New software may speed up chip card transactions

There is good news for credit card holders as chip cards are on their way to becoming more convenient.

The new chip credit cards are more secure than those that swipe, but they are also more time consuming. The software changeover will take a while because there are different software makers and it takes to train store employees, but it is hoped the transactions could be sped up a few seconds.

The new chip card machines are nearly everywhere now and we are getting used to inserting, rather than swiping.

What we are not used to is how long the chip cards take to process. "It has been frustrating for retailers, it's been frustrating for the banks, it has been frustrating for consumers," Creditcards.com spokesperson Matt Shulz said.

They do take longer, but how much longer? A transaction at Green Apple Books on the park took 11 seconds to process.

The average swipe takes two seconds to process, so we have a nine second lag time.

How we use credit cards hasn't changed in decades so, even just an added 10 seconds on how to use these cards really feels like a big shake up.

The time lag is enough that retailers are scrambling for a fix and one has been found. "It is basically some upgrades to the software that the retailers use in their terminals that will cut down on the amount of time that card needs to be in the terminal," Shulz said.

The software change over will take a while because there are different software makers and it takes time to train store employees, but the hope is to speed up the transactions by a few seconds.