I know POS is point of sale and yet I kept reading it as the alternative, Piece of shit malware.
It’s kind of alarming that US cards don’t have chip & pin, for that matter (or, from the comments there, it appears so). WTF?
EMV (otherwise known as chip and pin) is not mandated in the US until 2015. It’s a huge, expensive undertaking and most merchants, processors and banks have resisted it all the way. Its going to be ugly for many years during rollout and most likely won’t really catch on until the major retailers switch over.
One word …
Cash
No data, no info, no malware, no transaction fees, no interest charged, no worries.
More expensive than, say, buying ID protection for ten million people for a year? More expensive than covering the 190 billion dollars in credit card fraud per year?
It seems like they are all being pennywise and pound foolish. I had my account taken four times over the past year, my bank paying out in the range of $4-700 each time. That’s two grand just for me, and I know I didn’t make them that much money in return. I’ve since changed banks as a result, but it’s getting ridiculous.
You won’t get wiped out, but how much do you want to bet that muggings and armed robberies would increase? With all the technology on cars prohibiting theft, increased carjacking has become an unfortunate consequence.
I worry about it being lost or stolen.
I wish I could just sit behind Brian while he trawls the underbelly of the internet. That guy’s gotta have the best screenshot collection in the world!
I would bet that any increase in muggings etc would be minimal. That is based on the thought that almost everyone still carries cash anyway. Btw, consider how those who commit such crimes choose their victims. Its not like they have X-Ray vision, after all. No, they choose their victims based on two things. The amount of bling you wear and how you carry yourself. That is, if you walk around looking like you have something worth stealing, then you will be targeted. Believe me, as an ex-addict, I know. (over 25years clean 
)
As for simple loss, such as accidentally dropping it down a sewer, well, which would you rather lose? A couple of hundred dollars or your bank and credit card info? Btw, keep your cash in a different pocket than your wallet.
I suppose it’s a losing battle fighting the evolution of language, but could we please not call computer criminals “hackers”?
Look, buddy, I saw a movie about this once and it was called hackers. And then they did something criminal with computers. So, like, it’s a fact man.
Pennywise and pound foolish is pretty much the name of the game for business in the US. Why plan ahead and spend money on smart infrastructure improvements when we can spend less on lobbying to maintain the status quo plus relatively small amounts of money to deal with the breeches?
That said, you’ve had your account taken 4 more times in the last year that I have in 15 years… I’d be curious to know what the account theft/fraud rates look like here in the US vs. elsewhere around the globe, especially with regard to use of EMV.
Target is offering free credit monitoring: https://creditmonitoring.target.com/
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