Credit card customers to sign off this February
UK consumers are being warned that they must use their PIN numbers to pay for card purchases with chip and PIN cards from February 2006.
The Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) and the Chip and PIN Programme have announced that cardholders must use their PIN from February 14th next year. Consumers with old-style cards can still sign for purchases until they are upgraded to the chip and PIN system.
Apacs claims that fraud has been reduced by almost 30 per cent, from £127 million during the first half of 2004 to £89.9 million in the first six months of 2005, as a result of the chip and PIN system.
'Using chip and pin has already cut fraud and now we want to close off even more opportunities for the fraudster,' Sandra Quinn of the chip and PIN Programme said.
If shoppers do not use their PIN for payment from February 2006, they could find their card being declined. Recent research found that 87 per cent of chip and PIN cardholders find the system easy to use.
Ms Quinn stated: 'This is the final phase of the successful chip and PIN roll out… The vast majority of people are already successfully using PIN. 97 per cent of transactions on chip and PIN debit cards and 89 per cent of transactions on chip and PIN credit cards are already successfully verified by PIN.
'This announcement is targeted at the minority of consumers who have chip and PIN cards but are not yet using PIN. There are four months left to ensure they find out, remember and use their PINs. The best way to get ready is to start using PIN now.' | 
