We all live in the age of plastic money. It’s not something strange for the typical citizen in the western world to live for weeks without even using a coin or banknote. All we need is accessible with the gentle sound of a credit card sliding through a reader. Supplies for your office, present for your wife, meals and drinks out, and a limitless supply of useful products offered for sale across the Internet can all be purchased without even a cent to be seen.
How safe is all this plastic?
Cash has its apparent advantages. When you buy a sandwich for $2.95 and you give the cashier a $5 bill, you know he didn’t cheat you when he hands you $2.05 right then and there. However, when you give your card to a waitress at the local restaurant, how can you be sure she hasn’t taken a moment to sneak into the office and copy your card number and signature? You don’t, and the effects of such question are having a serious impact on credit card firms and the companies they do business with.
So what are the credit card companies doing about it?
In response to such problems, the well-known credit card companies have devised more secure methods to do business. MasterCard International and Visa got together and developed a set of guidelines called the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. This is a list of twelve guidelines that imposes strict regulations on all transactions occurring between the card company and the merchants it makes business with. Although these standards have been present since 2005, merchants need some time to catch up to them. Nevertheless, last year there has been clear improvement, and both credit card companies have stepped up their tactics to the point where merchants might be witnessing losses of service should they not fall in line soon. (You can familiarize yourself with the 12 guidelines and the details of this plan on the homepages of Visa or MasterCard.)