Finance

As if shopping on Black Friday is not enough stressful. This year, buyers could face even longer check-out lines thanks to recent credit card upgrade.
Banks were sending new chip-enabled credit cards that offer more security, but changing the payment process - and can make it longer. The strike is out. Consumers must now put their card into the terminal to complete a transaction.

And old habits are hard to break.

"This holiday season is certainly more confusion at the check-out," said Rob Cameron, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at credit card processing company Moneris.
Confusion, the check-out time, which leads to longer lines lengthen.
"This is certainly not the ideal time of year to do this", J. Craig Shearman said a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, the transition to the new cards.
And here's what the situation to make even more confusing for the customer: Not all cards have been updated - some still need to be swiped. In addition, many retailers have not been updated to accept their systems to the new cards.According to Cameron, about a quarter of the merchants accept chip cards this holiday season.And even if a payment terminal has a place to insert a card that does not always mean the dealer is accepting able smartcards.

"Everyone is in learning mode, and the merchants," said Jamie Topolski, director of alternative payment strategies at Fiserv.

The new cards, banks began rolling out earlier this year, have a microprocessor, the user's payment data holds and manages a unique code for each sale. Is on the old credit cards that pay data on the magnetic stripe, the easy to steal and replicate is held.Insert the new card into the terminal takes a little longer (one to 10 seconds, depending on whom you ask). "Add seconds, but adapt to consumers," said Shearman.

Wal-Mart (WMT) is associated with the adoption of chip-enabled cards since November last year, and trained sales to be proactive and help customers through the change. "The first time [customers] they use, there is a learning curve, but we gave cash instructions and we have to cut the transaction time," said Randy Hargrove, a company spokesman.

But the Christmas business growth often means new seasonal workers who might also slow down the check-out process. "Many retail stores bring additional staff and have not have the time and bandwidth for thorough training," Randy Vanderhoof said, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance.The good news is big-box retailers who tend to dominate Black Friday, are likely to have an upgrade systems, he added.