Today I received a mail from Citibank. They sent me a new Visa platinum credit card. Due to very busy schedule, I didn’t read the mail they sent. I never send any application for credit card this year, so I thought they sent the card for promotion purpose and remain inactive until we acknowledge to accept it

After office hours, I try to read the mail. Now I understand that the card is a replacement from the old magnetic stripe card type one. According to the mail, the new card now comes with an EMV Smart chip that giving enhanced security and added protection when making purchases locally and overseas. The new card is protected against ’skimming’ or copying of the magnetic stripe contents.

Following is a paragraph about EMV Smart Card information taken from Wikipedia :

The international payment brands MasterCard, Visa, and Europay agreed in 1993 to work together to develop the specifications for the use of smart cards in payment cards used as either a debit or a credit card. The first version of the EMV system was released in 1994. In 1998 a stable release of the specifications was available. EMVco, the company responsible for the long-term maintenance of the system, upgraded the specification in 2000 and most recently in 2004. The goal of EMVco is to assure the various financial institutions and retailers that the specifications retain backward compatibility with the 1998 version.

They requested me to destroy and discard the old card and to start using new one. Actually I never use the old platinum card since they issued and never put in my wallet also . I mostly use other credit card to buy online, so I just need the name on the card, credit card number, expiration date and card validation code, not the technology that the bank uses for the card.

This EMV Smart Chip implementation maybe not a new thing for other banks, but I appreciate to banks, those who keep enhancing security for their customers. I expecting to receive replacements of other cards of mine from the same bank that I use more frequently.

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