Visa Revamps Humble Credit Card Comments

Brilliant. Now, can they get an Oyster card that can actually tell you your balance?

mmmm... How many times can you use the buttons before it becomes obvious through wear and tear which four (or less) digits make up your PIN?

Sounds like a great idea, would like to see it on all debit/credit cards :)

and Roberts idea above sounds like a natural progression of this tech!

Awesome. That is without a doubt the single best invention the financial industry has seen in years. Hopefully will allow them to get rid of those awful, clunky 1988 calculator style card reader things they now insist we use for online banking because they don't trust us not to write our user name and password on a post-it stuck to our monitor.

PaulyT makes a very valid point.

How many other people read that as "Vista..."

Well, it's Chip and PIN for the Internet, to be sure. As a merchant I hope it will reduce the rampant levels of CNP fraud. As a consumer I worry that, as with Chip and PIN, it'll make it far more difficult to prove that a transaction is fraudulent if, somehow, it has been verified.

Here's what I think should happen with all of these new technologies such as VbyV and Chip and PIN: If Visa (etc) are so confident in them then they should bear responsibility for all fraudulent transactions that are still able to take place, relieving the merchant and consumer of the burden.

Btw - How would this work with recurring payments?

Very interesting update *applauds Gordon*, last I heard about Dynamic pass code - Visa were still planning to use a separate device rather than this integrated card approach.

@PaulyT Pin blocking will apply after 3 incorrect attempts and as with all sensitive data change your password/PIN regularly.

12 Digit Keypad eh? Is that the Venusian numeric system? </asrcasm> Or does the Ed have 12 digits <grin>.

At least the keypad is on the card.

However, as someone who has to use one of those "darned" card readers with the bill payment facility of my current account despite the hoops I have to jump through logging in, I can only see this as a retrograde step. Indeed I still feel that moving away from a signature was a bad move. It takes talent to copy a person's moniker but any idiot can remember (and steal by looking over your shoulder) 4 digits.

@Ben Visa do take liability for fraudulent transactions if merchants and consumers have done their part by using the technology.

Brilliant. Cue thousands of pensioners angry because they've lost their glasses and can't pay for their goods at sainsburys.

@GherkinG - No change there then ;)

What about the next step - rechargable batteries when you stick it in a hole in the wall... :-)

On the subject of card security, whatever happened to credit cards with hologrphic photos of the owner, it might not be as relveant for internet purchases, but it seemed the most obvious way to reduce the card scams in the shops... especially to me after my card was cloned and used buy for £4000 worth of designer clothes in the middle east!

@GherkinG: My understanding of this was that it was used to generate a security code - not the 4 digit PIN you use in a chip and PIN machine to pay by debit card. Sainsbury's shouldn't be asking for the security code when paying for the pack of Polos pensioners ALWAYS seem to buy.

PaulyT: very valid point. I just hope Visa will test this to distraction.