While I agree with many of the points, I have to remind that we do have options today which weren’t available just a year ago. And said options do not require to one be a multi-millionaire, have an outrageous annual fee of $300+, be part of a corporate elite, or be restricted to credit union membership qualifications.
We have several EMV (albeit Chip-and-Signature) cards in the US
TODAY that are within the reach of the average American’s budget. Granted it’s not the best, but it’s a start:
JP Morgan Select card
$95 annual fee, earns travel rewards points, no forex fees, has a really nice primary rental car insurance
BA Chase card
$95 annual fee, earns BA Avios points, no forex fees
US Bank FlexPerks card
$45 annual fee, earns travel rewards points, has a forex fee, but it also comes with a contactless chip included for three-way processing (mag-stripe/EMV/contactless) all in one card (unlike those stupid cell phone stickers that Citi hands out)
If the need for EMV on your existing credit cards are important, you can use these to your advantage. Just call your credit card company and tell them you wish to cancel your card because it doesn’t have the EMV chip and that you’re going to get the JP Morgan Select, BA Chase, or the US Bank FlexPerks card instead.
They’ll try to throw you every meat and bone in order to retain you, but stand firm you’re not interested and the need for EMV is important to you. The more people start doing this, the banks will “get” the message that having an EMV chip is a big factor for their customers.
Sooner or later, you’ll see the free market competition to take play on its own and they’ll all be scrambling to get them issued. Why would any bank want to lose a customer to another competitor? If a competitor (Chase or US Bank) has the EMV advantage over others (BofA, Citi, CapitalOne), use it to your advantage.
By doing so, US banks will "get" that multi-millionaires and corporate elites aren't the only Americans that travel to internationally and that there are close to 100,000,000 Americans out there with US Passports (basing on statistics that 30% of Americans has an US Passport), which is a considerable amount of customers. I'm sure no bank wants to lose 100,000,000 banking customers to be taken away by Chase or US Bank, do they?
And as competition heats up, sooner or later every bank will have no choice but to start issuing EMV cards.
So bottom line is, if you consider the EMV chip factor to be more important than
all the other credit cards out there with their multitude of offers, call your card company and make the switch to Chase or US Bank.