Originally Posted by
sdsearch
Yeah, in fact, which issuer has actually removed the embossed numbers (in the US)?
I just went through what's currently in my wallet (which is admittedly not all the cards I have), and one (Chase Marriott card with EMV chip) has a different, less raised, kind of embossing but still embossing, and every other card (including Diners Club with EMV chip) has the standard embossing.
I routinely go to hotels (some Best Western and some Choice properties among them) that take my card and run it through a press that imprints the number onto a piece of paper (that has my room number, rate, etc, printed out). They do this after swiping the card in the terminal, so it's not used as the only record of the card number. Nevertheless, this wouldn't work with non-embossed cards.
That, and it's always a good idea to keep things backwards compatible.
Just because there's less usage of it doesn't mean it's a good idea to be done away with. People still own original PS games so whenever Sony releases new game consoles like the PS2 or PS3 and coming soon, PS4, they always make them backwards compatible so that older games can be played. Just because a lot of people don't use MS Word 6.0 from Windows 3.11 doesn't mean the old .doc file that was created back in 1996 can't be opened in MS Word 2013 running under Windows 8 today.
Furthermore, those raised embossed numbers have an advantage that it can still be used with carbon copy imprinters which require no telecommunications line or no electricity. As the "last resort" processing in case of emergencies (blackouts, natural disasters, etc.), it's best to leave raised numbers as it is. You don't want to be the one stuck being the one with the inability to pay for necessary items during a natural disaster because your card has no raised numbers while everyone else is getting by through the old clap-clap machine. What are you going to do, let the guy take a snapshot of your credit card with their smartphone? Bad idea.