Best Debit Card and Credit Card Alternatives without Chips
If you don’t want a chip on your debit card the information in this article will help you track down the best debit card alternatives without chips. VT
The EMV chip card debate…
By now a vast majority of Americans have encountered; EMV Chips or simply called “the chip”, and evidently a vast majority of Americans have come to a simple conclusion; the chip sucks.
Since October 1st 2015, EMV Chip adoption was force on the American public much like the Affordable Healthcare Act; without fully understanding how it works, the pros & cons and under the guise that “it’s for your benefit”; leading people to believe that the chip was adopted to help secure your hard earned money. And much like anything else that is forced onto people, there will be many that will just fold & follow and others that will resist change.
First & foremost, EMV is inherently slow. Since the 1950’s Americans have grown up “swiping” plastic cards daily to make purchases, that it has become second nature; much like breathing. Due to the EMV encryptions protocols that “supposedly” make the new tech safer, it requires several more steps to APPROVE a transaction. Without getting into all the boring tech talk, simply put; EMV chip transactions require more time.
How much more time? On average approximately 15 to 20 seconds (that’s if the terminal works), but for a populous that for several decades have been swiping cards and almost instantly getting approval; 15 to 20 seconds is an eternity; especially in a long line at your local grocery store.
Thankfully, the swipe method is a redundancy that all payment cards will always have built into them. Will we one day see the end of the Magnetic stripe and the swipe method all together?, only time will tell, but much like our cousins across the pond it will take at minimum a decade to get everyone, both users and merchants, to get on board.
The Solution….
updated 08/09/23
A questions we field often is “where can I get a debit card without a chip?”. We did some research and the following links will lead you the Best Debit Card Alternatives without Chips. Most of these companies, at the time this article was written, do not offer chip cards. Be advised; please do your own research before requesting, signing up or applying for any of the following cards. (MCC.com does not receive compensation from any of these companies or blogs; these are simply suggestions based on market research performed by our staff).
Happy hunting,
Staff – Metal-CreditCard.com
Green Dot Prepaid Debit Cards and Platinum Secured Credit Cards
Excellent Blog Post by Spencer Tierney at the NerdWallet.com; review his article HERE.
Capital One – Journey (student credit card)
American Express Serve Debit Card