I was shocked to see the number of Smart cards in France (and in Spain). My "old" Visa card still has the Magnetic Strip on it. How many of you have cards with the smart chip on it?? Is it common in your part of the world??

Smart chip cards in Spain?. They are widely used in payphones but not as debit/credit cards. What's the reason?. Well, there are millions of cards issued and changing cards and ATMs it's very expensive. Therefore, even though magnetic cards are insecure it will take some years before they are fully replaced with the new smart chip ones.

By the way, Spain has one of the highest ratios ATMs/person in the world. That means banks have lots of ATMs to adapt here.

Antonio, you are right perdoname (acento en la "o")....I saw this in France. Like Spain, we here in Canada will have to wait a few years before we see the smart chip. In a Paris restaurant, the waitress was surprized to see that my card did NOT have a smart chip.
The chip works all the time (unlike the magnetic strip) and has added security features.
From what I understand, the "chip" is a French invention (i'm not sure of the company) and has proprietary status. As a result they are still expensive for companies to use, but soon all companies will change to the chip. It will replace the magnetic strip just like DVD's are slowly replacing the VHS.

The chip will be required by Visa and MasterCard on all EU credit cards by 2005 as part of anti-fraud measures. But this requirement was just delayed for Spain until 2008 since most Spanish banks were having trouble making the systems and plastics changes on time. It is a HUGE project and expense for banks.

For example, credit cards now typically cost a bank about 1E to issue (i'm talking the piece of plastic only, not all the marketing, postage, and other costs). A credit card with a chip is about 5E - meaning banks costs will go up 5x for just the piece of plastic - not to mention the operational changes required

Electracity writes: Those "added security features" will represent a challenge to hi-tech criminals everywhere. Let's see how long it takes some Chinese or Indian 'techie' to figure out those added security features and produce their own counterfeit 'smart cards.' I don't think that's an imminent threat; but you may soon be able to purchase 'smart cards' with a fixed amount of credit on them (like the Telefonica phone cards) that may be used in places like your Paris Restaurant.