Credit Cards

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I recently received a mastercard with an expiration date of 01/00. It works fine. How do I convince a non-believer who has seen me use this card that there really is a Y2K problem? Why does this card work when we hear of so many others crashing? Thanks!

JM

-- JM Tomich (jmtomich@students.wisc.edu), January 22, 1998

Answers

The news reports I have heard, including credit card company statements, have indicated that only about 1% of merchants currently have problems with expiration dates in 2000 and beyond. Thus it is quite possible for you to go a long time without any problem AND the longer you go, the more merchants will have their systems fixed.

Personally, I think that companies such as credit card providers will be fine come 2000 because they have to deal with the problem right now. The biggest problems will come from systems which care about dates, but don't have to deal with the future. Those are the ones it will be easiest to ignor until 2000.

- David Anderson

-- David Lee Anderson (davidan@sttl.uswest.net), January 22, 1998.


Yes, and they will generally continue to work until the underlying bank which issued the card has problems with it's billing software. Since 5-20% of banks will probably not make the deadline, expect 5-20% of credit cards to cease to function after 1/1/2000.

-- Paul Cordes (pcordes@igateway.net), January 22, 1998.

Recently, while standing in a check-out line at the grocery, I was discussing Credit Cards & the y2k with a friend. A lady overheard and exclaimed, "So that's what was wrong with my credit card!" She explained that her recently renewed credit card had been rejected when presented for payment. She contacted the issuer and was told to destroy the card and a new one would be issued. She said that the old card had the customary 4-year out expiration, while her new one had a 11/99 expiration date.

I recently have received three renewed credit cards (MasterCard, VISA and AMEX), all of which expire either 10/99 or 11/99. Previous issues have been for much longer. I can't testify that the xx/99 dates are due to the y2k problem, but it certainly gives cause to wonder.

I have asked several friends at the office to check the expiration dates on their credit cards. Except for gasoline company cards, only two out of several examined had dates beyond 12/99. Most of the card holders indicated that they were sure previous cards had been issued for longer periods than their current cards. The two which had dates beyond 12/99 had been used with no problem by the cardholders.

I have read that one of the nationwide ladies clothing chains has issued a memo to their stores not to swipe credit cards that show expriation beyond 12/99. In such instances, the information is to be manually keyed from the card with the expiration date entered as 12/99. The company said that the problem was with their point of sale scanners, and that new software would be installed in due time.

These experiences lead me to surmise that some issuers may have corrected at least the reception of cards beyond the 12/99 date, and that some retailers have software that will accept such dates; however, the shorter period issues cause one to believe that the card issuers are aware that they are not yet compliant and are stop-gapping the problem in the only way currently available to them.

Is the water sufficiently muddy now?

-- Ed Newton (ednewton@iname.com), February 21, 1998.


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