I'm still hoping that Chase brings EMV to the Sapphire Preferred card, which is a card a number of us have and that also has a great rewards program and no forex charges.
Originally Posted by
Jake Gittes
Granted this was just a frontline CS rep, but they said that they currently had no plans to issue EMV-chipped cards. Additionally the rep noted that the BA chip/signature card effectively was Chase's pilot EMV-chipped card program for the masses.
If Citi is going ahead with issuing EMV cards to their existing card line up on a per-request basis for their existing cardholders, I can say that’s a pretty good indicator that it’s a response to Chase’s issuance of new EMV cards (BA/Chase and the JP Morgan Select).
Rather than losing out existing Citi cardholders over to Chase, I’m sure Citi would rather want to retain their cardholders by giving them an EMV option instead. A hypothetical situation might be:
Citi cardholder: “I want to cancel this card”
Citi retention: “Can I ask why?”
Citi cardholder: “Your card is useless outside the US. Chase started issuing those new cards with the chip on them, I’m going over to Chase”
Citi retention (before): [speechless, loses out a customer to Chase]
Citi retention (now): “We offer them too, would you like us to send you a replacement card?” [has a comeback response to retain the customer to staying with Citi]
Citi cardholder:
hmmm...ok, Citi can issue me a replacement card with the EMV chip on it, or I could go through the process of applying for Chase's new cards... Ok, I'll stick with you for now
Of course, seeing if that’s the case, Chase might respond back with “fine, if that’s your game Citi, we’ll offer chip cards to all of our lines up too including our most popular Chase Sapphire card!”
If Chase follows up with Citi's response and both companies starts issuing cards in all of their lineup with the EMV option, then it becomes a matter of which card issued either by Chase or Citi works the best for you.
Who says free market competition is a bad thing?
