of those envelopes contains something you will want to know about (ask me about insurance cards).
I got two new credit cards with the new chips in them.
But note:
(1) I also got, in separate mailings, notices that these were coming, with blurbs spouting all the plastic fantastic neeto-keeno new features and bellz and whistlez and ponies and unicorns and rainbows that come with them. So it was a bit difficult not to know about them.
(2) These new cards also came with new account numbers on them. The old cards became invalid, I think.
I don’t recall if I also got a new debit card like this.
Another interesting tidbit - once a certain deadline has passed, retailers will be on the hook for any contested charges if the transaction was not done with the chip and PIN - another incentive for merchants to get equipment updated, and cut down on card fraud.
Chip and pin is old tech, why would your bank send you that as an ‘update’? Perhaps it’s a contactless card, although that should be clearly stated and has an obvious logo (like curved waves) on it.
You aren’t in the US. US credit card companies have resisted it and haven’t been given any incentive to change so it’s relatively unused until recently.
As stated above, it’s only just caught on in the US. I just counted, and I have seven debit and credit cards in my wallet. Only two have chips on them, and I believe I got them both within the last 12 months. I did get a letter recently saying another one of my cards is going chipped, too. But, yeah, not universal here. In fact, I’ve never even used a chip reader (I’m not even entirely sure I know what one looks like, other than knowing the card goes in small side, rather than being swiped long side.)
Yeah, count me among those who just got a new card way early because it has the chip. The chip is not obvious; just a small bit of circuitry that you might mistake for a hologram.
Now I can go to Canada and not be outed as a tourist!
When you use it, do you enter a PIN? (If not, do you know your PIN, if one even exists?). If you don’t, you’ll be outed as a tourist when you go to use it. 
No PIN. This from Chase says one probably isn’t necessary:
My credit union recently (well, about two years ago now that I think about it) re-issued debit cards because of a merger. While my bank was the acquiring bank, they apparently changed something on the back end that required new cards to be issued.
Only 1 of my credit cards have PINs associated with them. American Express explicitly went says the card they gave me is chip and signature. Chase and AT&T don’t have PINs.
I have only been to one place in the US that wanted me to use the chip card. The auto dealership and then it was chip and signature even using my card that has a pin.
How is this different than “traditional” debit cards (I might be missing something obvious)? Oftentimes, a cashier will ask “debit or credit.” They don’t literally mean that you have the option of buying on credit with a debit card, but whether they should process the transaction using a signature instead (or not, some retailers skip that step if under $X, e.g. $10-20 or so, as the cost is low if it is in fact a fraudulent transaction).
Credit cards are a different story, and I have never had one with a PIN. Or unless we’re talking about charge cards, which IIRC are mainly offered by American Express.
I’ve never had one, either, but I believe you can set up a PIN if you want to take advantage of credit card cash advances (and their high and immediate interest rates) at ATMs. Actually, now that I think of it, I do believe I had one card a dozen or so years ago where I did need to use the cash advance in an emergency, and had a PIN set up.