Swipe or insert? 11 Investigates breaks down credit card inconsistencies

PITTSBURGH — It's caused many moments of hesitation at the end of the checkout line: Do you swipe your credit card, or insert it?

"Even the places that have them don't even use them," shopper Tom Fleischel said about credit card chip readers.

Fleischel said 80 percent of the stores he visits have the chip card readers but don't use them, including Kuhn's Supermarket on McKnight Road in Pittsburgh.

Fraud experts told 11 Investigates the chip is important when it comes to protecting credit cards from fraud. They said the problem with the traditional magnetic stripe is that it's fairly easy for crooks to copy information and make a counterfeit card. The new chip is supposed to scramble your information at the register, making it much harder to copy. But for that to work, stores need to use it.

"So consumers walk in, and they'll see a chip card reader sitting there and there's a little sign saying, 'Still swipe.’ They don't understand what's going on. They blame the retailer," said J. Craig Sherman, of the National Retail Federation.

Sherman said it's actually the credit card companies' fault. He said many stores have installed the readers, as they were supposed to, but still can't use them.

"The card companies haven't come out to certify it and let us turn it on," said Sherman.

The banks, meanwhile, said the problem is that retailers waited until the last minute to upgrade.

While both sides place blame, they're also trying to avoid legal fees. The policy put in place in 2015 still protects consumers if their card is hit by fraud, even if they didn't use the chip technology. The liability for paying for it falls on either the bank or the store, depending on which failed to have the chip technology in place.

Experts on both sides emphasize that no matter whether consumers swipe their cards or use the chip, card users’ information should be safe.

Cox Media Group