It is just after 5 p.m. on a Friday and the line at Reggis Liquor, located just south of D/FW Airport in Fort Worth’s CentrePort business park, is getting longer.
“It was annoying,” said Sam Havson, in town from Philadelphia to visit a friend for the weekend. “It’s a weird user experience.”
What Havson and others called annoying is the process of paying for their purchases using the chip in their credit cards, which can take about 30 seconds per transaction.
“You can’t just swipe and go,” said Hiya Ray of Fort Worth.
But shoppers like Ray, Havson and millions of other Americans will have more opportunities to practice their patience by this time next week.
Starting October 1, retailers that have not installed the necessary equipment to accept chip cards will be liable for any fraud that occurs on purchases in their store.
Reggis Liquor purchased its chip reader when the store opened almost a year ago, putting them ahead of the curve of many businesses.
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“We find a lot of people who don’t even know what that chip is for,” said Ujjwal Gajurel of Reggis Liquor.
Gajurel told NBCDFW that the extra time spent per transaction is worth it in order to prevent having to pay the cost for people who commit fraud using the traditional swipe and sign credit cards.
“It’s a little different, but it’s for security. So what can we do?” Gajurel asked.
The chip in the card is a computer chip which encrypts the financial data, which is supposed to be far safer and secure than the magnetic strip on traditional credit and debit cards.
The new technology – already widely used in the rest of the world – was fast-tracked in the United States following data breaches at major retailers like Target and Dallas-based Neiman Marcus.
