Delay to full use of chip and PIN

PEOPLE waiting for a new chip and PIN card will be able to carry on using their current one. From 1 January, liability for some types of card fraud shifted from banks to retailers and there have been concerns that people who cannot remember their PIN or have not yet received a new card would have to use cash.

But cardholders should still be able to sign for goods and services as banks continue to send out more than 122 million cards to customers.

Terry Ferbrache, co-owner of Fletcher Sports, said that most Guernsey retailers have introduced the new system and those that have not are either waiting for suppliers to fit new machines or for new software on computerised tills.

The biggest problem was likely to be people forgetting their PIN and not realising they could have changed the one issued to one more easily remembered at their bank's ATM.

'There were still a few people over Christmas who had their cards but didn't know their number and were unaware they can change it,' said Mr Ferbrache.

When the shop agreed to be a test site for the system a year ago, Mr Ferbrache was told that the cut-off date for customers being able to sign for goods would be 1 January, but logistical problems have put this back to the end of this year.

'We still have the ability for people to sign; I was led to believe that this was going to be removed from 1 January, but it has been extended,' said Mr Ferbrache.

By 1 January, an estimated 34 million people in the UK should have received a chip and PIN card.

The delivery of 130 million cards is expected to be completed during 2005.

Lloyds TSB customers have fared better than some, with 80% of credit card users expected to have theirs by now and 60% of new debit cards already dispatched.

A spokesman for HSBC said it was sending out new cards on a rolling process as and when current ones expired.

Three-quarters of new debit cards have been sent to its customers and the remainder will be by the end of March.

Half of all credit cards have been dispatched and the process will be complete by the middle of the year, he said.

Barclays said that 70% of its cardholders have been sent the new style cards.

'As we have around 20 million cards in circulation, it is an awful lot to roll out, but we are doing everything we can to make sure people have them as soon as possible,' said a UK spokesman.

The Royal Bank of Scotland International was unable to provide figures for its and NatWest customers.