Current:Home > NewsNeed a new credit card? It can take almost two months to get a replacement -ProfitLogic
Need a new credit card? It can take almost two months to get a replacement
View
Date:2025-04-16 10:45:17
It used to be that if you needed to urgently replace your credit card or debit card you could get one within a week or so. Not anymore. It can now take up to eight weeks to get a new card.
Over the years, credit cards have increasingly relied on chip technology for enhanced security. Embedded in those chips are a user's account number, identification information, and cryptographic keys that make cards more secure than when they had magnetic stripes. When pandemic-related supply chain disruptions led to a massive chip shortage, card manufacturers found themselves suddenly scrambling alongside other industries that also rely heavily on chip technology.
"Our industry is in competition, for example, with the car manufacturing industry," says Alain Martin who represents Thales, one of the world's largest payment card producers, on the Smart Payment Association. "They use the same kind of chip technology and so because of this competition, there's been greater demand, shorter supply, hence the delays."
'You don't need a plastic card with a chip!'
In many parts of the world, the act of pulling out a plastic card for a purchase belongs to a bygone era.
"The technology exists to do the whole thing totally differently," says Aaron Klein, who focuses on financial technology and regulation at the Brookings Institution and worked on economic policy at the Treasury Department following the 2008 recession. "America is behind the times. Our payment system is extremely outdated. In China, it's all done on smartphones in QR codes."
In China, 45% of adults used mobile payments daily in 2022, according to data gathered by the business intelligence firm Morning Consult. India ranked second in daily digital wallet use at 35%, while in the U.S. just 6% used their digital wallets daily, trailing behind Brazil, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Klein believes the Federal Reserve, which regulates banks, has been slow to push the financial system to evolve and embrace more advanced systems. But another big reason the U.S. has been slow to move past the card system is because Americans have long been wary of digital wallets. Consumers haven't embraced the idea of flashing their phones to pay by mobile.
But the pandemic seems to be changing attitudes.
"Consumers were thinking more about social distancing, hygiene, and speed, moving through the queues in the stores in a more efficient manner," says Jordan McKee, the research director for financial tech practice at S&P Global Market Intelligence. "We saw certainly mainstream consumers across the board begin to gravitate more toward mobile."
Even though fewer Americans use digital compared to people in other countries, mobile payments of in-store purchases in the U.S. have increased significantly in recent years, from less than 5% of in-stores purchases a few years ago to roughly 30% today.
McKee says this sudden embrace could be a chance for the financial system to catch up with other advanced systems within the global financial system.
Until then, for those not quite ready to part ways with their plastic, experts say credit and debit card delays will likely continue through the year.
veryGood! (71595)
Related
- Selena Gomez's "Weird Uncles" Steve Martin and Martin Short React to Her Engagement
- Treat Yourself to a Spa Day With a $100 Deal on $600 Worth of Products From Elemis, U Beauty, Nest & More
- Tony Awards 2023: Here's the list of major winners with photos
- 'The Little Mermaid' reimagines cartoon Ariel and pals as part of your (real) world
- Nearly 400 USAID contract employees laid off in wake of Trump's 'stop work' order
- 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' season 2 is a classic sci-fi adventure
- In 'The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom' the open world is wide open
- Brian Austin Green Calls Out Ex Vanessa Marcil for Claiming She Raised Their Son Kassius Alone
- All That You Wanted to Know About She’s All That
- Stationmaster charged in Greece train crash that killed 57
Ranking
- DeepSeek: Did a little known Chinese startup cause a 'Sputnik moment' for AI?
- The final season of the hit BBC crime series 'Happy Valley' has come to the U.S.
- Tony Awards 2023: Here's the list of major winners with photos
- Jane Fonda's Parenting Regret Is Heartbreakingly Relatable
- Bodycam footage shows high
- No grill? No problem: You can 'DIY BBQ' with bricks, cinderblocks, even flower pots
- Prince Harry and Meghan asked to vacate royal Frogmore Cottage home as it's reportedly offered to Prince Andrew
- TikToker Taylor Frankie Paul Arrested on Domestic Violence Charges
Recommendation
Romantasy reigns on spicy BookTok: Recommendations from the internet’s favorite genre
James Marsden on little white lies and being the other guy
'Succession' season 4, episode 9: 'Church and State'
The 2023 SAG Awards Nominations Are Finally Here
Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
Dakota Johnson Is 50 Shades of Chic at Milan Fashion Week
Lana Del Rey Reveals Why She's Barely on Taylor Swift's Snow on the Beach
We recap the Succession finale