More than half of consumers with both EMV chip and magnetic stripe payment cards told researchers they preferred using the magnetic stripe, according to a survey commissioned by a European payment vendor.

The Paris, France-based Ingenico Group surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. consumers about their use of EMV chip debit and credit cards, and reported 54% favor using cards with mag stripes over those with chips.

Payments industry experts have warned cards with EMV chips are more difficult to defraud using fake cards, but remain vulnerable to card not present fraud.

When researchers asked consumers who said they preferred the magnetic stripe why, 9.2% said it seemed more secure, 35.2% said it was faster to swipe their cards, 56.7% said they were just more accustomed to swiping their cards, 37.0% said they did not know enough about EMV cards and 9.5% provided some other response.

Ingenico Group said researchers did not follow up with the 9.2% who said they believed swiping their cards is more secure, but pointed out a correlation between consumer education and preference: Consumers who received chip card instructions from issuers or another expert source were more likely to be confident in using the chip.

“The majority of those who either found the material unhelpful or did not receive it prefer mag stripe cards to EMV cards, while those who have received clear instructions had more of a preference for EMV over mag stripe,” the company said. “Out of the respondents who felt they did not receive any educational material from the issuer or do not know if they did, 63% preferred mag stripe to EMV chip cards.”

Other numbers pointed to EMV roll-out progress. Sixty percent of U.S. cardholders have received EMV cards, and 48% of consumers with EMV cards have used them to make a purchase while 44% still have not.

However, of those who received the cards, 33% reported having to ask for help at the point of sale and 27% of consumers who received educational material on EMV cards said they found it unhelpful.

Instant Insights /

More Consumers Prefer Mag Stripes to Chips: Survey

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