A way of paying for goods by debit or credit card whereby one enters one's personal identification number in an electronic device rather than signing a slip.
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Mr Ryan said Britain is targeting February 14 as the date when chip and PIN will be the only accepted form of credit card payment.
Banks and retailers hope the rollout of chip and PIN - the system to replace signatures with PINs for verifying payments - will further reduce fraud from lost, stolen or counterfeit credit cards.
It doesn't look likely that ATMs will all be modernised until every single credit and debit card in the UK is chip and PIN.
Although most tills have been converted to chip and PIN, about a quarter have not, and those retailers are taking a risk.
Mr McKinnon said it was expected the first chip and PIN technologies for credit and debit card payments would be available in Ireland by 2003.
A similar effect has been observed following the introduction of chip and PIN credit cards, where ownership of the card and knowledge of the PIN is now almost always viewed as conclusive.
However, a survey from software firm Retail Logic out earlier this week suggested that many retailers remain sceptical about the benefits of chip and PIN.
The machines offer three different phones in return for cash or chip and PIN payments.
By the start of 2005, 90 per cent of the UK's 42 million cardholders should be using chip and PIN enabled cards.
These are the issues that chip and PIN is being introduced to tackle: a cloned card is useless if it is not accompanied by the correct PIN.
The new chip and PIN technology will all but eliminate counterfeit fraud, where cards are copied, or skimmed, and used in transactions around the globe, and the use of lost or stolen cards.
The new chip and PIN credit card system could leave local businesses and retailers vulnerable to fraud bills because millions of customers still do not have their new cards.
We are calling on the banks to do more to promote chip and PIN in the coming months.
It is also possible that the introduction of chip and PIN will result in an increase in identity fraud.
The big rise is believed to be due to the fraudsters increasing their efforts while they still can, as chip and PIN (when fully rolled out) should improve card security measures.
She added: ‘The fraudsters are never going to go away but chip and PIN is going to address the two biggest areas of fraud.’
The chip and PIN system is designed to guard against credit card fraud by requiring customers to tap in a four digit number - rather than signing a payment slip - when paying for their goods.
The rise is attributed to thieves increasing their illegal activity before the security benefits of chip and PIN are fully realised, says APACS, the UK payments association.
Credit card fraudsters are expected to move to softer targets, such as Poland, Slovakia and Macedonia, once electronic chip and PIN cards arrive in Ireland.
Tesco is one of the first UK retailers to embrace chip and PIN wholeheartedly and roll it out in all its stores.