Chip-and-PIN cards, coming soon (hopefully) to a U.S. bank near you. You’ll need them. [View all]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/chip-and-pin-cards-coming-soon-hopefully-to-a-us-bank-near-you-youll-need-them/2014/06/19/1c3a72e6-f651-11e3-a606-946fd632f9f1_story.html
Something I did not know is that by the year 2017, I believe it is, the cards both debit and credit will no longer work in most countries by swiping at a store or at ATM's. If you plan on being in a foreign country it will be something you should be aware of. Make sure you have an EMV card. America, like with the metric system, is far behind the rest of the world.


"The problem is mostly chip-and-PIN technology. They use it, we don’t. Chip-and-PIN, for the uninitiated, is the common name for the EMV smart card payment system used by credit, debit and ATM cards in Europe and most of the rest of the world. The systems authenticate your identity by means of a computer chip embedded in the card and a personal identification number, or PIN.

Most American credit cards use an older credit card technology that relies on a magnetic strip to verify the customer, also referred to as swipe-and-sign."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV