Barclaycard Arrival Plus
This item appears on page 12 of the June 2015 issue.
The list of available sources of chip-and-PIN cards in the editor’s note following the letter “Tips on Exchanging Currency” (Feb. ’15, pg. 14) was a welcome sight.
I have a Barclaycard Arrival Plus (877/523-0478 [and press “0”], www.barclaycardus.com), which is a chip-and-PIN-and-signature card. To enable the PIN when outside the US, you need only to sign the first charge, and thereafter the PIN kicks in. (This card has some of the best and most flexible rewards available, plus you can sign up to use Apple Pay.)
The reports in the financial services industry are that many banks in the US will be rolling out chip-and-signature cards this year, as merchants need to meet an Oct. 15 deadline that switches the onus for credit card fraud losses from banks and credit unions to merchants.
Even the AmEx Platinum Card, which has had chip-and-signature for some time now, doesn’t plan to go to chip-and-PIN-and-signature. Too bad this is the thinking in the financial services industry!
EVANS M. HARRELL
Marietta, GA
Chip-and-PIN credit cards and debit cards, which each make use of a data-storing chip embedded in the card (and also have a magnetic strip) offer two kinds of authorization: online and offline.
An online chip-and-PIN card must connect, over land lines, with the issuer of the card for verification after the cardholder inputs his PIN (personal identification number) into the keypad on a point-of-sale terminal. Once verification is received from the bank or credit union, the transaction can be completed.
An offline chip-and-PIN card uses a PIN stored in the chip to authorize a purchase (once you enter that PIN on the keypad) without any information from the electronic card reader having to be sent to the issuer.
An offline card offers the highest level of security because at no time will the PIN or the personal information stored on the card leave the terminal.
An online card sends both the PIN and the stored information over a network, and it is possible for that information to be intercepted. Though the information sent is encrypted, that will not prevent thieves from trying to steal the card information and PIN.
PINs may be changed on both offline and online cards. However, because the PIN in an offline card is prewritten into the chip, a cardholder who wishes to rewrite the PIN must use the card at an online terminal, where the card can connect to the system of the issuing financial institution, at which point the PIN will be rewritten.
Mr. Harrell’s Barclay Arrival Plus card works as both a chip-and-signature card and a chip-and-PIN card, but, in any transaction, it prioritizes the signature function over the PIN function. That is, if a terminal being used is not one that allows for a signature, the Arrival Plus card will attempt to use the terminal as, first, an online chip-and-PIN and (if the terminal is offline), second, an offline chip-and-PIN.
For anyone applying, those who qualify for the Barclaycard Arrival Plus will be assigned to one of three classes of card, based on credit score and income level. All function the same way.