The stress of holiday shopping starts earlier every year andthis season, with the added confusion of chip-and-pin credit cardpayment terminals, things are bound to become Grinch-like for someshoppers.

Walmart payments executive John Drechny said during a paneldiscussion at Money20/20, a recent conference which is focused onpayments and financial services innovation, that he was unhappywith the timing of the credit card industry's transition tochip-enabled credit cards because this year shoppers have theoption to pay with older credit cards and newer “chip-and-pin”credit cards.

“We're forcing anarchy on the payments world,” he said. “Walmarthas cut down the time a customer needs to check out with a chipcard to one second, compared to 12 seconds a year ago, but I doubtsmaller chains that just made the Oct. 1 switch-over will be asfast, and that could lead to longer checkout wait times during theholiday shopping season at other stores.”

Cara Washington of Eureka, Calif., said she recently went toTarget with her MasterCard from Coast Central Credit Unionwith $852 million in assets that did nothave a chip, and the machine denied her card.

“I had plenty of money, and it freaked me out,” she said. “Thecard works everywhere else but not Target. The manager had no ideawhy and said it had happened a few times. Now I have to make sure Ibring cash to Target.”

Most credit unions are slowly sending out the new cards to theirmembers, but some such as Virginia's Newport News-based LangleyFederal Credit Union, members received EMV cards in 2014, and the$2 billion credit union plans to update all of its debit cards bythe end of the year, said Curtis Baker, senior vice president oflending.

Navy Federal Credit Union located in Vienna, Va., with $72billion in assets, and the 10th-largest Visa and MasterCard issuerin the U.S., began issuing chip-enabled cards to its 2.3 millioncredit card account holders in May, said Randy Hopper, vicepresident of credit cards. He said everyone will have a chip cardby the end of 2016.

Some credit unions that have not changed overto the new card are experiencing last-minute fraud from anxiousthieves.

Mainstreet Credit Union, with $378.5 million is assets and basedin Lenexa, Kan., took a hit in early October.

CEO John Beverlin said hackers did not breachthe security systems in place at the credit union. The fraudprobably originated from a data breach at a merchant, he said, butit's unclear whether it stems from an ongoing and undiscovered databreach or one of the big breaches that already occurred and hasbeen in the news.

“We're still trying to work with our card processor to determinewhat the commonality is between the accounts they hit,” Beverlinsaid. “It happened during about a 20-hour period, and then stopped.Our card processor noticed a pattern and then started rejectingtransactions. So the fraud backed off at that point.”

Mainstreet hasn't transferred its customers to the new EMV debitand credit cards, but hopes to have that done before the end of theyear.

Card services first notified Mainstreet of the fraud on Oct. 12.Overall, the fraud caused more than $200,000 in losses forMainstreet, through compromised information belonging to about 300of its members. Mainstreet is crediting the accounts of any memberswho were defrauded and personally calling those members to informthem of the situation and to issue them new cards.

Earlier this month, the FBI published a press release stating,“Although EMV cards provide greater security than traditionalmagnetic strip cards, an EMV chip does not stop lost and stolencards from being used in stores, or for online or telephonepurchases when the chip is not physically provided to the merchant,referred to as a card-not-present transaction. Additionally, thedata on the magnetic strip of an EMV card can still be stolen ifthe merchant has not upgraded to an EMV terminal and it becomesinfected with data-capturing malware. Consumers are urged to usethe EMV feature of their new card wherever merchants accept it tolimit the exposure of their sensitive payment data.”

Scammers are also going old school with their efforts and tryingto confuse people over the new cards.

Although the chip in the new cards makes shopping more secure,it transmits a one-time passcode unique to that one transaction.Card readers are gradually being uninstalled by merchants, butscammers are already calling people and sending emails trying toget personal information.

Kerri Bennet, a spokesperson for the $530 million Fresno CountyFederal Credit Union in Fresno, Calif., said the scammers calls are“letting them know the reason they haven't receive their card withthe chip technology in it is because they need their informationupdated and they're requesting personal information over the phoneor via email,” she said. “Don't give out any personal informationover the phone.”