What About "Smart" Credit Cards?

Platypii writes "After seeing many ads on TV and around the Internet for the "smart" credit cards (both major companies now have them I believe), I became curious about them. The Visa website was rather vague about it, and only proclaimed dreams of merging all your cards -- of whatever type -- into one. Anyone know the technical details of these cards? The privacy aspects?"

Comments

Re:And exactly who does smart refer to?

[cheebie]

Actually, I make money off of my credit cards. I have one that give me 1% back for a $10/year fee. I pay for everything I can on that card and pay it off every month. Amount of fees I pay: $10/year. Amount of 1% kickback I get: about $100/year. Plus, I get to use their money for a month or so until the payment is due.

Then there's the 0% interest card I was offered. I put some of my other loans onto that card. When it comes due, I'll just pay it off. In the meantime, I get to use their money for free.

Credit cards are not evil. Using them unwisely is what is evil.

Europe's had it for 15 years!

[Max von H.]

I don't want to sound mean or anything, but we've had "smart cards" for ages over here...

In France, there's a ubiquitous system which requires you to type your code for every purchase you do with it. AFAIK, nobody ever complained about it, considering you can't use a stolen French card anywhere in France. If it's combined with a Visa card, you can still use it outside the country where there's no direct way to check its validity.

Here, in Switzerland, my bank card is combined with Visa, and I can set limits for withdrawals and purchases done with the (post)bank part of the card (with a chip), or use the Visa function with equal flexibility.

I suppose it just results from a different banking system between the USA and Europe. In Europe, banks contract the credit card provider (visa, mastercard, etc) and merge their cards. Plus, in most countries, banks have merged their ATM services so you can use any card to pump money from any "hole in the wall".

What strikes me is that Americans see smart cards as a really new things, whereas here we use them for absolutely everything, from e-wallets to bus-pass or phone cards. Smart-card readers are available and cost something around $20...

Bah, real standards have always had hard times getting to the USA, and that's no news!

/max