Don’t have an EMV chip card yet? Don’t worry. You have plenty of options.
You may have read news reports about these thumbnail-sized metallic squares that now appear on the front of many credit cards. You might have also noticed that the credit card terminals at the checkout counter of your favorite retailer look a little different these days. Even so, there’s a good chance that you and your neighbor still don’t have a chip card in your wallet yet. A CreditCards.com survey found that just 40 percent of credit cardholders had a chip card as of Oct. 1. That number has surely grown, but it’s still far below industry expectations.
That’s probably going to change in 2016. Chances are your credit card issuer has plans to replace your old-school magnetic stripe credit card with a chip card in the next few months. If you want to know when, call the 800 number on the back of your card and ask your issuer.
“But I don’t want to wait to receive one,” you say. “I want my safer, shinier new credit card now.”
Well, the good news is that you don’t have to wait, and there are plenty of options to choose from. There are cashback cards, miles cards, cards for those who have impeccable credit, cards for those who don’t and more. Here are a few recommendations of credit cards that currently come with an EMV chip.
Chase Sapphire Preferred
Frequent travelers love this card. It comes with a sign-up bonus of 50,000 miles if you spend $4,000 on the card in the first 90 days. There’s no foreign transaction fee, which will save you 2 or 3 percent per transaction when you travel overseas. The card’s APR is 15.99 percent, which is about average for new credit cards today, and its $95 annual fee is waived the first year.
The real appeal of the Chase Sapphire card, however, is its flexibility. You can transfer those Chase points to one of several airline or hotel loyalty programs on a one-to-one basis. For example, you can turn those 50,000 Chase points from your sign-up bonus into 50,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards miles just by doing a transfer. This option is also available for United Airlines, Hilton and Starwood hotels and others. In short, this card gives you plenty of valuable options for travel.
Citi Double Cash
Americans love cash back. If you agree, the Citi Double Cash card is a good choice.
The marketing hook for this card is that you get 1 percent cash back when you make a purchase and 1 percent back when you pay your bill. In essence, this is a “set it and forget it” cash back card that gives you 2 percent cash back for everything you buy. (Unless, of course, you never pay your bill — but if that’s the case, then rewards are the least of your problems.) There’s no opting in to rotating categories, no limits to how much you can earn and no annual fee. You just make a purchase, pay your bill and get 2 percent cash back. No muss, no fuss. And the APR can be as low as 13.24 percent, though those with lesser credit can face an APR of up to 23.24 percent.
Discover it
The appeal of the Discover it card is about as simple as it gets: They’ll double your cash back at the end of your first year with the card. It’s not a “set it and forget it” card, so you’ll have to keep up with rotating categories in order to get the biggest bang from the card, but if you’re willing to take the time, it’s pretty hard to beat having your money doubled. There’s also no annual fee, no charge for going over your credit limit, no foreign transaction fee and you won’t be charged a fee the first time you’re late with a payment.
Consumers With Less-Than-Perfect Credit
Mediocre to crummy credit doesn’t preclude you from getting an EMV chip credit card. There are multiple options available. For example, people with bad credit can consider the Capital One Secured MasterCard. Because it is a secured card, you’ll need to put down a minimum security deposit of $200 to open the card (the amount of your deposit determines your credit line). Beyond that, however, it works just like a typical credit card, and your payment history will be reported to the credit bureaus so you can rebuild your credit.
There’s no annual fee with this card, but as is usually the case with “bad credit” cards, its APR is high — at 24.99 percent. That makes it incredibly important to pay your balance off ASAP; otherwise debt can grow more quickly than you might imagine.
The Bottom Line
In a few years, it will no longer be novel to have a chip card. In fact, the chip won’t even be mentioned. It won’t be an EMV credit card; it’ll just be a credit card, and dipping the card into a terminal will seem as normal and mundane as swiping your magnetic stripe did. We’re clearly not there yet, however, so it’s important to know before you apply whether your card comes with an EMV chip.
Remember, you don’t have to have the chip, yet. Your old-school magnetic stripe card still works and will continue to work for the foreseeable future. In fact, virtually all chip cards being issued in the U.S. today also come with a magnetic stripe on the back because banks realize it will take many years for all retailers to accept chip cards. But if you are in the market for a card with an EMV chip, the good news is that you have more options than you might expect.
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Don’t Have a Chip Credit Card Yet? Consider These 4 originally appeared on usnews.com
