kebosabi

List of EMV cards issued in the US

Here are the list of EMV options available today for US based cardholders on Google Docs:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...k01SHZvTUMxdUE

Google Docs spreadsheet is left editable for anyone to update as they see it necessary





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Original post 2011/4/13
Best news regarding EMV cards in the US: Wells Fargo becomes first major US bank to test rolling out EMV for globetrotting clients

Wells Fargo's decision is going to be a big game changer by being the first major US bank to take the initiative. I’m sure they’re going to see lots of people, including myself, making the switch from their bank to Wells Fargo because of this.

I think I’ll go visit a Wells Fargo branch this afternoon.

richarddd

Excellent news.

It would be nice to know the annual fee, foreign exchange costs and how to get one. The PR makes it sound like a trial with existing customers.

Seems Wells Fargo cards typically have no annual fee
https://www.wellsfargo.com/credit_cards/

kebosabi

One interesting portion on that PR was the following quote:

All of Wells Fargo’s cards offer built-in security with the Zero Liability program. With this program, cardholders are protected against liability for any unauthorized transactions made at merchants, over the phone, on the Internet, or at the ATM. Wells Fargo, along with Visa, protects cardholders from fraud with zero liability to the customer, when reported promptly.

This could mean that Wells Fargo EMV cards will also have Zero Liability even if some crook was able to crack the Chip & PIN on those cards. ^

sdsearch

Well, they said "pilot", "test", and "15,000". So it doesn't sound to me like you can necesarily apply for a Wells Fargo card today and be assured of getting one of these. It sounds like they picked 15,000 of (a greater number of) the total users of their cards, presumably ones who had a history of use overseas, and are using them to test.

Of course, if you're already on your way to the Wells Fargo, let us know if you find out differently.

kebosabi

Just got back from a Wells Fargo branch and had a nice chat with the manager who said that there’s no assurance that I’d get one since it’s only a test issue to their customers who travel abroad frequently. One of the criteria that seems to be in place for the targeted trials are Wells Fargo clients who travel more than twice a year to Canada or Europe. I think most FTers would qualify for this if it goes full live then. ^

The manager also noted down my name and e-mail address onto a list that I was the third person that came in today that asked about this. I think it’s some kind of data collecting to see how many prospective customers they can lure on over to Wells Fargo. Quite satisfied, I mentioned on the way out that they’ll get my business when it goes on live, and the manager stated “that’s what we intend to do by differentiating our products from other banks.”

So if you’re interested, I suggest heading over to your nearest Wells Fargo. Even though you may not open up an account today, at least you’ll be able to provide a market data to Wells Fargo that there is a prime market out there in which it can take a step lead from other banks.

JEFFJAGUAR

Isn 't Wells Fargo one of those near criminal banks that adds 2% to the already existing 1% visa foreign exchange charge when they have nothing to do with the exchange and assume no currency risks? Just wondering.

kebosabi

I think most US banks impose those foreign transaction fees.

But you're right, unless CapOne starts issuing EMV cards, we might have to decide between an EMV Wells Fargo card vs a non-EMV CapOne card.

richarddd

Get both, use CapOne when possible, WF when you need EMV.

kebosabi

One other thing that strikes me as interesting is that WF is targeting college kids in this test roll out. Is it because kids are more tech-savvy?

millsdale

Students studying abroad most likely.

mia

Cards with no foreign transaction fee are also available from American Express, Chase, Citi and PenFed, but of course there is no assurance that any bank would offer a card with both EMV and no foreign transaction fees.

I wouldn't characterize Wells Fargo in those terms, but we do have an account with them and the service is not satisfactory at the branch or at the system level.

JEFFJAGUAR

I characterize every bank that adds an additional foreign transaction fee as near criminal. Fees are a necessary evil; I get that. But a fee should be for an actual service performed. In the case of foreign currency conversion fees, the actual currency conversion is done by visa/mc. I can accept the 1% fee to protect them against wild currency conversions as they actually do the conversion. The bank receiving the charge has nothing to do with the conversion, assumes no risk of currency fluctuations. The foreign transacton fee is even worse. It's done just for spite because they want to screw the merchants using dynamic currency conversion. It's wrong and something federal regulators should have stopped long ago but I suppose the argument would be you do have a choice....

mia

In a market economy prices reflect supply and demand and are only vaguely related to costs. A business has no legal or ethical obligation to "justify" prices, and fees are no exception. Do business elsewhere and the fees will disappear.

kebosabi

Following WF, JP Morgan Chase stated today that they too will also be issuing EMV cards:
JPMorgan Pushes Chip Cards to Wealthy in Race With Wells Fargo

Seems to be the initial target for Chase will be to upscale Palladium clients by June.

richarddd

That article claims

"Almost 10 million U.S. consumers experienced credit-card acceptance problems abroad in 2008, costing about $4 billion in lost transactions for merchants and $447 million in revenue for card issuers, according to a 2009 study by Aite Group, a Boston- based research firm."

Unless issuers are charging over 10% in fees, that seem implausible.

In any event, good news that Chase intends to enter the market and to roll out more broadly "“Initially, we are targeting the technology to our highest-spend clients,” Porter said. “Months after that we will issue the card to Chase-branded products.”"