Visa said on Tuesday that it would take steps to speed up adoption in the United States of credit and debit cards that use secure E.M.V. chips.

The reaction from those of us here at Bucks? “It’s about time!”

Bucks writers and our colleagues at The Times have written often about the problems increasingly faced by Americans using credit cards when traveling abroad. These problems occur because United States credit card companies and merchants continue to use older, less-secure magnetic stripe technology.

In Europe and elsewhere overseas, cards with embedded E.M.V. chips, which are microprocessors that provide heightened security, are becoming the norm, and “mag stripe” cards sometimes don’t work, particularly at unattended kiosks that, for instance, sell train tickets. (E.M.V. stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa.)

While the rest of the world has moved to the chips, the United States has lingered in a chicken-and-egg limbo, with retailers loathe to spend money on new payment systems until card companies adopted the new technology, and card companies reluctant to use the chip cards until merchants agreed to accept them.

Now, Visa says that accelerating a switch to E.M.V. technology in the United States will not only enhance security when credit and debit cards are used, but also will help prepare for increased use of mobile systems that let shoppers pay by waving their cellphones at a payment terminal. (Systems that let shoppers pay with their phones use E.M.V. chips, too).

Visa’s plan offers financial incentives for retailers to upgrade their payment systems voluntarily while card issuers make the transition to the chip cards. The new systems will be able to process payments from multiple methods during the transition period, including cards with magnetic stripes and E.M.V. chips, as well as mobile systems using smartphones. The overall changeover is likely to take five to six years.

Visa’s announcement comes as some banks are starting to offer E.M.V.-enabled credit cards, mainly for affluent customers who travel internationally. A few credit unions have been offering the cards too. Further, some large merchants are backing the new technology: the McDonald’s Corporation has deployed chip-capable terminals in the United States, and Nordstrom has voiced support as well.

Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the SmartCard Alliance, said in an e-mail that Visa’s move was the “ignition point” that was needed to spark a migration to the technology in the United States, because merchants have been waiting for a road map from card companies as to what technologies to invest in. “Now that Visa has signaled that the future will include contact chips and mobile contactless payments,” he wrote, “they know what the next generation of payments will look like.”

In an e-mail, the MasterCard spokesman Seth Eisen said that “To date, consumer demand and market economics have not justified a migration in the U.S. We are helping our customers understand what the implications of E.M.V. and other technologies in the U.S. would be.  Any migration must take into account all customer and consumer interests if a collective effort is to be successful. Obviously, Visa’s decision will impact market direction and we will continue to consider our actions accordingly.”

American Express hadn’t provided a statement by post time.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=f57f67ab70e562acf47fb0181695fd62