Chase Uses Safety Message to Promote Signature Debit

Chase Bank has recently reached out to their converted WAMU customers who are receiving a newly branded debit card asking them to "always select 'credit'" when paying for their debit card transactions, stating that the transaction is actually safer than entering a PIN.

The slightly confusing message has not gone unnoticed by industry experts who have come out on both sides of the argument around safety. According to an article in the April 21 edition of American Banker, consultants from Gartner and Aite believe that the PIN provides an added level of security, and that the Chase message may be driven more by the opportunity to generate the higher interchange income associated with a signature based transaction as opposed to a PIN transaction.