When will the magnetic strip stop being used?

The magnetic strip on your credit card is 50 year old technology. It is vulnerable to skimming and with the introduction of the EMV chip it is now obsolete. Now with any major technological transition there are bound to be glitches which was partly why the magnetic strip remained on the card. The day is getting near when that strip will no longer be a part of the plastic card.

The end is already here in some cases. Target, in an effort to beef up security after numerous data breaches, has removed the magnetic strip from all of the cards it issues, whether they be credit or debit cards. As a bonus they also introduced chip-and-PIN cards rather than chip-and-signature cards also increasing security. These cards are intended to be used only at Target and not with other retailers so they are not a general purpose credit or debit card. In Europe as well cards are beginning to be issued sans strip.

In a perfect world the strip would already be gone but instead the sheer quantity of merchants and machines that still use the strip have kept it around. But everyday that number gets smaller. The last liability shift comes with gas pumps in 2020. So at the very least the strip will remain on cards until then, and probably a few years after that. At the very least it takes at least three years from introduction to completely rollout the EMV chip cards so not every card has been upgraded yet.

A conservative estimate about when the strip will no longer grace our credit cards is 2025. It may seem like a long way away but it will be here before we all know it. Will we tell our children and grandchildren about the strip and will it be on display in the Smithsonian? Maybe, but it’s going to be a few years.