Tip! Cashback credit cards give you a percentage of your cash back each time you use them. Some cashback credit cards offer a higher percentage when you use them at the shops of ‘member merchants’, but the card can still be used at any shop that accepts the imprint on the card.

You can’t much pick up the paper or turn on the telly without hearing something about credit card fraud and identity theft these days. That’s why the UK credit card market started testing a new type of card back in 2003. By mid-2004, the new Chip and PIN card was declared a resounding success after a wide ranging trial in Northampton. There was already a good deal of evidence for using the Chip and PIN method to verify credit cards and users. A similar experiment in France showed that the Chip and PIN reduced credit card fraud by as much as 80%. The Northampton trial showed similar numbers. As of February 14 of this year (2006), Chip and PIN is the standard method for all credit card transactions.

What are Chip and PIN credit cards?

Instead of a magnetic stripe, Chip and PIN cards contain a miniature computer chip that stores information about your account. When you present your card to a merchant, or slide it through the card reader at the till, the cashier will ask you to enter a 4-digit PIN (personal identification number) to confirm that you are the proper owner of that credit card. That’s all there is to it.

Read more at Credit Card Chip & Pin - What’s It All About?

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